Spied! Rolls-Royce Cullinan Hits the Nurburgring

The sentence “The upcoming Rolls-Royce SUV was spotted on the Nürburgring” would have confused and maddened the car enthusiast of yesteryear.

Nowadays, the feelings of anger remain for some, but no one is surprised when a luxury automaker develops a high-dollar SUV and sends it ‘round the ‘Ring for testing.

Roll-Royce doesn’t want you to call the Cullinan an SUV, however. They’ve instead opted for the term High-Sided Vehicle, or HSV. Rolls-Royce promises the lifted ride will offer ample off-road capabilities, even if very few of these vehicles will ever leave the pavement.

The Cullinan is based on the platform of the eighth-generation Phantom, which uses a new aluminum spaceframe architecture.

Power will still come from a BMW-derived 6.75-liter V-12. A plug-in hybrid variant is another possible powertrain option down the line.

Spotters from CarPix say the Cullinan, which rides on an air suspension, hooned through the bends with significantly less body roll than what one would expect from a vehicle of its size. Perhaps there is something to taking an SUV to the Nürburgring after all.

Expect the Cullinan to debut sometime in 2018. When it arrives on the market, it could compete with the Bentley Bentayga.

Photo source: CarPix

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