The new "baby" saloon will be based on the same BMW F01 platform that will be used on the next 7-Series set to be unveiled in 2008. The next ultra-luxury saloon is currently codenamed the Rolls-Royce NGS (Next Generation Saloon).
During an interview at Shanghai motor show, Rolls-Royce boss Ian Robertson has revealed more details of the next saloon: "The design is finished, and the first prototypes should be running very shortly. We’ll aim to produce around 800 of them a year. That should more than double our overall sales."
As Robertson said, the new baby RR will share parts with both next generation BMW 7-Series and CS Concept, but the car "will be unmistakably a Rolls-Royce."
The NGS will measure around 5500mm, shorter than a standard Maybach, with a massive 3500mm wheelbase. Although the engineers are tinkering with Phantom-style rear coach doors, the smart money is on a more conventional entrance.
It will feature a conventional steel body with a minimum weight of 2300 kg. Under the bonnet you will see BMW’s new 6.0-litre V12 engine with an output of around 544 hp. Another possibility for the next Rolls Royce is a turbocharged engine that will help it to compete with the Maybach 57 S (that has an output of 612 hp).
It will be limited to 155 mph and is expected that the 0 to 60 mph sprint to be made in 5.2 seconds.
As Robertson said, the new car will be "unmistakably" featuring automatic cruise control, adaptive cornering lights, multi-media ICE, head-up display, rear-seat entertainment, keyless entry and go, widescreen in-dash monitor, top-grade hi-fi, soft close doors and, of course, self-aligning wheel centers.
Robertson also said that the new sedan will cost just two thirds the price of a Phantom, this means around $250,000. Rolls Royce expects to deliver 2000 units in 2009, and will increase the number to 3000 units in the next years.
Competitors
Bentley Continental Flying Spur
Sharing heart and soul with its highly successful stablemate, the Continental GT, the Continental Flying Spur is a four-door Grand Tourer born of a coupé. The new Continental Flying Spur is the fastest four-door in the company’s history, and the fastest in the world, with a top speed of 195mph. It marries the excitement, power, refinement and craftsmanship of the Continental GT with enhanced luxury and space to provide a supreme combination of performance, style and comfort.
The Continental Flying Spur was created at the state-of-the-art Crewe factory, where a 550-strong team of engineers has worked alongside Bentley’s renowned designers, craftsmen and craftswomen. Access to parent company Volkswagen’s worldwide engineering test facilities has also been of prime importance to the development of the car and the Continental Flying Spur has benefitted from the use of the group’s advanced windtunnels, proving grounds and prototyping facilities.
"The Continental Flying Spur is a brilliant example of how to match world-beating technologies with renowned craftsmanship," says Bentley chairman Dr Franz-Josef Paefgen. "It is a performance car but not at the cost of comfort and as such represents a unique proposition - a sumptuous and spacious four-door Grand Tourer with the heart and soul of a high-performance coupé."
The heart of the Continental Flying Spur is its magnificent 6.0-litre, twin-turbocharged 12-cylinder engine which will propel the car to 60mph in 4.9 seconds and on to a top speed of 195mph. This awe-inspiring piece of engineering was created for both the coupé and four-door versions of the Continental and delivers phenomenal power (552bhp/411kW) as well as that legendary wave of torque (479lb ft/650Nm) from low revs that is the hallmark of every Bentley.
Maybach 57 S
With the new model 57 S, Maybach offers a high-end luxury saloon whose performance and dynamic handling need fear no comparison with a sports car. Particularly discerning motoring enthusiasts who wish to drive their Maybach themselves seek a symbiosis of luxurious comfort and sporty handling. The latter is provided by an improved Mercedes-AMG 6.0-litre V12 biturbo engine with 45 kW/62 hp more output than the Maybach 57, as well as a tauter suspension configuration.
This combination makes the Maybach 57 S high-end luxury saloon the ideal car for owner-drivers who expect the very latest high-performance technology and the perfection typical of the Maybach brand. With an acceleration from standstill to 100 km/h in only five seconds, the new Maybach 57 S impressively demonstrates its outstanding performance potential.
The new, even more powerful twelve-cylinder engine in the Maybach 57 S has a displacement of six litres and an output of 450 kW/612 hp by virtue of a twin turbocharger and a water-type charge-air cooler. The impressive maximum torque of 1000 Nm (electronically limited) is available over a wide engine speed range between 2000 and 4000 rpm. This provides the more sportily inclined Maybach driver with effortless power reserves at all times. Each of these muscular twelve-cylinder units has a newly designed cover and a model plate bearing the signature of the Mercedes-AMG technician who assembled it by hand on the "one man, one engine" principle.
Maybach developers have succeeded in reconciling, to a near-perfect degree, different requirements with the modified, more stiffly configured suspension of the 57 S. While transferring the impressive performance and outstanding dynamic potential safely and effortlessly at all times, it also retains the very high level of comfort for which Maybach luxury saloons are known.
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