2024 Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II review: Polishing Rolls’ jewel
The Cullinan Series II is a gently refined edition of the car that changed Rolls forever
OF ALL the things Rolls-Royce retained for the Cullinan Series II, I’m gladdest for the creamy 6.75-litre V12. It fills the soul with joy when you tread on the accelerator and the most pleasing susurration gently tickles your ears, while the hulking car responds with jaunty aplomb.
It is the epitome of soft power, uniquely capable of making 2.7 tonnes of Rolls-Royce feel light on its feet.
I’m certain the V12 was carried over because no one found it wanting. Cullinan customers know whom to go to if they have an unmet desire, after all; when the storied brand got a new chief executive last year, many thought to send the new boy, Chris Brownridge, personal messages along the lines of, “Welcome to Rolls-Royce.”
The Brownridge era kicks off in earnest with the Cullinan Series II, the follow-up to a car often lauded as the world’s most luxurious sport utility vehicle (SUV), alongside the sportier, youth-targeting Black Badge edition of the same. It’s too early to say how much they will cost here, but expect to part with at least S$2 million when they land at year’s end, by my estimation.
The gang at Goodwood, the brand’s home in England’s south, elected to update the Cullinan with a light touch overall, and it’s not hard to see why. Half a dozen years ago, there was no such creature as an off-road ready Rolls. Now the Cullinan is the brand’s best-selling (or, as the firm likes to put it, “most requested”) model. Indeed, it never went stale, recording its strongest sales last year.
Befitting a car named after the biggest diamond ever discovered, the Cullinan is now more in-your-face than ever. The front end has new daytime running lights that emphasise its vertical, sheer-sided form. The pantheon grille, that most irresistible of motoring icons, lines up more coherently with the headlights now, and casts light itself for the first time; at night, it’s lit up like a temple’s facade.
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The Series II’s bumper has air intakes that create a shallow V shape, evoking a yacht sitting on the water.
More brightwork dresses the rear, in the form of a new protective plate for the bumper and larger ornaments for the exhaust gases to pass through. On the standard Cullinan these are polished stainless steel (not chrome, and certainly not plastic), but on the Black Badge they have a sultry, smoky finish.
Rolls likes to say that Black Badge represents the “dark alter ego” of its cars, so the label sees them eschew shiny chrome for inkiness, with interiors trimmed in more modern materials such as carbon fibre.
The Black Badge Cullinan even feels different to drive. The steering is ever so slightly weightier, the gear changes are that bit more urgent and the suspension, noticeably firmer. Crucially, it still feels like a Rolls, dealing with whatever comes your way with a sort of effortless calm.
And for a car its size, the Cullinan is, like all Rolls-Royces, surprisingly delicate to drive. From the driver’s seat I could see all the way to Timbuktu, and the four-wheel steering system helped it glide around tight corners with grace.
That user-friendliness is why nine out of 10 Cullinan owners actually drive it themselves, and often every day, completely inverting the classic image of a Rolls-Royce as a car operated by the chauffeur while the tycoon does tycoon things in the back.
In fact, along with subversive ideas such as Black Badge, the Cullinan has so broadened Rolls-Royce’s appeal that the average customer age is now just 43 – 13 years younger than in 2010.
Yet, some things are immutable about Rolls, such as the brand’s ability to weave a good story. The Cullinan Series II has a new fabric option called Duality Twill, and in typically exquisite fashion its embroidered pattern is fiendishly complex, involving 2.2 million stitches and 17 kilometres of thread. But the kicker is that the main fabric comes from bamboo because Goodwood’s designers took a research trip to the French Riviera, and apparently came across the same lush bamboo grove that Sir Henry Royce would have seen from his holiday villa there.
Then there’s the new leather option that uses 107,000 precise perforations, every single one examined by a worker, to create a pattern inspired by the clouds over Goodwood.
Rolls tends to invoke its illustrious co-founder, its historic home and its broader heritage this way not merely because it can, but because no one else can. The Cullinan may have altered the notion of what a Rolls-Royce should be, but its success is still down to what Rolls-Royce has always been.
Rolls-Royce Black Badge Cullinan Series II Engine 6,749 cc, 48-valve, turbocharged V12 Power 600 hp at 5,000 rpm Torque 900 Nm at 1,700 rpm Gearbox Eight-speed automatic 0-100 kmh 5.2 seconds Top speed 250 kmh (limited) Fuel efficiency 16.6 L/100 km Agent Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Singapore Price On application Available End of 2024
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