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Rolls-Royce's new Wraith can silence the jeers of the poor

Music is about youth, vibrancy and rebellion, something that seems at odds with Rolls-Royce, cars that are normally the province of stuffed shirts the world over. Despite this, the company feels that it needs to reach out to music-loving billionaires, which is why it's launching the Rolls-Royce Wraith Inspired By Music edition. Effectively, the existing Wraith has been kitted out with a custom stereo that, it's claimed, will turn your car into "the most exclusive music venue" on the highway. Considering that a base model Wraith can cost in excess of $360,000, we'd say that's a fair claim to make.

Rolls-Royce is boasting that its bespoke audio setup has been in the works for two years and was crafted by a team of "the world's very best automotive audio engineers." The end product is a 1,300W, 18 channel system with two big bass speakers, seven tweeters and seven mid-rangers around the cabin. In addition, two speakers are mounted at ear level, so that you can avoid hearing your chatty chauffeur on the way to the airport. If that wasn't nerdy enough, microphones inside and outside the car monitor the ambient audio, constantly tweaking the sound settings to ensure that you can't hear the screams of the roadside poor.

Since Rolls-Royce had our attention, it also wanted to spoil some of the more fun myths about its products. The company's historians have debunked the story that Keith Moon drove his own Roller into a pool during a "high spirited" evening in Michigan. Unfortunately, Rolls' believes that it's a conflation of two stories: one where Moon left the handbrake off his car to roll into a half-constructed swimming pool, and another where the drummer drove a Chrysler Wimbledon into an ornamental pond as a protest. So, now you can bore all of your friends with that piece of trivia down the pub this weekend.