For those of us who get to drive many vehicles in a year, there are still some brands that are a special occasion. Rolls-Royce would be one of those, as the revered British manufacturer is synonymous with prestige and luxury.
Rarer still is the opportunity to drive one off-road, and to have the Rolls in question be bright orange. Such an opportunity presented itself this spring, and who could refuse such an offer?
Now, in case you had visions of a Phantom sedan getting itself high-centred on the first log obstacle, this Rolls was the Cullinan SUV, a vehicle one might imagine it pained the high-brow purveyor of prestige mobility to introduce, all in the name of keeping up with all the other prestige brands who launched SUVs to sell in North America. I think only Ferrari amongst the “mainstream” prestige exotics has not yet succumbed to the temptation.
So, the nearly half-million-dollar SUV at least had some ground clearance and all-wheel drive, so that was a good start. But wait, how about that colour? I think to most people, orange is not a colour one associates with Rolls-Royce, at least not in civilized society. But this particular Rolls would be right at home on the mean streets of L.A. or Miami, where jaded people who think they have seen it all suddenly discover they haven’t.
There can be little doubt about the Cullinan’s suitability as a soft-roader, the vehicle to drive up to the mansion out in the country, effortlessly handling gravel and snow, and doing it with great pace, if not efficiency, thanks to its 6.75-litre twin-turbo V12 with a perhaps underrated 563 horsepower, with no electric motors to do some of the work. The torque output is a monstrous 626 lb-ft at only 1,600 rpm, put through an 8-speed automatic, so the launch from stop is immediate and impressive, for a 2,660-kg vehicle. That down-low grunt would surely be a benefit off-road.
The rest of the hardware between the engine and the road is perhaps not so off-road oriented, on the face of it. The four-wheel independent double-wishbone air suspension is silky smooth, and the full-time all-wheel drive system and 21-inch summer performance tires combined with it to make for a very controlled, almost nimble feel in tight transitions on tarmac.
But enough about smooth, hard surfaces. How does the Roller do in the soft and rough stuff? Was the Cullinan able to deliver the famed R-R “Magic Carpet Ride” in rough terrain, the stated objective of the company? Obviously, the tires on the one we drove were not the hot set-up for traction in mud and gravel, but we figured we’d still be able to have a little fun in Le Grand Orange.
The first thing the driver does is push the aptly-named “Off-Road” button on the console, which transforms the chassis, adapting to one of five drive modes – snow, mud, sand, gravel and rutted track. The R-R customer is known to not want to have to make all sorts of adjustments to drive his or (increasingly) her car, so the one-button approach is by design. The air suspension raises the body by 44 mm, and will actually push down harder on any wheel that is losing traction, to cite just one example of how technology has been designed in to the Cullinan that allows it to perform effortlessly in any condition.
On mostly flat surfaces covered in dirt, gravel and mud (and we presume snow as well), the big Roller had no apparent difficulty, given the limitations of the tires. But we were more interested in how it would do when confronted by obstacles that would be more of a test of suspension than tires.
Over a large log obstacle the Cullinan clamoured, needing all of that additional ground clearance afforded by the air suspension. No problem with approach or departure angles, either.
Next was a slippery, muddy side-angle corner around another log obstacle, which was again no problem given the sane speeds we were observing. But the last exercise would be perhaps the biggest challenge.
That would be the articulation exercise designed to see a vehicle always have fewer than four wheels on terra firma. The Cullinan did spin its elevated rear wheel a little bit, as the other three searched for traction in very slippery mud, so maybe a locking rear differential would have helped here, but it was no big issue, and the big Rolls showed off how capable it really is.
The Cullinan certainly brings the storied Rolls-Royce marque into the all-terrain realm, with capability and panache. We aren’t so convinced that bright orange is a colour that every owner would still appreciate over the expected long life of this Rolls-Royce, but to each his own.
Luxury – everywhere. That, in a nutshell, was Rolls-Royce’s objective with the Cullinan, and mission accomplished.
