Rolls-Royce certainly is drawing out the launch of its Project Cullinan SUV. The idea of a high-riding Roller has been tossed around for some time, with Rolls-Royce decrying the notion for years before finally, in early 2015, confirming its intention to build an SUV. Then an image of a funky, bewinged, Phantom-based mule (pictured below) was released to prove development was underway. Now, Rolls-Royce has released the best look yet at Project Cullinan, in the form of two images that show the vehicle in a proper SUV body. To be fair, unlike many hyped and long-awaited projects (cough*Dr. Dre*cough*Detox), Rolls actually is showing signs of progress toward a finished product.
Rolls refers to Project Cullinan as an ?all-terrain, high-sided vehicle,? and it will be the first vehicle to feature the lightweight all-aluminum architecture that will underpin all of the brand’s future products. The first spoiler-clad prototype was used to test the new suspension’s manners on a variety of road surfaces?”suspension throw” and “high-bodied stability” were specifically mentioned as metrics. But engineers can only do so much for a platform without the real body and shape. To that end, this new prototype is beginning testing and will head to the Arctic Circle at the end of this month to be subjected to extreme cold-weather trials. It will then be off to the Middle East to get a taste of the weather at the opposite end of the spectrum.
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