Those in the market for a brand new Roller are not apt to inquire about trivialities such as price or fuel economy. That’s why I highly doubt news of oil reaching its highest price in 3.5 years will give any Cullinan prospect a moment’s pause before they sign on the dotted line with a solid-gold Montblanc pen.
Rolls-Royce refuses to describe the Cullinan as an SUV. In every reference, it’s called an “all-terrain high-bodied car.” Company marketers were surely sequestered in a windowless conference room for ages before they settled on that term.
Company propaganda takes great care to point out that the new Cullinan is the only purpose-built, luxury SUV in the world. This is great news, because every time I climb into a Q7 or a Ranger Rover, I think, “Oh, dear. I’ve accidentally gotten into the housekeeper’s Kia again.”
The 1 percent will not be left wanting for power from their Cullinan. A 6.75-liter (sorry – six and three-quarters litre) twin-turbo V12 delivers 563 brake horsepower and 627 lb-ft of the finest British torque at just 1,600 rpm. That’s more than enough to upset the china tea set balanced on the Cullinan’s leather seats.
Of course, the Cullinan is all-wheel drive and is said to have been “tested to destruction” all over the planet. Air suspension should provide different ride heights for tiptoeing over the proletariat, while hill-descent control will help drivers slither down grassy British embankments during a fox hunt. Rolls Royce calls it a “Magic Carpet Ride.” Steppenwolf would like to have a word.
It is also described as having an all-wheel steer system. Details on that system are light (Rolls owners probably consider talking about the suspension to be a needlessly agricultural conversation) but the steering is alternately described as all-wheel and four-wheel in operation. I wouldn’t put it past Rolls-Royce to have included this feature simply in deference to the tight radius of the small roundabout outside the Savoy Hotel, a location that’s long prompted the builders of London’s famous black cabs to imbue the cars with their notoriously compact turning circle.
Standing 72.3 inches (a contemporary Range Rover is 73.6 inches), Cullinan rides on 22-inch wheels and features typical Roller styling cues such as a chrome grille doing its best impression of the white cliffs of Dover. The RR badge and Spirit of Ecstasy ornament stand higher than the fenders, ready to skewer any peasants who dare set foot in front of it.
Tired after a long day at the castle? The world’s oligarchs will be pleased to learn just about every interior surface of the Cullinan is heated, including all inboard armrests and outboard armrests. Even the lower C-Pillar is heated, should one find themselves leaning against that part of the interior while counting their money.
Naturally, Rolls is quick to point out its Bespoke Program, in which the company touts the Cullinan’s “Recreation Module.” As an example (and I am not making this up), Rolls-Royce provides this passage:
Imagine the scene. Having chosen your adventure you call down to your garage. “Jason, we’re going to go drone racing today. Can you load the Drone Module into the Cullinan?” Downstairs, Jason selects the Drone Racing Module from the rack containing several other Recreation Modules that the owner has had commissioned from Rolls-Royce to satisfy his or her preferred recreational pursuits.
The day I’m rich enough to summon an employee to prepare my Rolls-Royce for a day of drone racing, I can assure you that person’s name will not be Jason. It will be Spartacus or something equally outrageous. The company then goes on to suggest other mundane everyday activities beyond drone racing such as base jumping and volcano boarding.
This is not wholly new territory for the extended brand family. The Sultan of Brunei commissioned a Bentley SUV back in 1996, ordering half a dozen examples and calling them the Dominator, which I submit as the greatest vehicle name of all time except for the Isuzu Light Dump. Bentley now hawks the googly-eyed Bentayga, of course.
In a revealing interview with the UK mag Autocar, brand boss Torsten Müller-Otvos mentions the Cullinan was designed with electrification in mind, meaning we’ll likely see a hybrid version sometime in the future. Finding appropriate electrical outlets will be added to Jason’s list of tasks, then. Müller-Otvos also took special care to point out the Cullinan’s unique architecture, no doubt in a bid to fend off any thought that this machine shares its toys with BMW.
Price? If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.
[Images: Rolls-Royce]
Good to know the stylists at Rolls are Speed Racer fans.
https://i1.wp.com/speedrally.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/speed_racer_mammoth_car_angle.jpg?resize=470%2C358
Gawd, that’s ugly. And crass. Yet another ride for people with too much money and too little taste.
Imagine how long you can keep an E38 740i Sport in top running condition with the money spent on this atrocity.
Why would you want to?
The demographic for this SUV’s gardners drive E38s.
The picture of the red one that is moving looks like a 1987 Town Car that was heavily customized. The rest look good, except…
That raked rear window. The rest of the vehicle doesn’t try to look slick and sporty, why does that? It should be more formal.
The cynic in me says it looks vaguely like a 1986 Nissan Stanza Wagon.
The back 1/4 looks like a butched-up Malibu Maxx!
Damn it, I hate brining “looks like” into a new car debut, as I’m sure none of this was intentional.
P.s. Chevy shoulda lifted the Malibu Maxx and added AWD, an “SUV coupe”?
“Rolls Royce Malibu Maxx” was my first thought also.
It looks like a tarted-up London Taxi. This will be big with the falconry crowd, while I can only afford a bird feeder.
What a perfectly executed design. Just enough rake to the back window to mimic that of a Phantom, and tasteful, cohesive lines that are both parallel and coincident. Hard to believe that was possible with all the pre-crashed bodywork we’re seeing these days from everyone else. Tasteful, stately, and subdued.
You’re kidding, right?
Not at all. What exactly do you find wrong with this design?
It’s pretty sweet. Other than the grille, it would make a great Lincoln. (Lincoln wishes their SUVs looked anything like this!)
This is the concept I have said Cadillac should use for their flagship. Forget large sedans. A big SUV with plenty of interior room.
Cadillac already has one, and it’s doing quite well :)
What MBella is saying, and what I have believed as well, is they need to make a 4-seat Escalade with a screw-you-money interior and price it accordingly. Move the middle row back and forget the rear bench, because honestly you don’t get a lot of room in the 2nd row of either the regular or the ESV models.
Seems to have worked for Lincoln in recent months.
I’ve been heavily into the drone racing scene for a while now.
It grabs a hold of you like nothing else, and doesn’t let go.
He’s here until Thursday. Be sure to tip your waitress.
Looks like a facelifted Land Wind X7. Bravo Rolls Royce.
In addition to the lift job and 4WD, they cut off the trunk. Very clever these English…er…I mean Germans…
I thought the car of choice for the 1 percent of 1 percent is the Land Cruiser? Isn’t this way too flashy?
A Bentley or Rolls-Royce SUV is very new-money, yes.
Old-money folks will go for something subdued like a Jeep Grand Cherokee, Subaru Outback, Volvo -90 series, or yes, a Toyota Land Cruiser. If it must be opulent, they’ll choose to sit lower to the ground and get an E-Class wagon.
Doesn’t British Old Money that wants vague offroadish capacity buy a Rover?
(It would be interesting, too, if Toyota would sell the non-V8 Land Cruiser in the US, but plainly that will never happen…)
I’d love it if we got the Land Cruiser diesel. The 5.7-liter is already…leisurely in terms of acceleration and performance. What could a diesel and a giant tank really hurt?
I’d much rather have the Lamborghini Urus, with its 650 HP and 850 ft-lbs of torque.
Accordingly, my servant will be named “Giovanni” or “Luigi”, or better yet, “Guilia”.
One error in the article: The greatest car name of all time is the Jensen Interceptor. Heh.
This thing probably costs as much as a medium sized house, yet still has that stupid hump in the second row.
Um if there are bucket seats front and rear who cares if there is a transmission/driveshaft hump running down the middle?
I see a bench is pictured as well but I’d be shocked if that’s even 10% of production.
It does not cost as much as a medium-sized house owned the sort of people who own Cullinans.
Considering where the Cullinan (nav ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cullinan_Diamond) is likely to be sold in what passes for volume at RR, you’d think that those heated armrests and other whatnots might instead be cooled.
Beijing and Moscow can get pretty cold.
I don’t get how Rolls-Royce refuses to call the Cullinan an SUV [high-bodied car].
But then the marketing takes great care to call it “…the only purpose-built luxury SUV…”
And Cadillac says: “Escalade? We made it like that ON PURPOSE.”
These are the folks who would only rate the horsepower of their engines as “adequate.”
Unfortunately, I’d rate the class factor with this vehicle as “inadequate,” which will only get worse as the various ballers and oil sheiks order “bespoke” versions.
I think it will stand right out in Dubai in the right paint color. The traditional RR set will have this AND a Phantom.
It’s better looking than the Bentayga though, that’s for sure.
“Müller-Otvos also took special care to point out the Cullinan’s unique architecture, no doubt in a bid to fend off any thought that this machine shares its toys with BMW.”
The interfaces themselves would, yes, definitely come from BMW, especially iDrive. But while lesser Rolls-Royces (Ghost, Wraith, Dawn) share their steel architecture with the previous (F01/F02) 7 Series, the Cullinan and Phantom are on an aluminum-space frame setup unique to Rolls-Royce.
Wait a sec. Wasn’t Cullinan the dude who killed the other dude?
The (sad) truth about our (sad) society.
“The day I’m rich enough to summon an employee to prepare my Rolls-Royce for a day of drone racing, I can assure you that person’s name will not be Jason. It will be Spartacus or something equally outrageous.”
Spartacus, he11 no. She’ll be named Lana, or Ursula, or Angelica.
YES YES YES !!!
That’s what I’m talkin’ about.
It looks like a London taxi after a customiser had their way with it. Gives it “street cred” and shows the customer is in touch with the common folk.
I assume the first one in N. America goes to the Kardashians, but who gets #2?
This is awful.
Looks like one of those Chinese rip offs…
We have been binge-watching “The Crown” and the utter beauty of some of the cars (including Bentleys, Rolls Royces, Wolsleys, to mention just a few) are utterly beautiful. This thing? Not so much, no matter how much it costs.
In general, if you like great acting and a never-ending parade of amazing vehicles (DC-4s, Comet, The Brittania, steam locomotives), this is a show well worth watching.
I have been watching “The Windsors”. If you want a show with great irony and disrespect, and you have the means, I highly recommend it.
I have been watching “The Windsors”. If you want a show with great irony and disrespect, and you have the means, I highly recommend it.
Absolute perfection! I can believe how well they nailed the design.
At least they have an option other than black for the interior leather. The white looks very nice to me and I am sure Jason can get the stains out form that last fox hunt.
Look Bentley: This is how to design a hyper luxury SUV correctly. No stupid fender bulges with a doorhandle in them. Well done RR!
“Jason selects the Drone Racing Module from the rack containing several other Recreation Modules that the owner has had commissioned from Rolls-Royce to satisfy his or her preferred recreational pursuits.”
And I thought that glove compartment door in that ’77 Cutlass that I could do coke off of was as good as it gets.