2025 Rolls-Royce Black Badge Spectre driven at the Magarigawa Club, Japan

You’ve been living under a rock if you haven’t heard of the Magarigawa Club. A private racetrack nestled in the mountains of Japan, built by an unnamed billionaire – ring a bell? It should! It was all over Instagram a couple of years ago. It is a super-exclusive, members-only affair where even getting a foot in the door is an eye-wateringly fat cheque. That is, until Rolls-Royce sent over an invite. We were invited to experience Black Badge – a side of Rolls-Royce that breaks away from the traditional norms of luxury. The Rolls-Royce Black Badge range currently includes the all electric Spectre, the Ghost and Cullinan.

What is Rolls-Royce Black Badge?

More sinister, more expressive, more about breaking rules than conforming to them. Rolls-Royce calls it their “alter ego”. I call it their fun side. Black Badge debuted on the Rolls-Royce Ghost in 2016. It was well received. Well enough for Rolls-Royce to double down. New model lines such as the Cullinan and Spectre have been given the Black Badge treatment since.

What does the Black Badge treatment entail? The cars are more than just cosmetic garnish. Sure, they are literally “black” badged – the Spirit of Ecstasy on the nose, the badge of honour on the flanks and Pantheon grille surrounds now come in black chrome. The face also gets a subtle tweak, just to give it a little more definition. The wheels usually reflect all this with a new design. But Black Badge also changes the personality of the car. The powertrain is massaged for more performance. The dynamics are tightened up to make the behind-the-’wheel experience more engaging. A Rolls-Royce Black Badge is for the driver.

2025 Rolls-Royce Black Badge Spectre at Magarigawa

We have started with the newest of the lot. The Black Badge Spectre was unveiled earlier this year – a meaner, more sinister version of the all-electric Spectre. How does the Black Badge experience manifest on an EV – especially since there’s no hulking V12 and corresponding exhaust to fettle with? Well, you get a couple of new drive modes to turn the wick up. Take Infinity Mode, for example. Think of it as sport mode but Rolls-Royce wouldn’t use a word as tasteless as ‘Sport’, anywhere close to one of their machines. The choice of words is interesting – a reference to the infinity symbol that represents Black Badge. This mode takes power up from 577bhp to 650bhp, while leaving torque at a seriously impressive 900Nm.

Then there’s another level up. Spirited mode. You come to a halt, put your foot on the brake and then on the accelerator to activate it. Think of it as launch control, but again, that term would be unbecoming of a Rolls-Royce. Love the play on words here. This unlocks the full 1075Nm of torque and drops the 0-100kmph time to 4.1 seconds. No exhaust note, no problem. You have instant torque on the most powerful Rolls-Royce car ever built sorting out your innards.

Fun fact: Spirited mode is actually inspired by the Rolls-Royce Merlin engines on the Spitfire aircraft. That engine allowed short bursts of extra power for some durations, to get to or away from a desperate situation. Back then, pilots had to inform flight engineers if they used this just for the sake of reliability. Thankfully, Rolls-Royce customers don’t have to pick up the phone to Goodwood every time they entertain their passengers at the lights.

It’s hard to believe the Black Badge Spectre weighs three whole tonnes once you unleash all its performance. The turn of pace is brutal and is accompanied by an eerie silence. An EV would usually have some tyre chirrup, some road noise, a bit of motor whine – some auditory stimulus when you really wring it out. Not the Spectre. AWD plus insane levels of sound insulation take care of all those problems. No time to appreciate it because I have to brake rather quickly as the first corner approaches – a tight right going into an even tighter left. Typical EV brakes – lacking outright feel, but massively capable and slows the car right down. Then there’s another long straight, where the Spectre flexes its big power.

I’m flying down the back straight on my first lap. The Black Badge Spectre is pulling hard – 120, 140, 160kmph – in absolute silence. I can see the next corner approach, an easy (but blind) right-hander that goes slightly uphill. Tap the brakes, tuck the car in. Turns out, that is just the start of the climb. The next few corners going left and right take us up 125m of elevation very rapidly. For context, that’s about the height of a 40-floor building. The final corner in this sequence is a steep crest, flowing into a downhill section. Ascending said crest, all you can see is sky. The track could be going anywhere from here. Gulp. I am fully relying on my instructor to tell me where I need to go. “Right!” he says as soon as we hit the top. I turn in. The Spirit of Ecstasy on the car’s nose drops into a sweeping, downhill, right-left chicane as the rest of the Spectre quickly follows. My heart is pounding as we blast past the pit building and continue for another lap. What a welcome to Magarigawa!

The Spectre feels tight and composed. It’s no 12Cilindri, but there’s a real sense that the steering is connected to the front and body control that I wouldn’t expect of a luxe-barge of this size. I can feel the weight in the bends, but there’s genuine dynamic polish in the manner in which it hustles down the track. This is my first time driving a Rolls-Royce and I have no real perspective, but I assume they would be soggy, floaty and all over the place on a racetrack. Not at all, it seems. And that is the spirit of Black Badge that possesses these cars.

What is the Magarigawa Club?

I climb out of the Spectre and have a short breather before the next stint. Perfect to go explore the Magarigawa Club. Nestled in the hills of the Chiba prefecture, just south of Tokyo, it looks like a James Bond villain’s secret lair. The turn off the main road is nondescript with the most subtle signboard indicating what lies behind the next hill. Enter the main gate and past the manicured lawns, you first catch sight of the track and the actual size and scale of it. Pictures don’t do it justice. The road ends at the main club building which hosts most of the action – it has karaoke lounges, sim rooms, restaurants, spas, a swimming pool and a children’s play room. There’s even an onsen – an indoor and outdoor pool with hot spring water – to unwind in after a hard day at the track. And of course, this building is flanked by Japanese gardens, with incredible views of the track (and Mt Fuji!) from all sorts of different vantage points. Oh and there’s a few villas overlooking the track as well so you can wake up to the sound of screaming V12s.

The pitlane makes for quite the sight. It is a temperature-controlled indoor pitlane – you actually drive into the building with automated doors at either end that open and close when they sense a car approach. The pitlane can hold 36 vehicles at a time, and you have mechanics and driving coaches at hand to help you. A few members are around while we are there, heading out for laps in their Ferraris and Aston Martins, and then getting inputs from the pro-coaches in the pitlane.

2025 Rolls-Royce Black Badge Ghost Series II at Magarigawa

Before I know it, it’s time to head out again. This time I jump into the Black Badge Ghost Series II. Rolls-Royce calls it their most “agile, driver-focused” car ever, and I’m inclined to agree. The simple act of pulling out of the pits has me grinning – the 6.75-litre V12 that stretches out in front of me has silken smooth delivery. Tapping the ‘Low’ button on the gear selector stalk wakes the Ghost up – transforming it from luxury liner to luxo-bruiser. Gearshifts are now quicker, the exhaust is more emotional. Loads of work has been done to make the Ghost more potent. Power is bumped up by 29bhp and torque by 50Nm and sits at 592bhp and 900Nm. The planar suspension has been fettled with to tighten up body control. And all of that has worked wonders!

The Ghost feels lighter than the Spectre almost immediately – and it would – the lack of the massive battery pack means it weighs around half a tonne less. I can feel that on the brakes, in the bends and during quick changes of direction. The Ghost feels a lot more connected, delivering a lot more by way of sensation and connection. It has the dynamic polish of the Spectre but feels much lighter on its feet. Oh, and that V12… these engines might be a dying breed, but Rolls-Royce has kept them alive and pulling. It might not have the immediacy of the Spectre’s drivetrain but it more than makes up for it in character – a growling, effortless means of propulsion.

The track at Magarigawa is incredibly special. It isn’t a proper homologated racetrack but it focuses on engagement. Runoffs and the distances from the barrier are a lot less than say, an F1 track, but the involvement and concentration it needs are as high. At 3.5km long, it snakes along the sides of the natural terrain in this region, packs in 22 corners, an 800m straight and has a 20 per cent gradient. Thankfully, they don’t ask us to do a track walk.

You might have heard of the designers. Someone called Tilke Architects and Engineers – the same guys that did the BIC and a whole lot of other F1 tracks. Not only is this an incredible feat of design and engineering but it is a gripping experience. It’s fast, flowing and keeps you engaged from the time you’re rolling out of the pitlane until you get back in.

2025 Rolls-Royce Black Badge Cullinan Series II at Magarigawa

With track driving for the day out of the way, we pop over to the outer boundaries of the Magarigawa property to test the Black Badge Cullinan Series II off-road. Shag carpets have been swapped out for all-weather ones and off-road mode is engaged. Off-road mode jacks up the suspension, softens the throttle map and provides a longer leash with wheelspin so one can really take on the rough stuff. Once again, it’s the V12 that leaves the lasting impression. The Black Badge Cullinan is slightly more powerful than the standard one with the engine massaged to put out 592bhp and 900Nm, just like the Ghost. One has to merely breathe on the throttle pedal to wake the turbos up and get the 12 cylinders to send drive to all four wheels. We are supremely isolated inside the cabin as I drop one 23-inch wheel after the other into slush-filled ruts and over berms. As expected, the Cullinan simply glides past whatever comes its way.

I’d never imagined I’d drive a ₹12 crore SUV off-road, and I doubt owners will either, but the trail looks rather similar to Pune’s roads after being lashed by the monsoons over the last month. This counts as genuine road testing, then! This particular Cullinan also features fluorescent yellow interiors – very unlike the usually understated Rolls-Royce specs, but that’s what Black Badge lets its owners do. It almost gives them permission to get freaky with their spec and create something a bit naughty, a bit provocative.

Rolls-Royce and Magarigawa: An experience of a lifetime

The flight back from Japan isn’t easy. Both Magarigawa and the Black Badge cars have left a lasting impression. Magarigawa, because I felt incredibly privileged to have experienced what not many will in this lifetime. A true driver’s track, with absolute top-end luxury at the heart of it. It’s the kind of place you talk about in hushed tones, with a reverence, for years to come.

The Rolls-Royces, because I feel like the 2000 words I have here isn’t enough to do them justice. The visual impact they have, the lingering scent of the leather, the finish of every surface, the fact that these automotive leviathans can actually deliver a truly engaging driving experience – there’s so much to take in that the generous few hours we had with them still didn’t feel enough. Black Badge might be Rolls-Royce’s alter ego but at Magarigawa, it felt like its truest self.