The Rolls-Royce Cullinan is the pinnacle of a full-sized luxury SUV. Even it’s name is derived from the Cullinan Diamond, the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever discovered.
Revealed in 2018, the front grille and the headlamps, which make up the majority of the Cullinan’s exterior design, took inspiration from the cutting-edge 8th-generation Rolls-Royce Phantom. New design leather-applied seats and wood features can be found inside. The vehicle also boasts brand-new leather “cocktail suit” camping seats that can be opened from the trunk, a first for its kind. And the Cullinan is the only Rolls-Royce that has a glass wall separating the passenger area from the cargo area.
The L5, China’s most expensive domestic vehicle, made its grand appearance at the Shanghai Auto Show with the latest version of Hongqi’s flagship sedan. Just like its predecessor, it follows the classic shape and lines. The outcome of it looks like a 1940s lowrider and a 2020s Rolls-Royce had a baby.
On that note, it is heavily influenced by the Brit-built Rolls and is said to be more imposing and expensive. Well, if you’re a Chinese billionaire, price should not be an issue.
For many decades, when writing about Rolls-Royce cars, motoring journalists would mention Crewe, the location in England where they were made since 1946. However, Crewe’s association with Rolls-Royce would cease (and become associated with Bentley) after 2002 when the BMW Group acquired full ownership of all elements of the Rolls-Royce brand in 2003.
This development meant that BMW had to provide Rolls-Royce with a new home, certainly in England, and a brand new factory was built at Goodwood in Sussex with an initial investment of £65 million. The site was meaningful as it was just about 15 kms from where the company’s co-founder, Sir Henry Royce, lived and worked for the last 16 years of his long and illustrious life.
In 2007, the total sales of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars passed 1,000 units, and within 15 years, the annual volume would steadily grow to reach 6,021 units in 2022. This is the first time in the company’s 118-year history that its sales have exceeded 6,000 in a single 12-month period. The value of Bespoke commissions also reached record levels, while demand for all Rolls Royce models was exceptionally strong, with advance orders secured far into 2023.
The impressive growth – 8% over the 2021 volume – was achieved by sales in almost all regions. The Americas was the largest single region for Rolls-Royce, while Greater China took the second largest number of vehicles. The Asia-Pacific region also achieved higher sales than ever before.
In 1900, Rolls-Royce co-founder, Charles Rolls, experienced an electrically-powered car. Even back then, there were cars that were running on electricity but the technology then made them impractical and inconvenient. Nevertheless, Rolls understood the potential of such cars as clean, noiseless transport and foresaw a time when they would be popular again – with the appropriate supporting infrastructure (ie charging stations).
Today, more than 120 years later, that time has come and Rolls-Royce fulfils the prophecy of its founding father with the presentation of the Spectre. This totally new model not only marks a very historic moment for Rolls-Royce but is also a historic moment for electrification: the technology has now reached a standard where it is able to provide the Rolls-Royce experience.
“The advent of our first battery-electric motor car marks the start of a bold new era for Rolls-Royce. It is also the culmination of a long, painstaking process, in which every element in creating this landmark car has been considered in the minutest detail, over numerous iterations. It states the direction for the future of our marque and perfectly answers a call from the most discerning individuals in the world to elevate the electric motor car experience, because Spectre is a Rolls-Royce first and an electric car second,” said Torsten Muller-Otvos, CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, as he unveiled the car today.
Rolls-Royce, like other carmakers, is on an electrification journey as social demands are growing for cars to be environment-friendly. Presumably, its customers also expect that if the Rolls-Royce goes electric, it will do so without losing any of the superlative attributes that keep it at the topmost end of the car market. That’s the challenge for Rolls-Royce and it may seem like the company would need time to get a perfect electrically-powered limousine into production that Is worthy of having the Spirit of Ecstasy on the bonnet.
Experience with electric power But electric power Is not new to the company as Charles Rolls, one of the founders, personally experienced electric cars in 1900. He was impressed enough to say this: “The electric car is perfectly noiseless and clean. There is no smell or vibration. They should become very useful when fixed charging stations can be arranged.”
Of course, In the years that followed, Rolls-Royce gave attention to the internal combustion engine instead, since that was the way the industry was going. But with its technological resources, it could still develop an electric car and did so in 2011 with a fully electric Experimental Phantom concept named 102EX (which was followed by 103EX). But in 2011, the urgency was not there to fully commit to electric power, so the company did not go further.
Now that there is a commitment to be fully electric by 2030, the company is drawing on past experience and also the latest technologies. Thus it was able to have running prototype by September last year for real-world testing. To ensure that the new car, to be called Spectre, is a true Rolls-Royce, it will undergo the most demanding testing programme ever conceived by the marque. No less than 2.5 million kms will be covered by prototypes, simulating on average more than 400 years of use for a Rolls-Royce.
New phase in testing Earlier this year, in Sweden, the Spectre prototype received the first ‘lessons’ in a finishing school that is custom designed to teach the car how to behave and react like a Rolls-Royce. Over the past months, the marque’s test and development engineers have shifted their focus from extreme conditions to more formal scrutiny in a location that reflects the car’s everyday use: the French Riviera.
The French Riviera and its roads present a perfect combination of the types of conditions that will be demanded from future owners of the Spectre, ranging from technical coastal corniches to faster inland carriageways. Forming a crucial part of the global testing programme, a total of 625,000 kms will be covered.
This phase is split into two parts, beginning at the historic Autodrome de Miramas proving ground (a circuit that once hosted the 1926 Grand Prix) which is a state-of-the-art test and development facility. The engineers will be able to do their testing in privacy as there are more than 60 kms of closed routes and 20 test track environments over its 1,198-acre site.
These include irrigation units that create standing water, demanding handling circuits with tight corners and adverse cambers, as well as a heavily banked 5-km 3-lane high-speed bowl, enabling the Spectre to be tested at continuous high speeds.
Driving in real-life conditions The second phase of testing moves around the countryside surrounding the Autodrome de Miramas. Many Rolls-Royce owners drive around this region, therefore a significant 55% of testing here has taken place on the very roads that many production Spectres will be driven on following first customer deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2023.
This provision for testing under local, real-life conditions is repeated in key markets around the world, as Rolls-Royce will make sure that its products meet – and usually exceed – the expectations of its highly discerning customer group.
Unlike any other Rolls-Royce The Spectre is unlike any Rolls-Royce before it. This is not only because of its fully electric powertrain, but also its unprecedented computing power and application of advanced data-processing technologies. It will be the most connected Rolls-Royce ever, with each of its components more intelligent than in any previous Rolls-Royce.
Yet developing the Spectre is not an exercise in computer science alone. The car requires a response to hundreds of thousands of possible scenarios and therefore it needs the most skilled and experienced specialists to define and finesse an appropriate mechanical reaction. Over the course of the Riviera Testing Programme, the marque’s most experienced engineers are painstakingly creating a dedicated control for each of Spectre’s 25,000-plus functions, incorporating variations of response depending on factors including weather, driver behaviour, vehicle status and road conditions.
‘Magic carpet ride’ in high definition Following months of continual testing, a new suspension technology has been approved that will give the Spectre Rolls-Royce’s hallmark ‘magic carpet ride’. This technology is now being refined and perfected at Miramas and on the roads of the French Riviera.
The Spectre will have an all-aluminium spaceframe architecture – only used by Rolls-Royce – which has enabled the designers to create a new class of Rolls-Royce – the Electric Super Coupe. To achieve the most rigid body in the marque’s history, the aluminium architecture is reinforced with steel sections that provide exceptional torsional rigidity. This is combined with aluminium body sections that represent the largest of any Rolls-Royce yet.
New aerodynamic standard In announcing the redesigned Spirit of Ecstasy mascot that will sit proudly at the prow of Spectre, Rolls-Royce aerodynamicists predicted that the new car would have a drag coefficient just 0.26 Cd, making it the most aerodynamic Rolls-Royce ever created. Following rigorous wind tunnel testing, digital modelling and continuous high-speed testing in Miramas, this figure has been further reduced to 0.25. This does not just represent a record in the context of Rolls-Royce, but is unprecedented in the luxury sector.
“It is no exaggeration to state that Spectre is the most anticipated Rolls-Royce ever. Free from the restrictions connected to the internal combustion engine, our battery-electric vehicle will offer the purest expression of the Rolls-Royce experience in the marque’s 118-year history. This latest testing phase proves a suite of advanced technologies that underpin a symbolic shift for Rolls-Royce as it progresses towards a bright, bold, all-electric future. This will secure the ongoing relevance of our brand for generations to come,” said Torsten Muller-Otvos, CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.
The Bespoke department of Rolls-Royce already offers the ultimate in personalisation of the brand’s limousines and Cullinan SUV. Virtually every customer today uses the services of the Bespoke team in some way to add or create something special for their Rolls-Royce. But there is yet another level beyond Bespoke and that is Coachbuild. The department, re-established in 2021, brings back a lost art and science of making cars which goes back to the earliest years of the motorcar, before mass production began in factories.
“Our Coachbuild department is for those patrons who wish to go beyond the existing restraints, and explore the almost limitless possibilities this opens up for them. We are able to offer our customers the opportunity to create a motor car in which every single element is hand-built to their precise individual requirements, as befits our status as a true luxury house,” said Torsten Muller-Otvos, CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.
The Sweptail, presented in 2017 as a demonstration of the coachbuilding expertise of Rolls-Royce attracted the attention of a number of customers. Within this group, it emerged that three potential customers shared a deep appreciation of contemporary nautical design. In consultation with the customers concerned, an agreement was reached whereby three cars – to be known as Boat Tail – would share a common body, but each would then be individually, highly personalised, reflecting the confluence between vision, capability and ambition of the marque and each of the individual commissioning patrons.
The first Rolls-Royce Boat Tail was completed a year ago and the commissioning customers, who are a globally successful couple, were willing to let the world see their ultra-exclusive car. Their fascination of the Boat Tail form was furthered by a car in their private collection – a 1932 Rolls-Royce Boat Tail, lovingly restored by them, in time for their modern Boat Tail’s completion.
Now comes the next chapter of its Boat Tail coachbuilt commission and as will be the case with all three cars, each will have a story entirely unique and personal to its owner, reflecting their own history, tastes and sensibilities. With this in mind, the latest Boat Tail, to be revealed at Concorso d’Eleganza, Villa d’Este 2022 on the shores of Lake Como in northern Italy, is a masterwork of restraint, sophistication, elegance and attention to detail.
It was commissioned by a customer whose family business has grown from his father’s origins in the pearling industry. Widely travelled, internationally educated and cosmopolitan in his tastes and influences, the customer is an established patron of the arts, who additionally owns a sizeable collection of classic and modern cars, housed in a dedicated private museum.
A level of sophistication, garnered from the client’s extensive knowledge of luxury, is clearly. The overall design aesthetic is restrained; a study in carefully considered materials and precise details that together create a highly personal and emotionally resonant homage to the customer’s father.
At the onset of the commissioning process, the customer presented Rolls-Royce Coachbuild designers with a selection of 4 pearl shells, personally chosen from his private collection for their unique colour and complexity. The shells provided inspiration for the exterior colour, which is one of the most complex Bespoke finishes ever created by Rolls-Royce.
The foundation of the colour is a shimmering blend of oyster and soft rose, with large white and bronze mica flakes adding a unique pearlescent quality that changes subtly under different light conditions. The contrasting cognac-coloured bonnet, created specifically for this Boat Tail, contains fine bronze and gold coloured aluminium mica flakes complete with a layer of crystal and iced matt clear coat, adding significant warmth and depth to the car’s appearance. The technical fibre lower sills of Boat Tail incorporate a rose gold woven thread.
The rear deck, which houses Boat Tail’s unique ‘butterfly-design’ hosting suite, is swathed in Royal Walnut veneer, inlaid with rose gold-plated pinstripes with a satin-brushed finish to ensure a sensitive and sophisticated appearance. The Royal Walnut was specifically selected by the customer for its beautiful properties as it matures over time, a material that will gradually transition to the tonal properties of the cognac colour. From above, one observes a harmonious balance and satin effect of the iced bonnet and tactile wooden rear deck, in contrast with the high-gloss front and side perspectives.
The interior is a beautifully curated combination of perfectly matched cognac and oyster-coloured leathers and Royal Walnut veneer, with rose gold and mother-of-pearl accents throughout. The leathers, complete with a pearlescent finish, accentuate the surfaces and forms of Boat Tail’s seats and interior design. The transmission tunnel is formed from Royal Walnut veneer with rose gold pinstripes, drawing a direct visual reference to the rear deck and adding a glowing warmth to Boat Tail’s interior.
The centrepiece of the dashboard is a timepiece made from mother-of-pearl, chosen and supplied by the client from his own collection. The fascia is pure and minimal in its appearance so as not to detract from the precious material. The same prised substance graces the control switches and instrument dials, creating a strong visual and material connection between the car, the owner, and his family heritage.
The Boat Tail is entirely hand-built, with the body panels fashioned from vast, single sheets of aluminium to create the distinctive outline inspired by the racing yachts of the early 20th century. From the front, the Pantheon Grille, milled from a single, solid billet of aluminium, is graced with a Spirit of Ecstasy fashioned in rose gold.
With the Architecture of Luxury – which includes a proprietary all-aluminium spaceframe chassis – the marque has ushered in a new coachbuilding movement that encompasses both highly sophisticated 21st Century technology and materials, and a tradition extending back more than 100 years.
During the time a car model is on sale, it will often receive upgrades or updates to keep it ‘fresh’. These typically include cosmetic changes that may be significant or subtle and they are referred to as ‘facelifts’. Rolls-Royce, being at the pinnacle of the car market, doesn’t use such a term. Instead, it refers to such changes as ‘a new expression’, which it announces today for the Phantom Series II.
Customer requests and feedback
The model, now in its fifth year, has received visual and aesthetic enhancements in line with customer requests and feedback that guided the designers and engineers. Not surprisingly, the customers ‘implored Rolls-Royce not to make any major changes to an already iconic motorcar’, the company reveals.
Thus the alterations made have only the lightest of design touches, embellishments, and adaptations. In this case, it is not about what should be changed but, in fact, what should be preserved and protected.
“The subtle changes we have made for the new Phantom Series II have all been minutely considered and meticulously executed. As Sir Henry Royce himself said: ‘Small things make perfection, but perfection is no small thing’,” said Torsten Muller-Otvos, CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.
The subtle changes
The most obvious and important feature to be retained is the limousine’s commanding presence. This has been further enhanced by a new polished horizontal line between the daytime running lights above the Pantheon Grille. This provides a new and assertive modernity, reflecting its driver-focused character.
A subtle geometric change to the Pantheon Grille makes the ‘RR’ Badge of Honour and Spirit of Ecstasy mascot more prominent when viewed from the front. The grille itself is now illuminated, a feature debuted and popularised in Ghost. The headlights are graced with intricate laser-cut bezel starlights, creating a visual connection with the Starlight Headliner inside, and adding further ‘surprise and delight’ to the Phantom’s night-time presence.
The silhouette viewed from the side preserves the elegant key lines running from the Spirit of Ecstasy to the tapering rear tail. The ‘split-belt’ line begins at the front fender and curves gently towards the rear door, emphasising the car’s long dash-to-axle proportions, before falling gently towards the lantern-like rear lamps. The heavily undercut ‘waft line’ creates a strong shadow, visually signalling the marque’s unequalled ‘Magic Carpet Ride’.
The side profile is further enhanced with a suite of new wheels. A 3D, milled, stainless steel wheel with triangular facets is available to commission in a fully or part-polished finish. Alternatively, a customer may choose a disc wheel with an elegant design recalling the romance of 1920s Rolls-Royce models. This wheel is produced in both polished stainless steel and black lacquer.
Responding to Phantom customers who have previously requested a darkened chrome grille surround, black bonnet reins, windscreen surround and side frame finishers, these may now be commissioned as well. This aesthetic now enables Rolls-Royce to transform Phantom into the lightest of light – or the darkest of dark appearances.
The ‘base’ interior has been virtually unchanged and only very sharp-eyed observers will see that the steering wheel has been made slightly thicker. This is to provide a more connected and immediate point of contact for the owner-driver.
A new ‘Rolls-Royce Connected’ feature seamlessly links the Phantom with the marque’s private members’ Application known as ‘Whispers’. This enables the owner to send an address directly to the car from Whispers, providing seamless navigation to an event, restaurant, dealership or even the Rolls-Royce headquarters where the car was born.
Phantom Platino
To mark the introduction of Phantom Series II with the new expression, and to illustrate Rolls-Royce’s Bespoke capability, a new Bespoke masterpiece has been created. This is the Phantom Platino, named after the silver-white finish of the coveted and precious metal, platinum.
The Phantom Platino continues Rolls-Royce’s exploration into fabric interiors, a story which began in 2015 with the launch of the Serenity, a truly Bespoke Phantom with a hand-painted, hand-embroidered silk interior. Now, the Phantom Platino introduces materials other than leather, an area of exploration for Rolls-Royce and a move that demonstrates a greater acceptance of alternative interior upholsteries.
In a unique design created especially for the Phantom Platino, the ‘stars’ of the Starlight Headliner overhead are placed to draw the eye rearwards, with whimsical shooting stars following the sweeping arc of the pattern.
“With Phantom Series II, we have retained and carefully protected everything our clients love about this superlative and luxurious item; subtle, yet meaningful enhancements reflect their evolving tastes and requirements. Phantom has always been viewed as the ‘best car in the world’: our Bespoke capabilities mean that, for our clients, it can be the best car for their world, too,” said Mr. Muller-Otvos.
The world’s first automobile, built by Karl Benz, was able to travel at a maximum speed of 16 km/h. That would certainly have been very fast in 1886 when he first drove it along rough tracks in Mannheim, Germany. But before long, the challenge of building ‘the fastest car’ was taken up by many and Land Speed Records began to be listed.
The first person on the list was Frenchman Count Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat who took an electrically-powered Jeantaud Duc to a speed of 63.13 km/h. As an indication of how fast technological advances were taking place, just one month later, Belgian Camille Jenatzy reached 66 km/h in a GCA Dogcart. No, it was not powered by dogs but by electricity as well, like the car it beat.
By 1909, the fastest speed achieved was around 200km/h, a speed so fast that there were people who believed it would be impossible to survive because you’d simply not to be able to breathe! The challenge of going faster and faster did not diminish and in the 1920s, the British asserted dominance.
Among those who pushed cars to the limits was a mechanical engineer by the name of George Eyston. In the late 1920s, he was seriously engaged in developing and running cars that broke records. His car, called the Thunderbolt, established 3 new land speed records between 1937 and 1939. The records were set on the wide expanse of the Bonnevile Salt Flats in the American state of Utah where such events have been held for decades.
His projectile-shaped machine had 3 axles, 8 wheels and weighed 7 tonnes (and that was even with the body being made from aluminium). The Thunderbolt was powered by a pair of Rolls-Royce R supercharged 37-litre, V-12 aero engines, each producing well over 2,000 horsepower. Less than 20 of these engines were ever made; so rare were they that the Thunderbolt’s engines had actually been used earlier in the Schneider Trophy-winning Supermarine S6.B seaplane that would lay the foundations for the legendary Spitfire fighter aircraft of World War II.
Inspiration for the Landspeed Collection
The story of Eyston’s dauntless, fearless, pioneering spirit and his Thunderbolt served as inspiration for the Rolls-Royce Land Speed Collection, a series specially designed and built by the company’s Bespoke division. The two cars are Black Badge versions of the Wraith and Dawn and of the 35 units of the Wraith available, one was acquired by a customer in Malaysia.
The Wraith Landspeed is presented in a specially created two-tone finish which marries Black Diamond Metallic with a new Bespoke colour, Bonneville Blue. This specially developed hue bears particular significance to the Collection, with a colour that transitions under sunlight from light blue to silver, illustrating the reflections of both the vast sky over Bonneville and the crisp salt flats on the Thunderbolt’s aluminium body.
However, Anas Zawawi Khalid, Director, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Kuala Lumpur, suggested a change in the colour scheme which the customer agreed to. Instead of the light coloured flanks and dark bonnet, there is a reversal of the colours with Bonneville Blue on the bonnet instead. To add to the unique difference, the grille is also in chrome instead of black, which is the usual colour for Black Badge versions.
To associate the Wraith with the Thunderbolt, the Bespoke team of skilled craftsmen and craftswomen read everything they could about the record-breaking events that took place on the desert-like salt flats in the 1930s. In particular, they learnt about how, while rocketing over the ground, Eyston had to hold the car on a very precise course – to deviate even slightly would be disastrous at the extreme speeds. To help him guide the car, his team painted darkened track lines on the salt surface for Eyston to follow – effectively his sole means of keeping the Thunderbolt straight at over 560 km/h.
This simple yet ingenious idea is recalled in the Wraith by perforated line in the upper-centre of the steering wheel, which continues through the centreline of the driver’s seat and can also be seen on the rear right seat. It is subtle and is only evident when the left seats are compared to the right ones.
A cracking dashboard?
Then there’s the fascia to the right of the classic analogue clock. At a glance, it seems like the surface is cracking… which would be shocking to see on a Rolls-Royce! But it is not actually a defect in the material: the ‘cracks’ are reproductions of those on the surface of the dry and dusty salt flats. The tiny fissures form a distinctive texture that was digitally retraced from the surface itself, onto the wooden veneer of the fascia (and console lids as well).
Records commemorated for all time
The interior references continue with the Thunderbolt’s unique silhouette, and the records it achieved, depicted on the polished, anodized aluminium surface of the Landspeed Collection’s front tunnel.
According to the record books, Eyston’s third and final land-speed record of 575.57 km/h stood for 341 days. In the Landspeed Collection Cars, it is commemorated for all time, engraved into the housing of the clock alongside the name ‘Bonneville’, in homage to where the record was set. Based on the instrument dials from the Thunderbolt, with yellow and black details, the black-tipped hands of the clock are inspired by the arrows painted on the original car’s exterior.
Recreating the night sky
The Bonneville Salt Flats are so vast, open – and with no artificial light – that they are an ideal place to look at the stars in the exceptionally dark night skies. In the Wraith Landspeed, the Starlight Headliner on the ceiling perfectly recreates the skies as they appeared over the Flats on September 16, 1938, the date on which Eyston and his Thunderbolt set their record. The constellations are precisely marked using 2,117 individually placed fibreoptic ‘stars’, the largest number of stars in a Rolls-Royce Wraith Starlight Headliner ever featured.
Paying tribute to the man himself, Eyston’s military honours are marked with a subtle detail in the driver’s door, made in the same Grosgrain weave silk and colours to match the original medal ribbons. The armrests on both the passenger side and below the ribbon detail are specially padded to give them the comfortable ‘club armchair’ quality that Eyston favoured in his driving seats, much to the amusement of his fellow racers.
The Thunderbolt was originally left unpainted, which caused an unexpected problem. During the first record attempts, the photo-electric timing equipment was unable to detect the polished aluminium body against the searing white of the Salt Flats’ surface, making accurate timing impossible. Eyston’s brilliantly simple solution was to paint a large black arrow with a yellow circle on the side, to heighten visibility when travelling at great speed. Hence, the yellow inserts around the inlets on either side below the front bumper.
“As with many of the cars I bring to Malaysia, I try to make them unique. Not only do we have some of the most discerning customers here who appreciate true luxury, I also believe in the mantra: “Rolls-Royce is Bespoke, Bespoke is Rolls-Royce.” The Wraith Landspeed is Bespoke Luxury of the finest order, craftsmanship and an unwavering dedication to achieving the very highest levels of excellence,” declared Encik Anas Zawawi Khalid.
The Cullinan SUV by Rolls-Royce costs upwards of RM1.8 million and for most owners, it would probably be part of a fleet, perhaps used for occasions when some rough conditions are expected. There might be some owners who will want to make use of all the off-road capability that Rolls-Royce engineers have given it and travel far off-road.
One such customer in the Arabian Peninsular seems to have such an intent and got Delta 4×4, a German tuning company, to ruggedize his Cullinan and also add some accessories for camping in comfort (probably in the desert). In total, the project would have cost the owner at least 150,000 euros (about RM690,000).
It’s the sort of assignment that Delta 4×4 has expertise in and apart from installing its own line of accessories like a brush bar, spotlights (10 PIAA units in total), skid plates, and a snorkel, it also incorporated a roof rack with a rooftop tent.
To enable it to cross rougher terrain, Delta4x4 added wider fenders over the custom bead-lock 20-inch wheels and Mickey Thompson off-road tyres. Ground clearance is extended with a 3.15-inch lift kit to add 150 mm more than a standard Cullinan.
The 6.75-litre twin-turbo V-12 engine under the long bonnet has plenty of power – 563 bhp with 850 Nm of torque – so no upgrading would be necessary. The exhaust system, however, is customised ‘for a nicer sound’ and improved performance. Likewise with the 8-speed automatic transmission and all-wheel drive which are also unchanged from the standard model the customer purchased originally.
While this is a one-off conversion for the Cullinan, Delta 4×4 can apply the same expertise for other models and it has done so with vehicles like the Mercedes-Benz G-Class and X-Class, Ford Ranger, Volkswagen Amaro, Mitsubishi Triton and even a Porsche 911 Carrera 4S.