Rolls-Royce Wraith Black Badge

Scope of this guide

This guide is scoped to the Rolls-Royce Wraith Black Badge, the two-door, four-seat coupe with the 6.6L twin-turbo V12 petrol engine, 624 bhp, 870 Nm and rear-wheel drive, built at Goodwood between its debut at the 2016 Geneva Motor Show and the end of Wraith production in 2023. It is not a guide to the standard Wraith, which has the same engine and power but 800 Nm of torque, nor to the Black Badge Ghost, the Dawn or the Cullinan, nor to the twelve-car Black Arrow collection that closed the Wraith story. Where the figures for those cars differ we say so, because an advert that says only "Wraith" can describe any of them.

We have not driven this model for this article. Everything here comes from three cited sources: Rolls-Royce's own March 2023 press release on the Black Badge Wraith Black Arrow, PistonHeads' 2021 report on a Black Badge Wraith for sale, and the government vehicle recall checker. We also read Rolls-Royce's 2013 Wraith press kit, ADAC's German data sheets for two Black Badge production periods, BMWBlog's report from the 2016 launch and Wikipedia, and we flag every point that rests on them. We tried two other pages that returned a 403 error and did not work around that. This guide gives no price and no valuation.

The figures at a glance

• Engine: 6.6L twin-turbo V12 petrol, 6592 cc on ADAC's data sheets, driving the rear wheels through a ZF eight-speed automatic.
• Power: 624 bhp. Rolls-Royce's press kit for the standard car prints 624 bhp and 465 kW, and the Black Badge keeps the same output. The metric figure on ADAC's sheets is 632 PS. Converting, 632 PS is about 623.4 bhp and 465 kW is about 623.6 bhp, so 623 and 624 bhp both appear in print and are the same power rounded two ways. PistonHeads writes 632hp for the Black Badge, which on the arithmetic is the PS figure rather than imperial horsepower.
• Torque: 870 Nm. PistonHeads gives 642 lb ft, and 642 x 1.3558 is about 870 Nm. Wikipedia lists the peak as available from 1,700 to 4,500 rpm. The standard Wraith has 800 Nm from 1,500 rpm, according to Rolls-Royce's 2013 press kit.
• 0-100 km/h: 4.5 seconds, which is ADAC's figure for both Black Badge periods it lists. Rolls-Royce's own 2013 press kit gives 4.6 seconds for 0-62 mph on the standard car, and we did not find a Rolls-Royce time for the Black Badge itself, so treat 4.5 seconds as a third-party figure.
• Top speed: 250 km/h (155 mph), electronically limited. ADAC lists 250 km/h and Wikipedia says the standard Wraith is limited to the same speed.
• Drive: rear-wheel drive with an automatic gearbox only. We found no manual or all-wheel drive version in any source.
• Weight: ADAC gives 2360 kg and Wikipedia gives 2,440 kg, which are different measures. ADAC also lists the length as 5285 mm. This is a very large and heavy coupe.

What the Black Badge changed

The standard Wraith launched in 2013 with 624 bhp and 800 Nm. The Black Badge version followed in 2016 and, in Wikipedia's words, power stays the same while torque increases to 870 Nm. The reports of the launch point to the same package of changes: PistonHeads says the air suspension was recalibrated to control weight transfer, the front brake discs were enlarged to resist nose-dive, and the eight-speed automatic was remapped. Wikipedia adds a ZF 8HP95 gearbox in place of the 8HP90, reworked steering and new driveshafts, and BMWBlog describes sharper shifts and more responsive throttle pedals. The exterior changes are visual: a high-gloss black Spirit of Ecstasy, a silver-on-black badge, darkened chrome, and alloy wheels with a carbon-fibre composite outer rim.

None of that makes it a sports car, but it is the Wraith that shows the most intent. We have not driven it, and we cannot say how the changes feel.

Which Black Badge is it?

The question we set ourselves was whether the 2016 launch car differs from later ones. On the evidence we could read, the engine figures do not. ADAC's data sheet for production from August 2016 to August 2018 and its sheet for December 2018 to June 2019 print identical numbers: 465 kW (632 PS), 870 Nm, 4.5 seconds, 250 km/h, 6592 cc and rear-wheel drive. The torque rise over the standard car therefore belongs to the 2016 launch, not to a later update. If a seller tells you a later car has more torque than an early one, ask them for the document that says so, because we found nothing to support it.

What did change over the years is the look. A PistonHeads listing says a Series II came out in 2017 with re-sculpted LED headlights, and Wikipedia captions a Series II facelift from 2017. That means two visual generations of Black Badge Wraith share one specification in the sources we read. Check which headlight and trim you are looking at, and check the build date, not just the registration year.

The last Wraiths were not ordinary cars. Rolls-Royce's March 2023 release announced Black Badge Wraith Black Arrow, limited to 12 examples and described as the last V12 coupe the company will ever make, marking the end of Wraith production. That release does not give a power or torque figure for the Black Arrow, so we do not state one. The 2021 Landspeed Edition mentioned in Wikipedia is another limited Black Badge variant that we did not research further.

How many were built

We could not find a published production figure for the Black Badge Wraith as a whole. Rolls-Royce gives 12 for the Black Arrow, and Wikipedia mentions 35 for the Landspeed Edition, but those are special editions. Our catalogue therefore leaves the production count empty rather than guess. If an owner or dealer claims a car is one of a small number, ask Rolls-Royce Motor Cars to confirm the chassis number and the specification in writing.

Running it and what we could not verify

This is the section where honesty matters most. We found no published servicing schedule, no parts price list and no verified running costs for the Black Badge Wraith, and we are not going to invent them. What the sources do show is the scale of the car. A kerb weight above two tonnes, a V12 with two turbochargers and an eight-speed automatic mean that tyres, brakes and fuel will be large items for any owner. Rolls-Royce's March 2023 release prints combined fuel consumption of about 17.2 to 17.5 mpg and combined CO2 of 365 to 370 g/km on the WLTP cycle and 367 g/km on the older NEDC-based cycle, but it is the release for the Black Arrow edition, so use it as an indication, not a promise for your car.

We also saw used-car listings that carry power figures different from 624 bhp, and we did not open them to find out why. Do not rely on a listing. Rely on the vehicle's registration documents, the build specification from Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and the car itself.

What to check before buying

• Ask for the full build specification and confirm the car is a Black Badge, not a standard Wraith with some black trim. The 870 Nm and 800 Nm cars share almost everything else.
• Establish whether it is the first-generation 2016 shape or the Series II, and ask for the first registration date and the chassis number.
• Request the complete service history from a Rolls-Royce dealer or a specialist who can show the work, including the gearbox, air suspension and brakes that the Black Badge altered.
• Look at the carbon-fibre composite wheels for kerb damage, and check the tyres for age and matching brand and size on all four corners.
• Test the air suspension height at rest and after a short drive, and listen for any change in how it settles.
• Inspect the dark paint and gloss black details for swirl marks, stone chips and previous repairs, because a respray on a black car is harder to spot in poor light.
• Check the electronics, the infotainment, the cameras and the door closing, and make sure every function works before you commit.
• Get an independent inspection from a specialist who works on these cars, since the sources we read give no maintenance detail.
• Run the registration through the recall check described below.

Recalls and the DVSA check

We did not run the government checker, because it needs a registration number or the manufacturer, model and year, and we are not looking at a specific car. The page says you can use the registration number to check whether a car has been recalled, and that without one you need the manufacturer, model and year of manufacture. It says that for a serious safety defect the manufacturer will write to the owner and that you must not drive the vehicle, and that non-safety recalls are notified by the manufacturer. We found no recall notice for the Black Badge Wraith in the sources we read, and absence from our sources is not a clean bill of health. A car imported from outside the UK may not show up properly on the checker, so also ask Rolls-Royce Motor Cars whether any service campaign applies to the chassis number.

About the photograph

The picture at the top of this page shows a grey and black Black Badge Wraith on a road, photographed in June 2023 by Alexandre Prevot and published on Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA 4.0. We cropped and resized it to fit the page. The number plate was already blank in the original and we did not alter it. The picture shows a later-style car with a Monaco plate, and it is there to show the shape, not to prove a specification.

Verdict

The Black Badge Wraith in this guide is a 6.6L twin-turbo V12 petrol coupe with 624 bhp (632 PS), 870 Nm, a third-party 4.5 seconds to 100 km/h and a limited 250 km/h, delivered through rear-wheel drive. It is the Wraith with the extra torque and the sharpened chassis, and from what we read that specification did not change between the 2016 launch and the later Series II cars. Its weakest points on paper are the lack of published ownership data and a production count. If you are shopping for one, insist on the build sheet, a full history and an independent inspection, and treat every published figure as a claim with the caveats above. We have not driven it, so use the sources and a proper inspection to decide.