Rolls-Royce Kicks Off Cullinan's "Final Challenge" Before Global Debut

Three years after the beginning of a gruelling testing programme that has seen it conquer various conditions, Rolls-Royce’s first ever SUV, the Cullinan, will undertake “The Final Challenge” to prove itself in the public eye before it makes its world premiere later this year.

In an unprecedented partnership, Rolls-Royce and National Geographic will work together to publish daily film and photograph updates as Cullinan undertakes trials in Northern Europe, the Middle East and the United States.

The Final Challenge will begin in the Highlands of Scotland and will be broadcasted on social media by National Geographic and Rolls-Royce as it continues its adventure through the Alpine snowfields of Austria, the arid deserts of the Middle East and finally across the toughest terrain in the United States. These will include multiple off-road challenges and miles of rough terrain.

The Rolls-Royce Cullinan and crew will be accompanied on The Final Challenge by acclaimed explorer and photographer Cory Richards, National Geographic’s Adventurer of the Year in 2012. The National Geographic team will document the journey with daily updates broadcast from the spectacular, far-flung locations he and the crew encounter.

Cullinan is the second Rolls-Royce, after the all-new Rolls-Royce Phantom, to sit atop the company’s recently announced all-new proprietary aluminium spaceframe called the ‘Architecture of Luxury’.

The Phantom limousine is powered by a new 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine that outputs 563 PS and 900 Nm of torque, paired to an eight-speed automatic gearbox. It remains to be seen whether this powerplant will feature in the Cullinan too.