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Watch the Rolls-Royce Cullinan tackle the sand dunes outside Dubai

The Rolls-Royce Cullinan is coming soon. The British automaker has made copious effort trying to keep the coming Cullinan from being considered just a crossover or SUV. The carmaker calls it an All-Terrain High-Sided Bodied Vehicle, and a feature as banal as a tailgate has been billed as a "luxuriously comfortable viewing platform." Yet when Rolls-Royce took a prototype Cullinan for testing in the Dubai dunes, they recorded their Phantom-based SUV ripping up the sand in ways you'd expect from a 30-year-old Chevrolet Blazer. As the Nurburgring became to cars, the dunes outside of Dubai have turned into a testing venue as useful as they are photogenic. Rolls-Royce's trip there follows a list of other luxury SUV makers, including Range Rover, Bentley, and most recently, Lamborghini. What caught our eye in this video is that outside of century-old, black-and-white photos of Charles Stuart Rolls hammering one of his early cars in contests like the 1906 Tourist Trophy, this is the first time we've ever seen Rolls-Royce do anything unabashedly racy off-road. It's as if they plucked Florida Man from the Soggy Bottom Mud Park, gave him the keys to a Cullinan and the challenge, "A case of Pabst says you can't break it." Fast forward to the 1:08 mark to get into the action. Obviously, we don't expect any Cullinan driver — save those Dubai hoons — to thrash a Cullinan like so. But it's nice to know the All-Terrain High-Sided Bodied Vehicle can do it. Related Video: News Source: Rolls-Royce [via YouTube] via Autoevolution Rolls-Royce SUV Future Vehicles Luxury Videos dubai rolls-royce cullinan

Rolls-Royce shows its festive side with limited-edition Neon Nights models

Anyone who has traveled to Las Vegas has undoubtedly seen brightly-colored Rolls-Royces parading down the Strip, but these head-turning creations usually weren't painted at the factory. The firm decided to flaunt its flamboyant side and one-up the tuners by releasing a colorful trio of limited-edition models named Neon Nights. Rolls-Royce based the Neon Nights on the Black Badge variants of the Wraith, the Dawn, and the Cullinan. Buyers have three colors to choose from: Lime Rock Green (for the Wraith), Eagle Rock Red (for the Dawn), and Mirabeau Blue (for the Cullinan). The first two receive gray leather, while the latter gets a white interior. Stylists didn't choose these colors at random. Lime Rock Green, in Rolls-Royce's own words, is naturally bestowed on the Australian green tree frog. One of its paint specialists spotted one while traveling. Eagle Rock Red is inspired by the flowers of a Hawaiian tree named 'Ohi'a lehua, and Mirabeau Blue is the paint team's tribute to the Periander metalmark butterfly that's native to Central and South America. After selecting suitably exotic plants and animals, Rolls-Royce's in-house paint team set out to give each hue a neon-like glow. Building the Neon Nights cars on the Black Badge variants peppers a bit of irony on the project, but it also gives customers more power. Pop the Cullinan's long, stately hood to find a 6.75-liter V12 that's twin-turbocharged to 600 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque, up from 563 and 627 in the regular model. Both the Dawn and the Wraith receive a twin-turbocharged, 6.6-liter V12 with 593 horsepower and 620 pound-feet of torque on tap, increases of 30 and 15, respectively, over the cars not ordered with the optional Black Badge package. Rolls-Royce explained it initially planned to cap production at one car per color, and it noted the trio was created specifically for customers in the United States. Unexpected demand from other global markets convinced the company to paint three additional cars in each color, meaning a total of 12 examples will be produced. Pricing hasn't been announced yet, but the buyers the British firm is trying to reach don't need ask for a window sticker. Related Video:

Top Gear caught filming Best of British near Buckingham Palace

YouTuber and car-fan extraordinaire Shmee probably had very little trouble tracking down the Top Gear film crew recently, as the group was putting together an episode that could accurately be described as "excessive." With its flag-waving (literally) Best of British theme, the TG guys gathered a jaw-dropping array of British cars, and parked them all right in front of Buckingham Palace to make extra sure that the point was driven home.
Top Gear hosts Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May were outfitted with a trio of Jaguar F-Types festooned with gigantic Union Jacks, with which to survey the landscape of British motoring glory. In the video below, you'll see that this includes any number of Mini, Aston Martin, Lotus, McLaren, Land Rover, Bentley and Rolls-Royce models (just to name a few), as well as a healthy dose of weird stuff that most people would never guess at being built in the UK. The lawnmowers and military vehicles are especially cool.