1989 Rolls Royce Silver Spur Long Wheel Base . White Magnolia on 2040-cars

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2020 Rolls-Royce Cullinan Road Test | Aboard the HMS Cullinan

A tenet of good writing says you can’t modify a superlative. “Very best” gilds the lily, and “one of the best” is a hedge. Best is all you need say. ThatÂ’s the spirit of the phrase “the Rolls-Royce of Â…,” which gets applied to any kind of thing, say a particularly nice vacuum cleaner. It's immediately understood — “Rolls-Royce” is all you need say. So itÂ’s a special occasion when the pinnacle of automotive excellence, and the symbol of supremacy in everything wrought by human hands, heaves to in oneÂ’s driveway. The Rolls in this case was the 2020 Roll-Royce Cullinan, the most expensive SUV in the world, this one costing $394,275. This Cullinan arrived in lustrous Jubilee Silver (a big improvement over the purple one our contributor Jason Harper drove a few months ago). The car appeared to be carved from a silver ingot. Our first-drive review back in 2018 called the three-ton Cullinan a monolith, and thatÂ’s spot-on. It looks imposing and not to be trifled with, like a British warship. And in fact this car was built to a nautical theme, with a two-tone interior of Charles Blue / Navy Blue. A hand-painted coachline of Charles Blue traced its gunwales. Cullinan even sounds a bit like a British warship (they have the best names). But its namesake is the 3,100-karat Cullinan diamond, the largest ever discovered, chunks of which are part of the Crown Jewels. The car is an enduring symbol of British Empire, though with a lot of German parts. What can one say? We drive a lot of expensive cars at Autoblog, but it's a bit hard to understand why there even is such a thing as a Rolls-Royce press vehicle. What sort of information could a critic impart? Do you expect to hear it wasnÂ’t nice? Well, it was. Was the V12 not smooth? Like English cream. Was it not comfortable? Its cabin was expansive and its seats accommodating, and its ride was every bit the “magic carpet” Rolls promises, with sensors alerting the air suspension of upcoming unpleasantries in the road surface. And like a magic carpet, the system settles the car back down to earth for a gentle landing when youÂ’ve arrived. Yet the self-righting wheel centers make it appear as if you'd never left. And who would benefit from criticisms, if there were any? Few reading this have the means, but those who do would likely choose something more anonymous for real-world use, such as a top-trim Range Rover. Even a Bentley Bentayga would be less expensive, if only slightly less attention-getting.

Grey Poupon's Pardon Me Lost Footage ad airs during Oscars

Those of you that took our tip and tuned in for last night's Academy Awards may have caught the latest iteration of the famous Grey Poupon commercials, featuring a pair of Rolls-Royce sedans and their condiment-loving stewards. The update to the 1981 commercial was only shown in part on television, however, as the mustard company directed viewers to its website to see the entirety of the Lost Footage spot. Of course if you didn't bother then, you can just scroll down to see the full-length two-minute commercial here.
As you're viewing, note that the Grey Poupon marketers did not, it would appear, get official sanction from Rolls-Royce this time around. While the Rollers in the commercial have all sorts of James Bond-like accouterments, they don't appear to have the official Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornaments, for example, and they have restyled lights and grilles. Check out the new spot below, and see if it stacks up to the iconic Pardon Me original.

Rolls-Royce rolls out one-off Ghost Golden Sunbird in China

In 2001, archeologists in the palace city of Chengdu, China, uncovered the Golden Sun Bird, an ancient artifact that dates back to the Shang Dynasty from 1000 BC. The disc depicts the sun and is made of almost solid gold, measuring five inches across and weighing 20 grams. The city adopted it as its logo, and now Rolls-Royce has commemorated the find and the heritage behind it with a unique one-off.
Based on the long-wheelbase version of the Ghost, the Golden Sunbird edition features a two-tone white and gold paint scheme, with gold coachline and gold grille topped by a gold Spirit of Ecstasy. The interior has likewise been gilded with gold embroidery atop the light brown leather and white trim to match the coachwork.
The result may be elegant but is certainly not subtle. And of course it's just the latest in a long line of special editions and one-offs Rolls-Royce has crafted, particularly for markets in the Middle and Far East.