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Stretched Rolls-Royce Cullinan is luxury in excess

If the Cullinan SUV wasn't Rolls-Royce enough for you before, then this stretched version from Klassen should assuage any of those doubts. Listed for $2.08 million, it's a far cry from the Cullinan's base price of $325,000. Klassen makes a number of stretched luxury vehicles, but this is the first time we've seen the Cullinan get modified like so. As a nod to its customer base, possibly, this long SUV is given the company's highest level of ballistic protection — B7. That means the thickness of the ballistic steel is 14.5 millimeters thick at minimum, providing protection from armor-piercing rifles and ammunition. The stretch measures 40 inches in length, which makes the Rolls look considerably larger, but not unwieldy. Occupants will be treated to the highest of luxuries including an iMac multimedia center (yes, an actual Apple desktop computer), Bang and Olufsen sound system and special ambient LED lighting — all of which is controllable via an iPhone. Klassen also says that the passengers can ride privately behind a "luxury partition wall." Looking at the "wall" in its other creations, it appears to create the ultimate in private riding for when you just can't stand to be interrupted by your driver. Unfortunately, we don't have any pictures of the Cullinan's "wall." Its closest competitor is probably the stretched Bentley Bentayga, also made by Klassen. But why go for that when you can have the Rolls SUV instead? Featured video: Featured Gallery Klassen Rolls-Royce Cullinan stretched Auto News Read This Rolls-Royce SUV Luxury

Work begins on new Rolls-Royce Phantom, PHEV likely

After reporting that a new Rolls-Royce Phantom would arrive sometime around 2017 in the same timeframe as a Rolls-Royce SUV, Autocar has a few more details on the next coming of the massive English sedan. Both its skin and its bones are being worked out right now, brand design head Giles Taylor telling the magazine that his team is "treading an evolutionary path" with the model, suggesting it will have "more charisma and more edge" as part of a future design language that will have "a charismatic expressiveness."
True, that gives us absolutely no indication of what the car will look like, but it seems fair to assume it will feature more curves and detailing than the present car. The long C-pillar will remain, though, the privacy it affords being "part of the Phantom recipe."
What's underneath could be more detailed as well, the report saying BMW is mulling an i3 kind of build, with an aluminum chassis supporting a carbon fiber bodyshell. Assuming production considerations and costs could be kept in line, the benefits would be a lighter car that offers more latitude with the design, easier implementation of new bodystyles and the segment's technology crown. A lighter Phantom would bring further rewards for its PHEV variant, which Autocar says is "a certainty."

Rolls-Royce Spectre electric coupe testing moves to sunny southern France

Rolls-Royce's first series-produced electric model is well on its way to production. Called Spectre, the big coupe is undergoing shakedown testing on and off the track in the sunny south of France, and the British firm announced that development work is about 40% complete. Going electric isn't an excuse for Rolls-Royce to stray from the reputation for excellence that it has earned over the past 116 years, so engineers are putting the Spectre through the most rigorous testing program they've ever subjected a new model to. We're told that, when all is said and done, the prototypes will have covered over 1.5 million miles of testing, which represents on average more than 400 years of use for a Rolls-Royce. Some test mules were sent to freeze in Sweden near the Arctic Circle, while others were shipped to the French Riviera. Testing in France will be split into two parts. First, the Spectre will be put through its paces on the track that Rolls-Royce parent company BMW operates in Miramas, a town located about an hour west of Marseilles. Engineers will notably get the opportunity to drive the prototypes on handling courses, on a 3.1-mile oval with steep banks, and in standing water. when they have passed every challenge with flying colors, the prototypes will be sent out to the picturesque roads that zig-zag through the countryside surrounding the test track. Rolls-Royce explained it's putting a tremendous amount of effort into fine-tuning the Spectre because the coupe packs more technology than any model it has previously released. It features "141,200 sender-receiver relations and has more than 1,000 functions and more than 25,000 sub-functions," according to the company, which is around three times more sender-receiver signals than in a typical Rolls-Royce. The Spectre will inaugurate a new suspension system that promises to take the firm's Magic Carpet Ride to the next level. It relies on technology that scopes out the road ahead and on data sent by the navigation system to decouple the anti-roll bars when needed, such as on a straight road, and recouple them as the car approaches a corner. The suspension system also gets firmer ahead of a bend. Rolls-Royce hasn't released powertrain specifications yet, and the Spectre's final design remains hidden by camouflage, but the few official numbers available are impressive.