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Rolls Royce is adding the Black Badge treatment to the new Ghost sedan, and it gets an increase in power to 592 horsepower. It includes a deep black exterior and a detailed interior with unique Black Badge trim appointments.Customers can commission their Ghost Black Badge starting now, and we expect it to cost around $400,000. Rolls-Royce says that nearly a third of the cars it sells receive its Black Badge treatment, and it’s now adding the blacked-out trim to the new Ghost sedan. The latest Ghost now rides on the same platform as the Phantom sedan and Cullinan SUV and Rolls says it’s all about “post opulence.” This new Black Badge version follows suit.

Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce

To finish the Ghost Black Badge in the dark black paint job, Rolls-Royce uses 100 pounds of black paint, and the process takes up to five hours. Then the car receives two layers of clear coat and is hand polished. The Spirit of Ecstasy and grille are then coated with a special chrome electrolyte and also polished by hand to create a black chrome finish. Black Badge models ride on a set of unique 21-inch carbon fiber wheels, and Rolls lightly tints the wheels so the 44-layer carbon weave is still visible on the rims.

Rolls-Royce

The new Ghost has an updated interior with new digital instruments, and it places emphasis on materials such as metal, wood, and leather. The Black Badge model pictured here has a bright blue Turchese leather interior with an intricate diamond patterned carbon and metallic fiber weave in the trim and a black Bolivar wood veneer base layer. The Black Badge infinity logo is etched into the trim above the rear seat champagne cooler, and, of course, there’s the starlit headliner, a Rolls-Royce staple.

For 2021, standard Ghost models are powered by a 563-hp 6.7-liter V-12. The Black Badge increases output to 592 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque. The ZF eight-speed transmission and throttle were also specifically tuned for the Black Badge models to enhance the increased power from the 12-cylinder engine, Rolls says. The new Ghosts have all-wheel drive, air springs, and rear-axle steering. Customers can order their own Ghost Black Badge now. Pricing is expect to start around $400,000, as the 2021 Rolls Royce Ghost starts at $314,400.
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Chevy just revealed the new C8 Corvette Z06, and a visualizer tool shows all of the color, wheel, and interior options. There are 11 exterior colors, eight wheel options, and seven interior choices. The 2023 Corvette Z06 will enter production in the summer of next year.

The Chevrolet C8 Corvette Z06 is finally here with a 670-hp naturally aspirated 5.5-liter V-8 with a flat-plane crankshaft. It’s the most powerful naturally aspirated engine ever installed in a road car, and it revs all the way up to 8600 rpm. It’s available with a Z07 performance package that adds aggressive aero, carbon ceramic brakes, carbon fiber wheels, and Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tires. Chevy has an online visualizer tool that lets you build a new Z06 with colors, roof options, wheels, and interior colors, which gives a look at how you can spec the high-performance ‘Vette. These are some of the options:

Chevrolet

There are eleven exterior color choices that include Caffeine, Hypersonic Grey, and Amplify Orange, some of which were recently added to the C8 Stingray’s color palette. Like the Stingray, the Z06 is available in coupe and convertible configurations, and both have three roof options. The coupe can have either a body color, visible carbon fiber, or transparent roof, while the droptop can have a body color or carbon fiber roof either visible or painted.

Chevrolet

Equip the track-focused Z07 performance package and you get carbon ceramic brakes and a set of five-spoke carbon fiber wheels, either visible carbon weave or painted black. Without the track package, the Z06 has one wheel style, but it’s available in six different finishes including black and satin graphite.

2023 Chevy Corvette Z06 Adrenaline Red interior with carbon fiber interior trim level 2.
Chevrolet

A full Adrenaline Red interior is new for the C8 Z06 and it can also be had with black trim. There are five other options including black, grey, two-tone blue, and tan. Z06 cars also have a carbon fiber steering wheel and carbon paddle shifters, and the carbon trim can be extended with two available levels with one that has carbon trim on the door armrests (pictured). A stealth interior trim package is also available. There will be plenty of configurations to choose from on the 2023 Chevy C8 Corvette Z06 when it goes on sale later next year, and pricing is expected to start around $90,000. We know our favorite specs so far, but share yours with us so we can see your dream Z06.
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The 2022 Mercedes-AMG SL will be offered in two models, SL55 and SL63.Among the notable changes, the SL switches to two-plus-two seating. It also has standard all-wheel drive, a first for the model.The new SL arrives in dealerships in early 2022. Pricing has not yet been released. The Mercedes SL is a car that used to loom large in the public consciousness, but that hasn’t been the case lately. Once widely recognized as a rolling symbol of success, the SL’s sheen faded with the R230 generation that debuted for 2002 and the follow-up R231 generation that was ushered offstage after 2020. Seeking to shake off the doldrums, the all-new 2022 Mercedes-AMG SL alters the formula with the most dramatic changes yet. The change in nomenclature is a tipoff that the development of the new SL was handed over to the AMG division. The new SL debuts a new AMG architecture, and Mercedes claims that nothing under the skin of the new R232 generation is carried over from its predecessor or shared with the AMG GT roadster.The car will be offered initially as the SL55 and the SL63, both using a 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V-8. For the first time, though, the SL’s engine will be powering all four wheels, as AMG’s 4Matic+ all-wheel drive is standard on both models.

Mercedes-AMG

The SL’s new look is smoother and rounder, with a larger cabin, a less-exaggerated hood length, and a stubbier tail. The new SL adds nearly 5 inches between the axles, with the wheelbase growing from 101.7 to 106.3 inches. Overall length, by contrast, increases by just under three inches, to 185.2. Width is up by an inch and a half, to 75.4 inches. Cargo space is about the same as before at 8.5 cubic feet, or 7.5 with the roof stowed. Both models roll on 20-x-9-inch front and 20-x-11.5-inch rear wheels, with 21s available as an option.The SL55 can be dressed up with a chrome package or an AMG Night package, while the SL63 offers an AMG Exterior Carbon Fiber package and an AMG Aerodynamics package. The latter includes an active aero element in the underbody in front of the engine that extends to increase downforce. All SLs, however, feature active louvers on the front air intakes and a retractable rear spoiler.From the front, with its “Panamericana” vertical-bar grille, the new SL looks much like the current AMG GT roadster, but that model will be redesigned soon, and Mercedes design chief Gorden Wagener says that when it appears, “the difference [between the two cars] will be more.”Whereas the last two SL generations featured a retractable hard top, Mercedes has reverted to a classic soft top for the new car, marking another major departure. As Wagener notes, “If you start with a retractable hard top again, you will get what you have right now, which is not appealing in my view.”

Mercedes-AMG

The triple-layer canvas roof weighs 46 pounds less than the previous retractable hard top and can be raised or lowered in 15 seconds at speeds up to 37 mph. It also allowed Mercedes to enlarge the SL’s cabin without the need for a commensurately larger boot to house an outsize folding hard top. The stretched passenger compartment wedges in a pair of rear jump seats, a feature last offered in the R107 model of the 1980s.The cabin also features a digital instrument cluster and a large center touchscreen, but they’re not merged under a single piece of glass as in some Mercedes models. Instead, the SL uses separate screens as in the new S-class. In the roadster, however, the 11.9-inch portrait-oriented center display is adjustable in angle to be more easily seen with the top down. Of course, the infotainment runs the latest MBUX operating system including the “Hey, Mercedes” digital assistant. Active multicontour seats with massage are standard, as are Mercedes’s Airscarf neck-level heating and (in the SL63) a head-up display.Apart from the bonkers SL65 AMG Black Series, the last great SL was arguably the R129 generation, which for its time was a high-tech tour de force. The new one also ratchets up the technology quotient, bringing the full panoply of Mercedes driver-assistance features to the SL. These include augmented video navigation, Distonic Plus with stop-and-go, and active steering assist including automated lane changing, plus automated parking for perpendicular or parallel spaces. The active brake assist now also watches for oncoming traffic when turning, and a new exit warning system alerts occupants exiting the car to vehicles approaching from behind.

Mercedes-AMG

Under the hood, the SL skips the previously available twin-turbo V-6 in favor of two V-8s. The M117 V-8 in the SL55 makes 469 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque. The SL63 version makes 577 hp and 590 pound-feet and features active engine mounts. In either car, the hand-built engine is mated to a nine-speed AMG Speedshift MCT automatic transmission with a Race Start launch-control function. Mercedes is giving a factory-estimated zero-to-60-mph time of 3.8 seconds for the SL55 and 3.5 seconds for the SL63.Jochen Hermann, chief technical officer for Mercedes-AMG, confirms that the new SL is also slated to get AMG’s E Performance plug-in-hybrid system. That combines the 4.0-liter V-8 with an electric motor powering the rear wheels and could offer as much as 804 horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque.Besides all-wheel drive, four-wheel steering appears on the SL for the first time and is also standard. The system cuts the turning circle by approximately two and a half feet, to 40.4 feet. An electronically controlled limited-slip rear differential is standard on the SL63 and optional on the SL55. Ceramic-composite brake rotors are optional. The SL includes adaptive dampers, with the suspension adding hydraulic roll stabilization in place of anti-roll bars on the SL63 (optional on the SL55). An available front-axle lift system can raise the front of the car by 1.2 inches, and it can be programmed to remember a location (such as a steep driveway) and activate automatically. With the addition of all-wheel drive and the switch to two-plus-two seating, curb weight climbs by approximately 220 pounds.Despite all these performance enhancements, the R232 SL does not regain its stature as the brand’s range-topping roadster, since it must fly below the AMG GT roadster. Instead, it needs to be more of a grand tourer—thus the rear seats and all-wheel drive—the better to scoop up any buyers who might have shopped the now-discontinued S-class convertible. Pricing for the 2022 Mercedes-AMG SL has not been released, but we estimate the SL55’s base sticker will come in just under $100,000 and the SL63 will be a good 20 percent more. The new SL arrives in dealerships in the first half of 2022. That’s when we’ll see whether it can regain its status as a rolling success symbol.
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After eight years at the helm, CEO Mike Flewitt (pictured with the 765LT) is leaving British supercar company McLaren.During his tenure, Flewitt was plain-spoken with media, and one of the things he made plain was that McLaren was not going to follow other elite carmakers such as Ferrari and Aston Martin in building a sport-utility vehicle. With the company’s financial challenges and amid disappointing results for the GT and Elva, Flewitt’s abrupt departure now seems to leave the door open for a super-SUV that could be a savior. The soap opera at the top of the auto industry is frequently fascinating, but we’re here for the cars. So you’ll rarely finding us reporting the details of executive arrivals and departures. But sometimes a change of leadership can indicate a much bigger switch, and although we only have half the story so far—British supercar maker McLaren confirming that CEO Mike Flewitt is leaving, but not who is set to permanently replace him—we suspect there’s likely something more happening in the background here.Journalists tended to like Flewitt, a no-nonsense Liverpudlian who spent most of his career at Ford before joining McLaren. He spoke his mind and was happy to venture further in interviews than his PR managers wanted him to; his confirmation to Car and Driver that there would be an LT version of the 720S on the same day the basic car made its debut was a fine example of this engaging enthusiasm. But he also made an oft-repeated promise that McLaren would never build an SUV, or anything like one. [editoriallinks id=’56231793-e286-4ba0-b6c5-1634446723a0′ align=’left’][/editoriallinks]That pledge won plenty of positive reaction. It seemed like a low-risk strategy in the era when sales of McLaren’s carbon supercars were riding high and the company was still expanding. But as rival luxury makers started to launch their super-utes, Flewitt’s promise started to look more like a hostage to fortune, especially when the COVID-19 pandemic struck and McLaren’s global sales collapsed. The company narrowly survived a cash-flow crisis, one that forced it to cut 1200 jobs and to raise cash against its space-age headquarters. McLaren’s crisis found a parallel in the one being suffered by another British luxury player, Aston Martin, which had also been suffering from falling sales and revenues. Aston had nearly run out of cash developing its first SUV, the DBX, and was also trying to raise the funds necessary to build a series of mid-engine supercars intended to take on McLaren, Ferrari, and Lamborghini. But Aston also had a relationship with a much bigger automaker in the form of Mercedes-Benz, one that has grown much closer in the last year with the arrival of former AMG boss Tobias Moers as Aston’s CEO.[image id=’cf6bc030-37b7-46a3-a95c-4fb99c5c6c65′ mediaId=’1b25cff5-eed3-4106-af93-04eca0867717′ align=’center’ size=’medium’ share=’false’ caption=’Aston Martin DBX.’ expand=” crop=’original’][/image]McLaren doesn’t have any such relationship. Company insiders have told C/D a technical alliance with a major German automaker, believed to be BMW, was being discussed some time ago—but this never happened. Meaning McLaren and the company’s suffering shareholders have had to bear the huge costs both of developing its next-generation models, which will use a new carbon-fiber architecture, and of the hybridized V-6 engine that will power the first of these, the Artura.[image id=’7c8a6e43-405c-4c35-82c2-caad8a675fde’ mediaId=’fb09edf2-95fb-47b0-bb09-7908cd11045d’ align=’center’ size=’medium’ share=’false’ caption=’McLaren Artura.’ expand=” crop=’18×11′][/image]The Artura was originally scheduled to arrive in 2020, but its launch has been pushed back into 2022 seemingly due to the engineering challenge of bringing such a complicated car to market. Sales have been disappointing for both the McLaren GT, a fine car which is categorically not the Bentley Continental rival it was originally described as, and the roofless, screenless Elva. These failures seem to have played a significant part in Flewitt’s abrupt departure from the company, with technical leadership passing to McLaren Group director Michael Macht, former Porsche CEO, and other functions to executive chairman Paul Walsh while a permanent full-time successor is sought. It seems likely the choice of new boss will signal a change of direction. Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Lamborghini, and Aston Martin have all launched SUVs, all of which are currently their respective companies’ bestselling models. Even Ferrari is set to create something very similar in the form of the Ferrari Purosangue. We can respect Flewitt for holding out against this trend, but we would be very surprised if his successor doesn’t choose to reverse that decision, especially given the possibility of moving straight to a fully electric SUV using somebody else’s platform. (Lotus has explicitly said it wants to license its forthcoming “lightweight” EV platform, which will support 800-volt architecture and produce cars able to go from zero to 62 mph in under three seconds.) [image id=’492f3b32-202a-4996-924a-b895a84f991d’ mediaId=’c061b323-e8d5-4789-be9d-f94d193ab3c9′ align=’center’ size=’medium’ share=’false’ caption=’Matt Becker at Aston Martin. ‘ expand=” crop=’18×11′][/image]By happy coincidence, McLaren has recently poached Aston Martin’s chief chassis engineer, Matt Becker. The man who led development of the DBX would seem an ideal candidate to introduce another British luxury brand to a more sports-utilitarian future. [poll id=’5194d6f3-4d79-49dd-ba77-f7c8afcb1381_0f9934bb36c83′ type=’text’ question=’Should they or shouldn’t they?’ answer1=’A McLaren SUV would be awesome.’ answer2=’He was right. They shouldn’t.’][/poll]

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