Rolls Royce Phantom, Rear Entertainment, Pristine, 05,07,08,09 on 2040-cars

Auto blog

The latest Rolls-Royce concept is a hybrid dump truck

Is a standard Rolls-Royce not big and imposing enough for you? Perhaps the company's latest concept can get you to pass the Grey Poupon. Behold, the Rolls-Royce MTU hybrid haul truck. The Cullinan might come with 22-inch rims, but when equipped with its R63 Michelin XDRs, each wheel and tire combo of the ultimate Roller will stand over 13 feet tall. With a driver's seat a full story off the ground, it's so lofty you won't even see the plebes that you crush in their feeble Coachbuild Dawns as indifferently as Loxodonta africana steamrolls a line of ants. Serve as your own life-size Spirit of Ecstasy as you look down at the puny Parthenon radiators of run-of-the-mill Phantoms from atop your soaring grille, located a full flight of stairs above the lowly earth. All jokes aside, the Rolls-Royce truck mainly serves to promote its new MTU V12 2000-series industrial 12-cylinder engines. Rolls-Royce doesn't even produce the haul trucks; typically, they provide the engines for installation into rigid dumpers built by Liebherr, Hitachi, or Selex. The new hybrid mill produces 1,560 horsepower, meant to replace the V16 4000-series 16-cylinder engines making 2,500 horsepower. However, Rolls-Royce says performance will be the same while dropping carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent in new installations, or 22 percent with retrofits. Like a Prius, the engine uses a battery pack to store regenerative energy captured as the trucks descend into quarries, then expends that juice to climb back up. It also requires no additional space for an exhaust gas treatment system or diesel urea additives, which are apparently concerns in a mining truck. In addition, Rolls-Royce is in the process of engineering its industrial engines to run on sustainable fuels such as hydrogen brewed from renewable energy (not the way we do it in the U.S.). The company hopes to have hydrogen fuel engines ready by 2023 in stationary applications. It's all part of the company's goals for a — say it with us — carbon-neutral future. The concept truck was conceived for MINExpo 2021, a mining convention taking place September 26-29 in Las Vegas. Hopefully they'll put it into production and offer a constellation headliner in the cab.

New Rolls-Royce Boat Tail shows off coachbuilding chops of the Phantom platform

Rolls-Royce is flexing the coachbuilding muscles of its highly versatile new Phantom platform with this gorgeous Boat Tail commission. Rolls-Royce claims the build required the fabrication of more than 1,800 unique parts and 20 years of combined man-hours to complete.  Even by Rolls-Royce standards, this is pretty ambitious stuff. The commission was inspired by a 1932 Rolls-Royce Boat Tail, and like the original, it was inspired by, well, boats. Shocking, right? The trim elements both inside and out (Caleidolegno veneer, if you're curious) were designed to be reminiscent of the teak decking you'd see on a wooden yacht. "Today marks a seminal moment for the House of Rolls-Royce. We are proud to unveil Rolls-Royce Boat Tail to the world, and with it, the confirmation of coachbuilding as a permanent fixture within our future portfolio," said Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Muller-Otvos in the Boat Tail announcement.  "We have formally re-established our Coachbuild department for those patrons who wish to go beyond the existing restraints, and explore the almost limitless possibilities this opens up for them," Muller-Otvos said previously. "We are able to offer our customers the opportunity to create a motor car in which every single element is hand-built to their precise individual requirements, as befits our status as a true luxury house." There are quite a few bespoke accessories as well, though apart from the full picnic service shown in some of the pics (there doesn't appear to be much of a trunk — sorry, boot), most of it was left out of the promotional materials. Most notably absent are the custom his-and-hers Bovet 1822 timepieces that were commissioned alongside the car. They can be either mounted in the dash or worn on the wrist (of course), but we see only a glimpse of one in the top-down image Rolls-Royce provided.

Mansory-tuned Rolls-Royce Cullinan is dubious decadence

German tuner Mansory doesn't do subtle, but its latest take on the Rolls-Royce Cullinan goes above and beyond in the flamboyance department. It celebrated the opening of its first showroom in Dubai by giving the British SUV a love-it-or-hate-it redesign inside and out. Nearly every part of the Cullinan's exterior has been modified. Mansory installed a full body kit that adds a deeper front bumper with extra air intakes and a splitter, vents chiseled into the fenders, side skirts, a spoiler above the rear window, and a sizeable rear diffuser. Flared wheel arches cover 24-inch forged wheels, and many of the exterior add-ons feature a black, gray, and white finish that almost looks like granite, a resemblance we're guessing is intentional. And, don't look for chrome: The bright bits were made black to give the SUV a more sinister look. Inside, the granite-esque finish appears on most of the trim pieces, and Mansory fitted leather upholstery with a wave-like motif on the door panels and on the center consoles — there are two in the Cullinan. The passenger sitting in the back enjoy individual power-adjustable seats upholstered in different colors, tray tables integrated into the front seatbacks, and an outline of the United Arab Emirates in the headliner. The same outline is stitched into the rear headrests and into the seatbelts, which also gain a white Mansory-branded stripe. Mansory didn't publish precise technical specifications, but we know that it didn't leave the drivetrain untouched. It quotes an output of 610 horsepower and 701 pound-feet of torque, while the stock Cullinan's 6.75-liter V12 posts 563 and 627, respectively. Another detail that hasn't been released yet is pricing. But, if you need to ask, odds are you're not the kind of customer that Mansory wants to lure into its showroom. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.