British luxury carmaker Rolls-Royce has lastly found a name for its ‘all-terrain, high-sided vehicle’. During the development, the automaker had called its SUV programme Project Cullinan and surprisingly, the management has now decided to keep the name for the production version as well.
Rolls-Royce claims that the name Cullinan is the most appropriate name for their extraordinary new product. The name comes from diamond Cullinan, which was the largest flawless diamond found in January 1905. The diamond was named after Thomas Cullinan, the mine’s chairman.
The new SUV has been tested by the Rolls Royce team under camouflage in various terrains in the past three years. The terrains include deserts of Africa and the Middle East, snow of the Arctic Circle, grass fields of the Scottish countryside and canyons of North America. It also suggests that Rolls-Royce wants to unveil an impeccable vehicle as it goes up against the big names in the super-luxury SUV space.
The automaker had kept a tradition of keeping all the information on new cars under wraps until it is introduced. However, this time the company has already divulged some information on Cullinan.
It is considered to be the first model with four-wheel drive in Rolls-Royce history. Cullinan will come with the all-new aluminium architecture, dubbed as Architecture of Luxury. It’s worth pointing out that the recently launched Rolls-Royce Phantom VIII also is of the same architecture.
The teaser images of the Cullinan SUV indicates that it will maintain the boxy design, a distinctive and signature design of all Rolls-Royce models barring Wraith. Cullinan will feature SUV traits such as raised ground clearance and better approach, break over and departure angles. An advanced version of Phantom’s 6.8-litre V12 engine is expected to power the new SUV.