Rolls-Royce
I’ve no idea exactly who the master designers at Rolls-Royce had in mind as their potential market when they dreamed up the Cullinan, but I’d be very surprised if the car-crazy, affluent drivers of the Arabian Gulf were not a core target group.
The car – the first foray into the SUV market by the elite motor manufacturer – ticks just about every box for the wealthy Dubai driver.
It can wow them when you pull up at a five-star hotel, attract stares and Instagrammers driving down Beach Road, and blow them away in the desert on some luxury dune-bashing.
The Cullinan looks as good at the top of Jebel Hafeet as it does at the valet drop-off in swanky Gate Village on a Friday night.
It was launched in 2018 in response to demand for the ultimate SUV, after other elite manufacturers had tested the luxury sports utility market. But a new Rolls-Royce model is always a big global event, especially in the Middle East, which has had a long love-affair with the cars.
I was fortunate to test drive the Cullinan Series 2 2024 upgrade recently, and can attest that the car is every bit as good as you’d expect from a price tag of around $500,000, including standard features like a cut-crystal drinks decanter in the rear passenger cabinet.
If you go bespoke, which most Cullinan owners do, the sky is the limit, price wise. Hand-painted interior Quranic calligraphy? Built-in cigar humidor? Yours, at a price.
The new car differs from the launch version in subtle but meaningful ways: larger 23 inch wheels, a new front grille and lights arrangement that makes it look even more powerful; and – nice touch – an analogue clock on the hi-tech dashboard featuring the famous Spirit of Ecstasy symbol.
When other manufacturers are going crazy over touch-sensitive panels and flatscreens, it is reassuring to be able to adjust your 18-speaker in-car audio system via a chrome and walnut knob. In a Rolls-Royce, the driver’s controls are a nostalgic reminder of a more refined, classy age.
But the Cullinan2 – a mixture of classic British design and German “teknik” – is jam packed with technology. A weekend was not long enough to learn all the car could do, but I especially liked the AC controls, independently programmable for each passenger, and the push button essential to open and close the huge doors.
The rear seats are what you would expect in a first class airline cabin but with ankle-deep carpeting, and in the back, at the touch of a switch, a picnic table and chairs extend outwards – what Cullinan calls its “viewing suite” – to allow you to quaff the bubbly at the sunset end of your desert safari.
On the road, the Cullinan2 is simply a joy to drive. There is, of course, the famous Rolls-Royce “magic carpet ride” that wafts you along effortlessly on self-levelling air suspension and digitally-psychic shock absorbers, with feather-light power steering.
Because the car is so big – nearly 5.5m long and weighing the best part of three tons – you get the sense that you dominate the freeway, and expect other vehicles to get out of the way – a regrettable but infectious trait of Rolls-Royce drivers.
I found myself muttering angrily at other drivers, in perfectly decent Land Cruisers or Patrols, for having the audacity to overtake me. How dare they!
For the petro-nerds, the Cullian2’s V12, 6.7 litre engine delivers 563 bhp to get you from standing to 100kph in 5.2 seconds, with a maximum speed of 250 kph. Not as fast as a Ferrari, but a Rolls owner would rather be seen in a Bentley than revving up at a red light for a boy-racer start.
With all that going for it, it’s no surprise that the Cullinan has been a smash hit among the Gulf’s well-heeled drivers. In Dubai, in particular, it has been in big demand, oozing bling, class and ostentation in just the right measures.
Last year, Dubai overtook Shanghai, London and Los Angeles as the biggest selling global centre for Rolls-Royce, and – while the numbers are not broken down into individual models – you can be sure the Cullinan was a big factor in that surge.
I can only echo the reviewer who concluded: “Dubai’s Cullinans are more than just cars. They’re ridiculous, they’re excessive, they’re everything that’s wrong with the world – and I absolutely love them.”
Frank Kane is Editor-at-Large of AGBI and an award-winning business journalist. He acts as a consultant to the Ministry of Energy of Saudi Arabia
