Rolls-Royce has revealed its latest bespoke car, the "Pearl Cullinan," a pearl-themed take on the Cullinan SUV commissioned by a customer as a 90th birthday gift for his father.
Commissioned by the customer in 2022, the Pearl Cullinan is the first bespoke Rolls-Royce from the automaker's Private Office Dubai, a dedicated office handling customers in the Middle East. Rolls-Royce.
The exterior is finished in an exclusive Pearl Rose paint finish inspired by a pearl from the owner's collection, and it won't be available to other customers. It required 30 iterations, all tested on full-size body panels. These were placed under lamps to simulate how the paint would look under the Middle Eastern sun, while ultraviolet testing was done to ensure it would hold up to that strong sunlight. The paint is accented by a hand-painted rose gold pinstripe, along with a rose gold-plated Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament and tread plates.
The interior features two different leather colors: Cashmere Gray for the front seats and Ardent Red for the rear seats. The latter references the color of the material on which pearls are traditionally presented to customers, while the burr walnut wood veneer is inspired by the wooden presentation boxes in which pearls are traditionally given to customers.
Rolls-Royce Pearl Cullinan
Living up to its name, the Pearl Cullinan also features the most mother-of-pearl in any Rolls-Royce production car. Each of the rear picnic tabletops is layered with 1,351 separate pieces of mother-of-pearl—all selected and placed by hand. The dashboard fascia has a mother-of-pearl inlay, as well as the Arabic word for "father" in stainless steel. The dashboard clock is set in a mother-of-pearl surround with a rose gold dial and hands. The Starlight Headliner also shows the sky as it appeared on the night the customer's father was born.
One-off commissions are standard operating procedure at Rolls-Royce. The automaker also recently built a pink Ghost for a an Internet personality, as well as the Phantom Syntopia, a one-off so complex that it took four years to build.
For buyers with extra-deep pockets, Rolls-Royce can build a car totally unrelated to any model in its lineup. These are coachbuilt specials, the most recent of which is a car known as the Droptail.
