So the suggestion is it’s not going to be afraid to get up to its axles in mud. There is adjustable ride height and hill descent control, but there are no low-range gears or locking diffs. Just one button, dubbed by the engineers as the “Everywhere” button, marshals all the control systems to effect the best progress over whatever the terrain happens to be. Including water. With a wading depth of 540mm Rolls says it is the best swimmer of any of the super-luxury SUV breed (but just to keep things in perspective here, a Range Rover SVA has a wading depth of 900mm).
One very Rolls feature is the coach doors which wrap a little way under the car. The reason? So you don’t get covered in muck when getting in or out. Rolls-Royce puts it rather more elegantly: “Although the Cullinan will have traversed terrain that will have besmirched its exterior with mud, slush or dust, no trouser leg will be dirtied on exit.” That’s a relief then.
In all other ways, the Cullinan offers the expected heady cocktail of unmistakable Rolls-Royce design cues, finely-crafted interior, and engineering excellence. True, seeing the familiar Pantheon grille juxtaposed to a protective skid plate is a novelty, but there could never be any mistaking what this car is; design chief Taylor says it has the commanding stance and toughness of a Saxon warrior.
The Cullinan is also big: higher but shorter than the new Phantom with which it shares its bespoke all-aluminium spaceframe construction. There’s no shared platform here. The Cullinan is 140mm longer than the longest Range Rover and at full height is 1836mm tall on its 22-inch wheels. For its size and all its luxury, there’s no shame in its 2,660 kg kerb weight.
Like the Phantom, the Cullinan is powered by the firm’s twin-turbo V12 but in reworked 6.75-litre form which purrs out the same power as the Phantom, 563bhp, but with more torque: 627lbft from just 1600rpm. Transmission is a ZF eight-speed automatic. There are no performance figures as yet, apart from a quoted top speed of 155mph.