Can you have too much of a good thing?

Rolls-Royce would probably answer with a resounding no and, if you’ve got money to burn, chances are you’d agree.

The Rolls Royce Ghost Series II, if you can afford one, will set you back in excess of £200,000 – how much in excess really depends on your personal ambitions – and what you get is swathes of sumptuously soft leather, luxurious deep pile carpets and, in my test car, acres of beautifully polished walnut veneer.

Beauty is, of course, in the eye of the beholder and while the Ghost may be Rolls-Royce’s smallest car it is still a big brute. It is imposing, as a car in this class should be, and it turns heads like few others but beautiful? I, perhaps, would apply the term elegant but, given the infinite options for personalisation – Rolls-Royce will try to accommodate any request – it’s not beyond the realms of possibility for a buyer with bad taste to turn elegance into something altogether less palatable. And yes, I do have the evidence to back up my claim.

Still, in Velvet Sparkle Red with a satin silver bonnet the Ghost looks every inch – all 212.6 of them – the stately limousine that it is. All that length is put to good use, too, and even with a six-footer in the driver’s seat there is no shortage of legroom in the back.

For all its great size there are some beautifully delicate touches, particularly the steering column stalks, which are pencil thin. Here you’ll find the gear selector and it feels wonderfully contradictory to be able to move this two-and-a-half tonne behemoth with the aid of such light, slender controls. Combined with the skinny steering wheel it imbues the Ghost with a delightfully old-fashioned sense of occasion.

The sumptuous seats are surprisingly firm, supporting you rather than sucking you in, and can even be extended at the front so longer-legged passengers can get themselves comfortable.

Sitting in those seats the vista before you is as much a treat for the eyes as it is for the fingertips. The beautiful white analogue gauges, three of them, dominate the instrument binnacle. Rolls-Royce have seen fit to dispense with a rev counter and, instead, bestow upon the lucky driver a Power Reserve meter, which tells you exactly how effortless forward momentum is.

The multimedia system is as good as anything I’ve seen. Controlled with a large dial mounted atop the transmission tunnel it is intuitive and responsive. To set a destination on the sat nav you can choose between selector dial, handwriting recognition or, my personal favourite, voice control. Short of employing ESP I can’t conceive of any way that Rolls-Royce could make life easier.

Anything that isn’t made from wood, leather, metal or some other exotic material spewed forth from the heart of a dying star is going to feel a little out of place in what is, after all, a wonderfully appointed cabin, but the plastics that have, by necessity, found their way into the car are tactile and soft to the touch.

It would be safe to say then, that sitting up front is a pretty special experience but even passengers forced to ride in the back don’t have too bad a time of it.

Rear seat passengers can catch up on daytime TV while being chauffeured to the supermarket – or is that just me? – on the screens mounted on the back of the front seats, or use the exquisite fold-out picnic tables to crack on with some proper work.

You’ve got your own climate controls in the back and, should your chauffeur neglect their duties and leave your door wide open, well, there’s a button for that. One subtle design touch that could well go unnoticed is the way the rear seats are gently angled towards each other to better enable social interaction, should you have company.

Behind the centre arm rest, within which is concealed a mobile communication device – yes, a phone – is, of course, the chiller cabinet where the well-to-do will probably store their Beaujolais nouveau. ‘78, of course.

Despite the commodious accommodation in the back, I think the place most owners of a Ghost will want to be is up front, where all the action is. Buyers of this car, I believe, will want to drive it themselves and there are plenty of very good reasons why.

For a start, there’s the view. Sitting at the wheel, staring at the far edge of the bonnet in the distance, gazing at the place where the Spirit of Ecstasy should be… It’s okay, she’s there. Switch the ignition off and she disappears into the grille. Start the engine and up she pops again.

In the past I can imagine that many of us lucky enough to sit behind the wheel of a Roller have endured a very deep sense of loss, as if something is missing but never quite able to put our collective fingers on what. Well, not any more because the Spirit of Ecstasy can now be specified with uplighting.

The 6.6-litre twin turbocharged V12 that powers the Ghost gives very little indication that it’s running, and not just at idle, either. So well insulated is the cabin that at times it would be easy to believe that you’re being blown along on a breeze, rather than propelled along by a 563bhp combustion engine.

That sensation dissipates very quickly, however, when you put your foot down and find yourself subjected to a rather less civilised shove in the back as the Ghost’s full potential is unleashed. It’s a moment that you’re unlikely to forget, not because of the astonishing way this near two-and-a-half tonne car picks up speed, but the way it does so with absolutely no fuss whatsoever.

Go a little faster sir? Certainly sir.

The steering is light and, while it makes manoeuvring the Ghost a doddle, it’s also vague and uncommunicative. It is direct but don’t expect to be throwing the car through a series of tight corners because despite its impressive performance, and I realise that I’m stating the glaringly obvious, the Ghost is no sports car. You can only push the laws of physics so far, after all, and the disconnect between driver and road means that you can never be 100 per cent sure about what those huge front wheels are doing.

It won’t take you long to learn, if you didn’t know already, that hustling the Ghost along is far from the best way to enjoy its very special qualities. This is a car that wants to do all the hard work for you. It wants to shut you away from the outside world, isolate you from all the noise, all the stress and convey you in blissful tranquillity to your chosen destination.

It doesn’t matter if you drive 30 miles, or 300, you’ll still arrive refreshed and relaxed. The Ghost is a beautifully efficient way to get around – if you ignore the fuel consumption, and owners are unlikely to give it a second thought – such is the minimal effort required to drive one.

It’s a big car – unless you compare it to every other Rolls-Royce – but its mass is concealed behind a veil of light steering, supple suspension and delicate controls. It’s a magical piece of engineering that really has to be driven to be believed.

If you’re keen on saving the planet, but still insist on owning a Rolls-Royce, I suggest that you plant a lot of trees to offset your carbon footprint. Fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, unsurprisingly, don’t make for pretty reading at 20.2mpg combined and 327g/km respectively.

Once you slip behind the wheel into the lap of ultimate motoring luxury any guilt you might have been feeling about the impact your purchase is making on the earth’s climate will almost certainly be wafted away on a carpet of air, such is the Ghost’s capacity for altering your perception of the world around you, of putting distance between you and everyone and everything else.

You don't just drive a Ghost, you experience it.

Rolls-Royce Ghost Series II

Price: £222,888

As tested: £321,768

Engine: 6.6-litre twin-turbocharged V12

Transmission:

Power: 593bhp @ 5,250rpm

Torque: 575lbft @ 1,500rpm

Acceleration (0-62mph): 4.9sec

Maximum speed: 155mph (governed)

Urban: 13.3mpg

Extra urban: 28.8mpg

Combined: 20.2mpg

Emissions (CO2): 327g/km

For more information about Rolls-Royce motor cars click here.