Rolls-Royce Wraith 6.6 V12

There are Rolls-Royces you are really meant to sit in the back of. The Wraith is precisely the kind where it would be a crime to hand the key to anyone else.

Back at its launch in 2013, that was exactly the idea. With the Phantom and later the Ghost, Rolls-Royce had by then rather elegantly proven that, even under BMW's wing, it could still build cars in which silence, leather, wood and a complete absence of hurry set the tone. But there was also another sort of customer. Someone who wanted a Rolls-Royce, but not a chauffeur. And who, on spotting a glorious mountain road, did not immediately want to unfold a newspaper in the back.

That is what the Wraith was for.

The name, incidentally, was not new. Rolls-Royce had already used Wraith back in 1938, but the modern version turned into something altogether different. An enormous two-door coupé with a sloping roofline, a long bonnet and the familiar rear-hinged doors, but above all with 630 bhp. That made it, at its launch, the most powerful production Rolls-Royce the marque had ever built.

Beneath that vast bonnet sits a 6.6 litre V12 with two turbochargers. Good for 630 bhp and 800 Nm, enough to send this English gentlemen's club on wheels, all 2,300-plus kilos of it, to 100 km/h in under five seconds. You feel that last part above all, because you can barely hear it. A Wraith makes no spectacle of speed. No crackles from the exhaust or theatrical engine noise, just twelve cylinders going almost silently about their business somewhere far ahead of you while the speedometer heads the other way with remarkable enthusiasm.

That is perhaps the cleverest thing about the Wraith. Rolls-Royce set out to make a car sportier without suddenly turning it into a sports car. The chassis stayed comfortable, the steering relaxed and the interior a place where the great outdoors is mainly something other people have to put up with. It is just that everything responds that bit more alertly, and under your right foot there is a quantity of power you would not immediately expect in a traditional Rolls-Royce.

And happily, all the usual Rolls-Royce eccentricities have simply been kept. The enormous suicide doors are rear-hinged and close electrically, because reaching for a door handle after you have climbed in is apparently already too much physical labour. The front edges of the doors house the familiar Rolls-Royce umbrellas, and above your head sits the Starlight Headliner. Not some aftermarket AliExpress kit with a remote nobody can find anymore, but hundreds of individual fibre-optic points woven into the roof lining.

Which brings us to this 2014 Wraith. And let us not pretend for a moment that whoever specified it back then intended to pass through life unnoticed.

Salamanca Blue over Arctic White is not a restrained combination. The blue is deep and emphatic, the white makes the enormous bodywork look even more imposing, and together it sits right on the edge of chic and gaudy. Which, frankly, suits a Wraith perfectly. When you order a two-door Rolls-Royce with a V12, suicide doors, built-in umbrellas and a starry sky, there is no reason to go suddenly shy when picking the colour.

Inside, things are at least as lavish. Four separate seats, generous amounts of leather and that typical Rolls-Royce finish in which almost every component that would be plastic in a normal car seems here to have been taken as an invitation to add a little more leather, metal or wood. Despite the coupé shape, it is also a genuine four-seater. The Wraith is nearly 5.3 metres long with a wheelbase of just over 3.1 metres: this is not a sports coupé in which the rear bench is suitable only for a coat.

Technically, too, Rolls-Royce had come up with a rather neat trick. The eight-speed automatic works with GPS data and can, based on the road ahead, decide in advance which gear is likely to be needed. A gradient, bend or junction further on is therefore taken into account before the car actually reaches it. Typically Rolls-Royce, really: even the gearbox is expected to think ahead so that the driver never has to notice.

This example came to the Netherlands from Belgium and has a documented history. No accident history has been reported, and the mileage befits a car that over the years has mostly been used for the sheer fun of it.

And that last point is perhaps the best way to look at a Wraith. Practically speaking, nobody needs a two-door Rolls-Royce with 630 bhp. For rational transport there are thousands of better solutions. But rational transport usually has no V12, no umbrella in the door and certainly no starry sky above your head.

The Wraith was Rolls-Royce for a new generation of customers, without Rolls-Royce ceasing to be Rolls-Royce. Still outrageously comfortable, absurdly large and built with an almost comical attention to detail, only this time with a clear reason to sit up front yourself.

Some Rolls-Royces you buy for the back seat. This one, clearly, you do not.

Special features:

-Rolls-Royce Wraith Coupé, year of manufacture 2014

-6.6 litre twin-turbo V12

-630 bhp and 800 Nm

-Eight-speed automatic transmission

-Satellite-aided transmission

-Two-tone finish in Salamanca Blue over Arctic White

-Starlight Headliner

-Rear-hinged suicide doors with electric closing

-Integrated Rolls-Royce umbrellas in the doors

-Full leather interior

-Four full-size seats

-Imported from Belgium

-Documented history

-No accident history reported

-Margin car (VAT not deductible)

Written with a glass of single malt within reach,