By Jerry Perez
I drove my first Rolls-Royce 10 summers ago, about a year or so after jumping into automotive journalism full-time. I remember it like it was yesterday. The way the thick, cold metal door handle felt in my hand, the way the engine fired up without a single vibration felt inside the cabin, and the shagginess of the lambswool floormats beneath my feet. At the time, the painstakingly handcrafted convertible designed for the world’s elite marked the peak of my short journalism career.
A decade later, I pulled a Twilight Purple 2025 Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II into a snow-covered parking spot at the summit of Pikes Peak, a staggering 14,115 feet above sea level. Memories of the rollercoaster-like decade in my rearview mirror came rushing in—the ups, the downs, the rough but lax years of freelancing, the prosperous but stricter years of a full-time gig, and the ruthlessness of the ever-changing media business that continues to sideline so many good writers and dear friends every year. But no matter how much things have changed over the last 10 or 100 years, Rolls-Royce still signifies the same: craftsmanship, refinement, legacy, and, of course, price. Experiencing or let alone owning a Rolls marks the summit of whatever challenge you’ve taken on.
I’ve had many jobs in my nearly four decades on Earth, but only my current one earns me a paycheck while negotiating the hairpins along America’s Mountain. From selling candy door-to-door while growing up in Mexico City, to cleaning bathrooms at a Texas nightclub as a naive, 20-year-old dad, I’ve seen and done it all. In chasing my summit, I moved away to school and started a career, only for the 2008 recession to kill it in its early stages. It was back to the drawing board again, and many, many times after that. Luckily, whatever nonsense I doodled on that imaginary board a decade ago, it led to me standing atop a mountain with a clear view of Colorado, New Mexico, Kansas, and Nebraska—and the key to a $570,000 SUV in my pocket.
The Cullinan’s $13,000 flake-rich paint shimmered in the sunlight and caught stares with ease, much like how the 6.75-liter, twin-turbo V12 quietly powered the 6,000-pound machine through the uphill esses that snake around the mountain. I couldn’t help but stare at the cyclist pedaling uphill and think, “Wow, this is so much better than that.”
For 2025, the Cullinan received a considerable glow-up inside and out, called the Series II. The more traditional, rectangular motif of the outgoing version’s face was replaced with more upright shapes. Whether it be the lower grille with its angled vents, the redesigned headlights with cascading DRLs, or the illuminated grille slats, Rolls says the “verticality” theme mimics a metropolis’ skyscrapers, where the majority of Cullinans reside. The result is a much more svelte and modern-looking SUV, which in turn caters to a hipper clientele. The wheels, too, chase a younger demographic with a visual play of diagonally opposing bi-color lines, making them look almost 3D. These updates make sense, given that the average age of a Rolls buyer is now 42, and in the case of a Spectre buyer new to the brand, it’s just 35.
Inside, as they say, is where the magic happens, and not because of the famous MTV Cribs line. The plush cabin is the only place where you can experience Rolls-Royce’s hallmark “Magic Carpet Ride,” and this particular one is one of the most intricate interiors I’ve ever seen on any vehicle at any price point. Crafted with the automaker’s new Duality Twill embroidery technique, the lilac-themed cabin featured over 2 million stitches and—wait for it—11 miles of thread. To make this possible, over 20 hours of work were dedicated to sewing alone. Perhaps that’s why it’s a $17,000 option. While the color palette chosen for the seats won’t be everyone’s choice, the entire point of something this unique and colorful is to show that Rolls’ idea of bespoke luxury is evolving, and that it’s not afraid to do it big. As Jon Colbeth, president of Rolls-Royce North America, told me, “We are not here to judge the customer, but guide them through the creation process.”
Another important aspect of the Series II is the updated technology and redesigned dashboard, which Colbeth also attributes to the brand’s younger-than-ever clients. New for 2025 is a redesigned dash that houses a 10.25-inch infotainment touchscreen, which runs the brand’s new Spirit operating system. It can be used via the dial located near the cupholders or by simply touching it. Introduced with the Spectre EV, it is based on BMW’s technology, but the interface is unique to Rolls-Royce and can be customized in various ways. After three days of using it, I can say it’s fairly intuitive and very sharp-looking.
An enormous elevation change and the consequential lack of oxygen couldn’t stop the 563-hp and 627 lb-ft of torque from propelling me into Devil’s Playground with the thrust of a cruise liner. My pace up the hill in a half-million-dollar-plus SUV was nowhere near where I would notice any change in performance due to the altitude, but my body sure felt it, and as a result, I was extra careful with where I put each one of the tires. The absolute worst outcome would be… well, that’s pretty obvious.
The Cullinan’s four-wheel steering made easy work of the hairpins, while the self-leveling air suspension kept the body as flat as physics allowed it to. If I told you this 17.5-foot-long SUV cornered like a sports car, I’d be lying, but it honestly isn’t far off. Despite the steering being calibrated for smooth driving and not quick reflexes, there is plenty of feedback as to what the tires are doing, and the monumental grip from the Pirelli Pzeros (255/40 R23) allows you to carry much more speed than I felt comfortable that far off the ground. If anything, driving a Cullinan is all about recalibrating your brain to driving a vehicle of this magnitude. For example, once you estimate how much turning of the wheel it takes to do a sharp turn, four-wheel steering kicks in and surprises you by doing it in half the amount. On the other hand, however much throttle you think you need to accelerate quickly off the line, you need to apply two or maybe three times as much.
A quick photo stop not too far from the summit allowed me to take in the views. Truly magnificent; not just how far I could see and the nature that surrounded me, but just as impressive was getting a bird’s eye view of Pikes Peak Highway below me, a 19-mile feat of engineering built in 1915 yet not fully paved until 2011. Best known for the Pikes Peak International Hillclimb, of course, the tarmac for the second-oldest race in the country rises almost 7,000 feet from end to end.
Eventually, my multi-hour journey up Pikes Peak came to an end. It was cold, windy, and the snow rose higher than the Cullinan’s hood. I parked and took about 25 steps toward the bathroom when Mother Nature reminded me that I was at 14,115 feet in elevation, and I am not in the best physical shape. So I marched 25 steps back, admired the SUV’s beautiful purple glow one last time, waved at the people giving me a thumbs-up, and began my descent.
Much like the other vehicles in Rolls-Royce’s lineup, the Cullinan signifies the summit for vehicle manufacturing, even if Goodwood produces fewer units in one year than Hyundai does in one day at one of its many factories. Every aspect of building a Rolls requires incredibly talented engineers, mechanics, craftsmen, and dedicated artisans to bring one creation to life. Many of them employ skills handed down through generations, like the guy who hand-paints coachlines, the wood veneer specialist, the gentle soul who painstakingly assembles the $9,000 Shooting Star Headliner, or my favorite, the artist who handles raw mother-of-pearl for bespoke interior paneling.
But despite the fanfare of driving a bright Rolls-Royce in a sea of mass-produced Subarus (it is Colorado, after all), there was a bad taste in my mouth that day. Y’know, one of those stomachaches that medicine won’t fix. That day, The Drive—like many outlets recently—laid off some of my friends and colleagues. The reasons are many, and they are what they are. To some, they are justified; to others, they are worthless words.
It made me think, why does a Rolls-Royce even matter in a flawed and unfair world where talented people around us are losing their livelihoods? Why does anyone need a vehicle this opulent? Why does anyone even need to read a review of a $500,000 vehicle? In the end, I believe it’s all about the aspirational nature of a Rolls—especially a freakishly purple one. As a species, humans need something to aim for, something to chase. To some, it’s being able to pay all their bills every month. To others, buying a home. To a lucky few, it’s commissioning a Rolls. And to the owner of a Gulfstream G280, it’s one-upping their neighbor with a G650.
The park ranger at the Glen Cove brake temperature checkpoint near the bottom of the mountain validated my theory. He quickly admitted to having fallen in love with the Cullinan at first sight, and didn’t mind holding up the line behind me to take a quick peek at the interior and wax poetic about it. He claimed to have never seen a more imposing and colorful vehicle before, and given how many cars that man sees on an average work week, those words carried weight.
Ten years ago, driving a Rolls-Royce Dawn was my professional summit. That day at Pikes Peak, I reached yet another one, and not because of the vehicle underneath me, but because more than ever, I understood that day’s assignment and appreciated how fortunate I was to have one at all. The fact that it was a stunning 2025 Rolls-Royce Cullinan in Twilight Purple just made it that much more special.
It’s a whole lotta money, but it’s a whole lotta car. Nothing beats a Rolls.
Email the author at jerry@thedrive.com
As deputy editor, Jerry draws on a decade of industry experience and a lifelong passion for motorsports to guide The Drive’s short- and long-term coverage.
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