Rolls-Royce Black Badge Spectre review: a Roller for the race track?

What do we have here?

This is the new all-electric Black Badge Spectre, the most powerful Rolls-Royce ever built… and depending on how you order yours, potentially the most purple Rolls-Royce, too. For those not familiar with the Spectre, it’s the first ever pure-electric Rolls-Royce, a super-coupe launched to rave reviews (not least from us) back in 2023.

For those not familiar with the Black Badge sub-brand, it was first introduced on the Ghost back in 2021, designed to attract a younger customer to the brand, and offer a new level in customisation. That means chassis tweaks, more power and the option to go full-send on the configurator. 

Same recipe here then?

Correct. Like the standard car it has two electric motors, one on each axle, meaning 4WD and 577bhp in normal running. However, hitting a button on the steering wheel activates a new Infiniti mode (infiniti is the symbol for this Black Badge sub-brand) and that unlocks a further 73bhp for a total of 650bhp.

But there’s more! Spirited Mode (accessed by pushing the brake and throttle together, then releasing the brake) boosts torque from 660 to 793lb ft and is, essentially, launch control.

Launch control! In a Rolls-Royce!

Weird I know, but there’s method to the madness. The ability to unlock extra performance is said to be inspired by the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine that powered Spitfires in World War II, and allowed pilots to call on bursts of extra thrust to escape sticky situations. Hopefully we won’t be engaging in any dogfights today, but Rolls-Royce did provide us with a racetrack to explore the Spectre’s new sprinting and cornering ability.

Did you launch it?

Maybe. First we buried the throttle in ‘normal’ 577bhp mode and timed our 0-60mph run on a hastily procured GPS-based phone app. Acceleration was smooth, not shocking and we clocked 4.4 seconds - precisely Rolls’ claim for the standard Spectre.

Next, we activated Infiniti mode to unlock all 650bhp, stood on the throttle and brake at the same time (at which point the whole car starts to vibrate worryingly) and released the cork to fire us down the straight. Not a squeak or a millimetre of slip from the tyres, despite a recent rain shower, just sizeable forward momentum as a near-three-tonne car shot from 0-60mph in 3.5 seconds.

OK, not sure how accurate that app really is, but you get the idea. It’s quick. And all the more extraordinary because you’re doing it in peak luxury and total silence. If you absolutely must shave tenths of a second from the dash between your apartment and yacht in Monaco - this is the EV for you.

Is straight line speed the only upgrade?

Rolls isn’t one for going into too much engineering detail, bit crass and all that, but it’s added a bit more weight to the steering, and increased roll stabilisation and stiffened up the dampers, mainly to reduce squatting and diving under braking and acceleration.

Has ride quality been sacrificed at the altar of cornering speed? A few laps of the track should answer that…

Hang on, you were allowed to drive a Rolls-Royce properly on a racetrack?

Look, I’m as shocked as you are, but this isn’t an opportunity you turn down. Let’s just get this out the way, the Spectre has not magically transformed into a Ferrari 12cyl, this is still a three-tonne electric coupe that needs to exist at the pinnacle of luxury, but what they have done is created a car that handles its mass better than before.

The steering is pretty numb on the track, the extra weight is better appreciated on the road, but the body control is impressive. The suspension doesn’t actually have any anti-roll bars, it’s an active roll stabilisation system, so it senses you’re in a bend and tells the outside damper to resist the movement. Come in too hot or apply too much steering lock and physics washes you into understeer, but keep your inputs smooth and controlled and the car responds by staying flat and measured.

The brakes aren’t too shabby either, although I did notice when they get hot the centre caps steam up - a great way to spot a Black Badge Spectre owner who’s using their purchase properly. Throttle response is, of course, instant, surging you out the corners, with the nose tipped slightly skyward.

Down the straight, you’ll run out of puff if you keep it pinned, but let’s regrip reality for a moment here - nobody is going to take their Rolls-Royce on the race track. Just like most Land Rovers won’t climb a mountain or traverse a bog, this is over-engineering for the customer’s sub-conscious.

How does it work on the road then?

Magnificently. It’s the car a Rolls-Royce was always meant to be. No vibrations, no noise from the run-flat tyres, no stress. It’s the biggest cliche on planet Earth, but I drove for several hours and felt better when I got out. This isn’t a car, it’s a recovery chamber.

I adore Rolls-Royce’s allergy to complication. There are no additional damper settings, no steering modes. You can hit a button for more power… and that’s about it. The result is a car set up by engineers, not some clueless driver jabbing at buttons trying to pick from thousands of different parameters. As a car, and a company, it reeks of confidence.

Where this Black Badge could have stumbled is by eroding some of that plushness that so impressed us in the standard Spectre, swapping refinement for pointless cornering speed and roll control… but it hasn’t, it’s all still there in bucket loads. Sure, you’ve got a couple of modes to talk about with your pals over a quick bite at Nobu, which 25-year old Chinese billionaires will love, but the essential Rolls-Royce-ness remains. And that’s a good thing.

What about the styling changes?

You can customise colour and trim to your heart’s content, or until your bank account’s empty, whichever comes first. Our test car was painted in Vapour Violet “inspired by the pulsating neons of the 80s and 90s club culture". I wouldn’t know anything about that because I wasn’t doing much pulsating in the 90s, but the point is with Black Badge you can ignore the taste police and go wherever you want with it.

New for BB Spectre is an illuminated back-plate in five colours behind the grille and 23in five-spoke forged aluminium wheels. On the inside there’s an illuminated sill plate, 5,500 fibre optic stars on the panel in front of the passenger and as much carbon, metal and wood as you can stomach. Ours was trimmed in Radiant Blue and Peony Pink leather, and decked out with the starlight headliner and door panels. Not sure this needs reiterating, but being inside a Rolls-Royce is an experience like no other.

I always remember Ollie Kew when he first drove the standard Spectre calling it the best car in the world, and then arriving back at the office worrying he’d got a bit over-excited… Don’t worry Ollie, you nailed it, and if money really is no object (prices start from around £350k right up to £500k if you take full advantage of the options list) then the Black Badge Spectre is even better.