2014 Rolls-Royce Wraith

SPECIFICATIONS

1. Pricing starts at $285,000, but the test car cost $360,000. 2. Each interior is bespoke. 3. A 6.6L V12 makes 624 HP, the most of any Rolls-Royce yet. 4. There is one transmission: a GPS-aided eight-speed automatic.

PREVIEW

Rolls-Royce is one of the most exclusive car brands in the world, and the new two-door Wraith – the name of which is intended to recall "something evil, something of the night" – is the most exclusive vehicle they offer.

When we took up the assignment to review the new Rolls-Royce Wraith, we resolved to feign immunity to the car's $285,000 price tag and review it with the same cold, critical eye we would cast upon a Corolla.

INTERIOR

Settling into the thick leather seat, we uttered a silent thank-you to the herd of Bavarian bulls that gave up their hides to be hand-stitched into the throne we now occupy. We are told they lived a lazy life, surrounded by wooden fences rather than barbed wire to avoid imperfections in their skin. As a result, they produce low-quality meat and high-quality leather. (Somewhere, someone is eating a cheeseburger and not realizing that he got the short end of the stick.)

All cars provide the same basic house-to-office function and a serviceable Honda Civic will do the job as well as a Rolls-Royce Wraith. So the ownness is on Rolls-Royce to distinguish itself through craftsmanship, which is why virtually everything in the Wraith's cabin is cut, sewn, stitched, sanded, trimmed, and finished by manibus mortalis. Our test car had wood-paneled doors and a wood-paneled dash with decorative lines so straight, it's nearly impossible to believe they were painted by hand and not a machine. (If pressed, Rolls sheepishly admits that the "starlight headliner" is made by machine. And here we thought the LED bulbs were randomly arranged by hand...)

UNDER THE HOOD

None of the cars at the press preview were exactly alike, and staff explained the bespoke buying process: "You fly your private jet to England, and we sit down and design your car, then you go home. You don't know exactly how much it's going to cost, and frankly, neither do we, not until we build it. Once the car is finished, we put it on a plane and fly it over to you." It's a long, long way from finding the Camry you want at a dealership in the next county.

A button atop the dash closes the giant doors electrically; they slam shut with the force of a guillotine, but surprisingly little noise. Once ensconced, we were struck with the delicacy of the controls: The elegantly-thin turn-signal and shifter stalks feel like they might snap off if used in anger. A button on the dash winds up the 6.6 liter V12, and from the vibration-free silence of it's idle, you'd never guess that it packs 624 horsepower, the most powerful engine ever fitted to a Rolls.

Driving the Wraith in a 99 percent world is not easy. The Wraith is happy to waft along at 90 mph with no more drama than a BMW driven at 65. If you earn enough to own a Rolls, chances are you don't care about the speeding tickets or the ensuing increase in your car insurance premium (which alone could be more than the average proletariat's car payment). We, staffers, are part of the 99 percent and we do care, so after one quick test of Rolls' claimed 4.4 second 0-60 time, we struggled to stay close to the speed limit. This made our test drive feel like the world's nicest stroll.