Earlier this year, we showed you some interesting spy photos of a camouflaged Rolls-Royce Wraith. The prototype tested was the facelifted luxury coupe from Goodwood which is due out later this year. The time has come to see it yet again, this time on the Nurburgring, ahead of its full unveiling.
In the Rolls-Royce world the word ‘facelift’ doesn’t really exist. The epitome of luxury can’t be subjected to such treatments and therefore, the Goodwood people call their improved models ‘Series II’. The Ghost Series II came out last year and we had the pleasure of driving it at an exclusive event. With the Dawn Convertible sharing its underpinnings, it’s only a matter of time until the third model that uses this platform is launched, in the shape of the Wraith Series II.
The Wraith is considered to be the sportiest of all the current Rolls-Royces and that’s one of the reasons why it is currently being tested around the Nurburgring, at full speed.
Even though this prototype isn’t wearing any camouflage, it’s safe to say that it is in fact the Series II. That’s because, in typical Rolls-Royce fashion, the improved model won’t be drastically changed in appearance. As a matter of fact, all that will change will be the front fascia and even then, you’ll need a keen eye to notice the improvements. The headlight design and DRL LEDs will have a similar shape to what we now have on the Dawn while the Pantheon grille will also be slightly refreshed, keeping the changes to a minimum.
A couple more upgrades will also take place under the sheet metal, which would explain this high-speed testing without any camo. Since only the headlights will be changed, the engineers can simply fit the new engine inside an old Wraith mule and test the hell out of it, without anyone knowing what’s actually going on. The engine might be upgraded ever so slightly in power, from today’s 632 HP and 800 Nm (590 lb-ft) of torque but you won’t hear that loud and clear from Rolls-Royce in typical fashion as these trivial details don’t matter to their customers.
If the mill is even further upgraded, you might be able to drag race a BMW M4 in one of these things.
