It’s safe to say – if you don’t object to a bit of a generalisation – that when people spend a lot of money on a car they want the world to know. There’s a reason why luxury car makers don’t do inconspicuous.

You know, for example, when there’s a Bentley, Ferrari, Lamborghini or a Rolls-Royce – which happens to be the subject of this week’s review – in your rear-view mirror. Some might see that display of wealth as garish, tasteless and vain but, be honest, who among us would be happy to drive around in a 10-year-old Ford or Vauxhall with a few million sitting idly in the bank?

That’s what I thought.

The real question is not will you get noticed, but how noticed do you want to be? If the answer is a lot and you do happen to have a few hundred thousand pounds set aside then the Cullinan – appropriately named after the world’s biggest diamond – could well be the luxury car you were looking for.

To label the Cullinan as imposing is to sell it wildly short. It is a very, very big car that demands your attention wherever it’s parked. The grille alone is almost big enough to require its own parking space. On more than one occasion I was left hoping that the patrolling parking attendants would be sympathetic to my plight as I tried, and failed, to fit the four corners of the car within the allotted space.

Still, scrabbling around to find the cash to pay a parking fine is an issue that’s only likely to be a concern for a poor, humble journalist rather than someone with the capital to buy one of these leviathans.

Safe to say, then, that driving a Cullinan will get you noticed.

General consensus is that if you need to ask how much something costs you can’t afford it. It follows, then, that my loyal readers will be dying to know how much the Cullinan reviewed here in fetchingly regal ‘Submariner Blue’ would set them back. The answer is 75 quid shy of £334,000.

That is a lot of money. Some might even describe it as obscene and I know that whatever I say next is unlikely to change those opinions but what you get for that money – which includes options – is one of the finest engineered cars in the world.

The luxurious cabin is unrivalled in the automotive world. There is leather of course. Lots and lots of leather. And beautifully finished real wood inserts. The deep-pile carpets make you feel like throwing off your shoes and driving barefoot just so you can feel the real-wool fibres between your toes.

Then there’s the completely pointless but utterly gorgeous Shooting Star headliner. There are hundreds of soft-white LEDs embedded in the roof lining – and in the Cullinan that roof lining seems to stretch from horizon to horizon – that light up like stars. You can adjust the brightness – something you’ll want to do at night – or turn it off completely but, while it really does serve no purpose, it adds genuine sense of beauty and peace to the passenger space.

Sitting behind the wheel you are presented with beautiful white analogue gauges, three of them, dominate the instrument binnacle. Rolls-Royce have seen fit to dispense with a rev counter and, instead, bestow upon the lucky driver a Power Reserve meter, which tells you exactly how effortless forward momentum is.

The multimedia system, though you wouldn’t know it to look at it, is a skinned version of BMW’s i-Drive. It’s hidden beneath a Spirit of Ecstasy rotary controller, itself a carefully restyled iDrive selector, mounted atop the transmission tunnel. The good news is that means that it is both intuitive and responsive. To set a destination on the sat nav you can choose between selector dial, handwriting recognition or, my personal favourite, voice control. Short of perfecting ESP I can’t conceive of any way that Rolls-Royce could make life any easier.

Now, anything that isn’t made from wood, leather, metal or some other exotic material spewed forth from the heart of a dying star is going to feel a little out of place in what is, after all, a wonderfully appointed cabin, but the plastics that have, necessarily, found their way into the car are tactile and soft to the touch.

Under the bonnet is a 6.6-litre twin turbocharged V12 though you’d be forgiven for believing that the luxury car maker had omitted to install a mechanical power plant beneath the vast bonnet, so complete is the silence from beneath that broad expanse of metal.

What gives the game away is the deep, distant, nerve-tingling rumble that accompanies every request for a change of pace. It’s all too brief but it’s more than enough to give a very real hint of the Cullinan’s potential. That and the angry shove in the back that accompanies it. It’s impossible not to chuckle of the absurdity of it all as more than two-and-a-half tonnes of premium SUV is breathlessly thrust forward like it was little more than a leaf on a breeze.

And perhaps most ridiculous of all is that all the time the Cullinan feels nothing less than sublimely composed. If it had hair there wouldn’t be a single one out of place. The 5.2 seconds it takes to arrive at 62mph doesn’t, on paper anyway, appear that quick but, step back outside and stand in front of that huge grille again and allow yourself a moment to take in .

Consider, also, how wonderfully the air suspension manages to contain that mass. The ride is untroubled by broken surfaces. It doesn’t just absorb them, it dismisses them, smoothing out lumps, bumps, potholes, undulations and imperfections as if they were never there in the first place.

If you’ve been riding around on a magic carpet now might be the time to trade it in.

The real miracle, however, is how Rolls have managed to retain their trademark ride and yet still dial in a degree of sportiness that means if you fancy tackling slightly more challenging roads the Dawn possesses the verve and vivacity to make the detour worthwhile.

You’ll never forget that this is a big car – physics won’t be denied – but body control through bends taken at speed is admirable for a car of this size while the 21inch wheels hang on with real determination. And of course, once the car is straightened up you can squeeze the throttle and hurl those two and half thousand kilograms towards the next corner.

There isn’t a great deal of feedback through the steering wheel thanks to the ample amount of assistance provided to make driving the Dawn as effortless as possible and that lack of weight can take time to adjust to.

It shouldn’t come as surprise to learn that there’s no flexing or wobbling, the body remains fixed and rigid even when you’re tackling unfavourable conditions. The Dawn is also equipped with the same satellite-aided transmission that you’ll find in the Wraith. It uses GPS to ensure that the eight-speed automatic box is always in the right gear at the right time.

Now comes the part where I have to tell you whether I think the Cullinan is good enough to warrant a place on your shopping list. It’s a resounding yes from me but, if you’ve got the bank balance to buy one of these monstrously beautiful machines, then you’ve already undoubtedly pencilled in a visit to a Rolls-Royce dealership – or possibly even the factory at Goodwood itself – and what I have to say here is probably of little consequence.

It doesn’t matter whether the Cullinan represents good value. That’s a metric that doesn’t apply at this end of the market. Buyers won’t be concerning themselves with fuel consumption, emissions or servicing and insurance costs either. All that matters is that they’re driving one of the finest cars in the world and it’s clear that the famous marque has more than delivered on that score.

Rolls-Royce Cullinan

Price from: £291,700

Engine: 6.75-litre twin turbocharged V12

Transmission: Auto

Max power: 571bhp

Max torque: 850Nm @1,600rpm

Max speed: 155mph

0-62mph: 5.2 sec

WLTP fuel consumption (combined): 17.5 – 17.1mpg

WLTP emissions (combined): 368 – 377g/km

For more information click here

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