Rolls-Royce Ghost Prototypes Made People Feel Sick

The second-generationRolls-Royce Ghosthas arrived and we recently had time behind the wheel. Unsurprisingly, the new Ghost left us highly impressed in every way. It ispure luxuryat its absolute finest motivated by a6.75-liter twin-turbo V12with 563 horsepower and 627 lb-ft of torque that is a masterpiece of engineering.

But there is one key area where the new Ghost differs from its immediate predecessor. Instead of the old steel frame, Rolls-Royce switched to aluminum construction. Not only does this aid in overall weight reduction, but when combined with additional new improvements such as insulating the bulkhead and filling the roof, trunk, and floor with over 200 pounds of sound-absorbing materials, the new Ghost is nearly silent inside. As it turns out, this silence made early test subjects nauseous.

Bloomberg learned from Rolls-Royce chief engineer Jon Simms that during early testing in the car's five-year development period, the car was so quiet it caused those people to become disoriented, "bordering on nausea."

Obviously, that's not a good thing for any vehicle, especially for something considered to be ultra-luxury. How did engineers fix this? Simple. They just found ways to make the car's ride louder. For example, engineers developed a soft cabin undertone by tuning the rear seat frames and other trunk components to vibrate at a specific low frequency. They also recalibrated the V12 engine and opted against offering rev-inducing driving modes such as sport or track.