In rolling out the Cullinan later this week, on the heels of a Phantom-style effort by
Russia, Rolls-Royce is studiously avoiding the term SUV.
Or at least it had been for most of the model's development.
The automaker steered clear of the suddenly plebeian term when it announced the model
years ago, and had been nervously avoiding it even when releasing minimally camouflaged
videos of the Cullinan in its future natural habitat: ripping through desert dunes, probably
as part of a falconing trip.
(Rolls-Royce knows what sports its buyers are into, and very few of them can be seen
on ESPN's "SportsCenter").
Rather, the Anglo-Germanic marque had been consistently calling the Cullinan a "high-sided
vehicle," even though with the camo its profile is not that far from a Range Rover simply
wearing a different grille.
From Rolls-Royce's perspective, this makes a tiny bit of sense as most Cullinans will
be city dwellers, shuttling their owners from guarded compounds just outside cities like
London, Moscow, Shanghai and (insert your favorite emirate here).
The "sport" part of a potential SUV label, then, would really depend on your definition
of sport: Flouting traffic rules via a siren and strobe system, keeping a 2-yard distance
from the bumper of an armored SUV as part of a motorcade lest an attacking vehicle tries
to separate it from its limo or finding two available parallel parking spots to park itself
can certainly be sports.
And in some countries they are sports.
When it comes to the "utility" part of the SUV acronym, there is certainly as much utility
on offer as on other large AWD things that aren't ashamed of the label, including the
aforementioned Rangie.
And it certainly is a vehicle.
In fact, it will weigh as much as two or three vehicles.
This whole "high-sided vehicle" label seems to stem from corporate parent BMW's similar
insistence on the equally clumsy and forced-sounding SAV, or Sport Activity Vehicle, label it has
assigned to its own range of X-badged cars for equally dubious reasons.
But does Rolls-Royce already have a pedigree when it comes to so-called high-sided vehicles
that may not really fit into the same mold as SUVs?
It just so happens that we have seen several vintage Rolls-Royce cars that aren't sedans
and are perhaps too big to be called wagons.
Back in the day, when "sport" in Britain exclusively meant blasting birds with rifles that cost
the same as a family car while wearing a tweed cap and Wellington rubber boots, wealthy car
owners commissioned coachbuilders to create wagon versions of their luxury cars with wagon
bodies.
As Rolls-Royce cars of the day were really pickup truck-size to begin with, viewed through
modern eyes, the resulting wagons were equally large.
They were still classified as "estates," or "shooting brakes," but when it came to car
size in 1950s Britain, they absolutely dwarfed just about everything else on the road that
was not a "lorry" or a commercial van, which barely existed.
Are these arguably high-sided vehicles the spiritual predecessors of the Cullinan?
Rolls-Royce certainly has a history of letting coachbuilders go a little crazy for the sake
of duck hunting via a luxury vehicle.
Though, in recent decades it was usually the Bentley models that were converted into station
wagons.
They were also a lot smaller on the outside than the Clouds converted in the 1950s.
Even before the twin Cloud cars (please excuse than pun) shown above were built, other coachbuilders
reworked Rolls-Royce cars into something high-sided and woody-sided, like the 1932 20/35HP model
seen below.
This example made an appearance at Lime Rock Concours in 2011, when we had a chance to
poke around its interior.
You'll notice it has more of a Town & Country vibe to it due to the wood doors and sides,
but it's still a rather large car for its day.
Arguably the craziest part of this high-sided rabbit hole is that we can't be sure if Rolls-Royce
has not made actual SUVs in its recent past.
Because officially its former Vickers sister brand Bentley hasn't made SUVs either, yet
there are grainy photos of Bentley Dominator SUVs from the 1990s that have been floating
around magazines and internets for over a decade.
And Bentley still does not acknowledge them and may not have given them official VINs.
After all, if they're heading to country that is a monarchy and does not have such a requirement
in the first place or if any requirement can be waived by a royal, then an automaker is
free to create whatever it gets paid to build.
So while Rolls-Royce's SUV roots remain blank or perhaps inconclusive, it does have a history
of letting coachbuilders create high-sided vehicles that aren't sedans with a trunk,
and that are perhaps closer in size to light trucks.
This is the general direction in which Rolls-Royce feels comfortable taking the Cullinan, rather
than embracing the SUV designation lest it "sink" to the level of Bentley and its grinning
Bentayga, and at the very least there are some cars in its history that mix the amenities
of a high-riding sedan with a wagon tail.
Today, on the eve of the Cullinan's debut Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös did
finally embrace the SUV designation for the Cullinan.
"Tomorrow at noon, UK time, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars will reveal the world's most anticipated
SUV," the Rolls-Royce CEO said.
"Cullinan began over four years ago as an idea and a mere sketch; an aspiration to bring
ultimate luxury to the SUV market.
Now it's here."
Does this have something to do with booming SUV sales and greater acceptance of high-sided
and high-priced vehicles?
High-sided vehicles are out and SUVs are in, we figure.
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