Rare request of engineers: Make cabin louder
Rolls-Royce did such a good job insulating the interior of the second-generation Ghost from outside noise that drivers who tested it became disoriented by the silence.
"Bordering on nausea," the car's lead engineer, Jon Simms, told Bloomberg.
So Simms' team did something few automotive engineers are ever told to do. They made the cabin louder.
They recalibrated the 563-hp engine, modified the sound insulation in the doors and lightened up the padding in the headliner. They also designed the rear seat frames and trunk components to vibrate at a particular frequency to create a low "whisper" sound.
The end result is an interior that's 1 decibel quieter than the sedan's first generation. The 2021 Ghost, revealed in September, fights noise pollution with an aluminum frame that carries less sound than the old steel one, double-glazed side windows and lightweight foam lining the tires.
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