Cullinan

Segment
SUV

All Rolls-Royce vehicles are special but if you truly want to be the elite of the elite, you need to drive one from the Black Badge Collection. Black Badge Rollers offer even more bespoke customization than usual, offering carbon fiber, diamonds, and other exotic materials. So far, the Dawn, Ghost, and Wraith have all been given the Black Badge treatment but now it is time for Rolls-Royce to turn its attention its first SUV model, the Cullinan.

"Black Badge reflects the desires of a distinct group of Rolls-Royce clients: men and women who take risks, break rules and build success on their own terms. The time has come for Rolls-Royce's boldest and darkest expression of Black Badge yet. The King of the Night, Black Badge Cullinan," said Torsten Muller-Otvos, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.

As with other Black Badge models, the Cullinan is marked with the mathematical symbol representing infinity, which was first applied to Sir Malcolm Campbell's record-breaking Rolls-Royce-powered Blue Bird K3 hydroplane.

We had an opportunity to see the Cullinan in person at a BMW event along with a white model with a red interior. The black paint is contrasted with a yellow Coachline while the front grille surround, side frame finishers, trunk handle, trunk trim, lower air inlet finisher, and exhaust pipes are all darkened. It rides on new 22-inch forged alloy wheels, created specifically for the Black Badge Cullinan with the first colored brake caliper ever applied to a Rolls-Royce.

Inside, Rolls-Royce created a luxury carbon-fiber finish with a three-dimensional effect, which is finished with six coats of lacquer before being left to cure for 72 hours and hand-polished. The Starlight Headliner adds even more brilliance inside with 1,344 individual fiber optic cables mimicking shooting stars. This particular car pairs a black leather interior with yellow accents, so perhaps Wiz Khalifa could be a potential customer. One of the examples we saw in person had a full yellow interior with black accents, which was even more visually distinctive.

The Black Badge Cullinan isn't just about leather and trim changes either, its got more power under the hood. The 6.75-liter twin-turbo V12 has been given 29 extra horsepower for a total of 600 hp and an additional 37 lb-ft of torque for a total of 664 lb-ft. This is enough to get the heavy beast up to 60 mph in just 4.9 seconds on your way home from the rap studio or Hollywood film set. Specific pricing has not been announced but you should expect the Black badge to cost around $25,000 more than a standard Cullinan, which starts at $325,000.