These are the first official photos of Rolls Royce’s engineering mule for its upcoming SUV model codenamed “Project Cullinan”. If we had seen them a week ago, we would have sworn that Rolls Royce was playing an April Fools’ Day joke on us…
There’s no denying that the raised suspension and that ‘Fast & Furious’ rear wing are attention grabbers, but Rolls Royce says that, even though the body “may hint at the size of the new car, it features no design aspects of the eventual high-sided, all-terrain motor car” that it announced in February this year.
The test mule is based on a shortened version of the Phantom Series II body (notice the cut rear doors) and its sole purpose is to develop a new all-wheel drive suspension system for the firm’s first entry in the SUV segment.
“The mule rides on the first iteration of an all-new suspension that will assist Rolls-Royce engineers in developing a final all-wheel drive system that delivers Rolls-Royce’s hallmark ‘magic-carpet’ ride not only on the road, but off-road too,” said the British carmaker in a statement.
While these pictures were shot at the firm’s facilities, the test mule will hit public roads this week – if you see one, hit us up…
“The first series of tests will focus on Project Cullinan’s on-road behaviour from suspension throw to high-bodied stability, and will test the new suspension across all types of international road surface specification at test facilities, as well as on public roads,” said the company. “Test surfaces will include; Belgian Pavé, cobblestones, corrugated concrete, noise development and measurement surfaces, resonance road, and acceleration bumps.”
Previous reports have mentioned that the new SUV may add up to as many of 1,500 units to the brand’s annual volume, which in 2014 surpassed 4,000 units.
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