Rolls-Royce SUV Named for World’s Biggest Diamond

Rolls-Royce is to name its all-new, high-bodied SUV after the largest diamond ever discovered.

The name dates back to 1905, when the 3,106-carat gem was extracted from a mine deep in South Africa’s Magaliesberg Mountains.

The Cullinan Diamond was cleaved into nine stones, cut and polished, with the two largest portions set in the British Imperial Crown and Sovereign’s Scepter with Cross.

Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Muller-Otvos says the new SUV, the automaker’s first, will be called Cullinan.

“The name Cullinan has been hiding in plain sight since we revealed it as the project name some years ago,” Muller-Otvos says in a statement.

“It is the most fitting name for our extraordinary new product. Cullinan is a motor car of such clarity of purpose, such flawless quality and preciousness, and such presence that it recalibrates the scale and possibility of true luxury. Just like the Cullinan Diamond, the largest flawless diamond ever found, it emerges when it is perfect and exists above all others.”

The story of the Cullinan diamond is one of legends. The Transvaal government of the day purchased it as a gift for King Edward VII on his 66th birthday, in the hope it would help heal the wounds of the recently ended Boer War.

Detectives were sent from London to provide a visible and secure escort for the diamond on board a passenger steamboat bound for Britain. The treasure was ceremoniously placed in the ship’s captain’s safe and guarded throughout the journey.

Legend has it that that was an elaborate ruse. The diamond in the ship’s safe was said to be a resin replica, while the real Cullinan was sent to London by registered post.

The Cullinan is the second Rolls-Royce, after the Phantom, to ride on the automaker’s all-new proprietary aluminum spaceframe it calls Architecture of Luxury. Eventually the next Ghost, Wraith and Dawn also will use this architecture.

Rolls-Royce says that as with the diamond, the Rolls-Royce Cullinan has undertaken a fascinating journey.

From the deserts of Africa and the Middle East to the snows of the Arctic Circle; from the Scottish Highlands to the canyons of North America, Rolls-Royce designers, engineers, craftspeople and artisans have shaped, tested and polished the SUV.

Muller-Otvos says the company was inspired by the epic processes, over many millennia, which went into the creation of the Cullinan Diamond.

“Quite simply, the name Cullinan is perfect and brilliant.”