SILENCE IS GOLDEN
@johnmcilroy
IT’S the silence that grabs you. Under hard acceleration, not even a distant whine can be heard from the electric motor driving the front wheels of the new Rolls-Royce Spectre. We’re approaching 80mph and there’s a merest sensation of motion from somewhere beneath us, and a faint whoosh from around the A-pillars. It’s almost unnerving.
Jörg Wunder, the engineer leading the project and the man driving us around the Miramas test track in southern France, is pleased, but not satisfied. He acknowledges the wind rush: “It’s a seal in the door frame,” he says. “We have improvements already identified, and we’re going to roll them into the next series of upgrades for this Spectre.”
The sensation of motion, meanwhile, is there on purpose; it is, in effect, the noise designed to disguise the absence of noise. Rolls-Royce engineers have created channels where air can flow between the battery pack and the sills, allowing a controlled amount
