Based on the aluminum spaceframe chassis that’s pompously referred to as the Architecture of Luxury, the Cullinan is Rolls-Royce’s first sport utility vehicle. Considering its relation to the Phantom, the high-riding luxobarge is rocking a V12 augmented by a couple of spinny lads.
N74B68 is the leviathan’s codename. Produced by the peeps at BMW, the 6.75-liter mill is anything but impressive on paper. With 563 ponies on tap, even the flat-plane crankshaft naturally-aspirated V8 in the Z06 is more potent. But it’s a torque monster at 627 pound-feet (850 Nm) delivered at 1,600 revolutions per minute. On the other hand, this bad boy is heavy.
The British automaker quotes 6,069 pounds (2,753 kilograms) before optional extras, and by comparison, the Ford F-150 Raptor off-road pickup truck is estimated at 5,740 pounds (2,603 kilograms) in standard spec.
Just over $350k is the starting price of the Cullinan, which is quite a bit more than your dime-a-dozen Escalade or Navigator. Given that it’s playing in a wholly different league from those SUVs, the Cullinan we’re covering today has been challenged by an Italian SUV to a quarter-mile battle.
The white-painted fellow is easily recognizable as the Lamborghini Urus, the first sport utility vehicle from the Raging Bull of Sant’Agata Bolognese. Not as exclusive as the Cullinan, the V8-engined model is rated 641 horsepower from a displacement of 4.0 liters. There is no difference in peak torque, yet it’s very important for us to highlight that it’s produced at 2,250 rpm.
Developed with the help of the Volkswagen Group’s financial might and inter-brand synergies, the Urus also happens to be much lighter. The big question is, can it fend off the Rolls-Royce Cullinan in the quarter mile?
Eas-i-ly is the most appropriate one-word answer. Not only does it launch better off the line, but Lambo’s best-selling model finishes in 11.8 seconds at 118.23 miles per hour (190.27 kilometers per hour) versus 13.2 seconds at 106.93 miles per hour (172.08 kilometers per hour) for the Cullinan.
After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well. Full profile
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