Rolls Royce Wraith returns

The coupe version of the RR Ghost is to be the Rolls Royce Wraith, with the first tease of the most sporty Rolls Royce ever.

There was never any doubt that Rolls Royce would build a range of cars round the Ghost, with a coupe and convertible on the cards ever since the Rolls Royce Ghost arrived more than three years ago.

In fact, just over a year after the Ghost launched, we reported that RR were planning an extended wheelbase version of the Gost and a coupe and convertible, just as expected. The EWB Ghost arrived in 2011 and we expected the Coupe and convertible to have made an appearance by the end of 2012.

But now Rolls Royce has started the tease for the Ghost Coupe and in the process has revealed it won’t be the Ghost Coupe, but will revive a name from RR’s history – the Rolls Royce Wraith.

The pre-war Wraith (not to be confused with the later Silver Wraith) was built by Rolls in the year before WWII and came as a running chassis from Rolls with a range of different bodies attached by a variety of coachbuilders.

That means there are many variants of the original Wraith, but all started out as running chassis from Crewe with a 4.3 litre straight six, four-speed manual ‘box and a price tag of £1100 (and at least half as much again to give it a body).

The new Rolls Royce Wraith will get the same 6.6 litre V12 as its saloon sibling, but with Rolls Royce promising the most powerful Roller ever it seems likely it will get something over 600bhp to play with, dramatic styling and be able to perform in a manner not really becoming a Rolls.

Now the tease for the Wraith has begun ahead of a reveal at the Geneva Motor Show in March, we can probably expect a drip of Wraith teases to keep us interested. In the meantime, check out the spy video below of the Rolls Royce Wraith blatting round the Nurburgring.

Let’s hope it looks better without the camouflage.