Royce Motor Cars has announced a new facet of the ultra-luxury marque's personality, a dark and edgy lifestyle statement: ‘Black Badge'. A permanent new sub-brand, Black Badge was unveiled earlier this year at the Geneva Motor Show and transforms the character of both Ghost and Wraith. The new sub-brand is expected to appeal to those people who are elusive and defiant, the risk takers and disruptors who break the rules and laugh in the face of convention. It is in this spirit that Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has announced that Black Badge is now available to order from Mohamed Yousuf Naghi Motors, the sole authorized dealer of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Brett Soso, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Regional Director for Middle East and Africa commented on the reveal of Black Badge by saying, "Following the launch of Wraith in 2013, many of our new customers have gravitated toward the revitalized Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, as the brand most capable of encapsulating their truly individual lifestyles. Through the introduction of Black Badge, we are able to further satisfy the demands of these new customers for a more dark and assertive Ghost and Wraith, to suit their personalities and lifestyles and offer the most commanding presence on the super-luxury landscape." New material accents and tonalities are combined to accommodate the tastes of those fast-moving customers who adopt a strident approach to life's finer challenges. With this manifesto as their departure point, Rolls-Royce designers, engineers and craftspeople set to work transforming Ghost and Wraith in subtly different ways. Their intent was to deliver darker, more assertive and more focused Black Badge alter egos that differ from each other as much as they do from their siblings. The result is Ghost Black Badge and Wraith Black Badge. Black Badge is known as the ultimate in pure luxury style and engineering substance. Giles Taylor, Director of Design, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, said "in creating Black Badge, we were conscious of satisfying the different demands of these new customers. Not only did they demand an alternative image for themselves, they demanded authentic Rolls-Royce engineering substance to underpin it. As a result, the Black Badge Spirit manifests itself through a series of carefully considered design elements which together express a darker luxury sophistication. New material accents and tonalities are combined to accommodate the tastes of those fast-moving customers who adopt a strident approach to life's finer challenges." It was vital to us that the aesthetic appeal and promise of Black Badge Ghost and Black Badge Wraith be underpinned by superlative engineering. The cars could not be the same as each other while at the same time, they had to offer their owners something subtly yet substantively different from the host cars, delivering a more spirited and exhilarating drive but in a truly Rolls-Royce manner." Black Badge will bring the color black to new levels of intensity. The multiple layers of paint and lacquer that go into creating Black Badge Black are repeatedly hand polished – the most exacting painting and polishing process ever used for a solid paint color. The result is the deepest, darkest and most intense black ever seen on a production car surface. The centerpiece of the Black Badge cabin is the aerospace-grade aluminum-threaded carbon fiber composite surfacing – material often seen on the surfaces of stealth aircraft. This futuristic material has been reinterpreted at Goodwood to become the world's most innovative new super-luxury material. Commenting on the availability of ‘Black Badge' in the Kingdom, Stavros Paraskevaides, Managing Director of Mohamed Yousuf Naghi Motors (BMW Group) said, "The launch of Black Badge further demonstrates Rolls-Royce Motor Car's true luxury credentials as the world's leading super-luxury brand, and we feel it is tailor-made for our market. "We have noticed through our renowned Bespoke program a strong demand to breakaway into an even more assertive and adventurous design of Rolls-Royce that better reflects the lifestyle and personality of many of our customers. This permanent model range diversification will offer our customers the most powerful presence on the luxury landscape with its extremely attractive deep black color and enhanced performance, all without compromising any of the core luxury foundations of the brand." — SG
