Latest news with #Rolls'
Miami Herald
15 hours ago
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
Urban Automotive unveils customized Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II at Goodwood
Urban Automotive, the British luxury car modifier known for its carbon-fiber body kits for high-end models, has put its spin on the refreshed Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II. This updated version of Rolls' only SUV, marked by a new front fascia with prominent vertical LED daytime running lights, is already proving popular with tuners, but Urban Automotive aims to distinguish itself with what it calls "OEM+" standards of build quality. The Cullinan Series II "Redefined by Urban" will initially be offered in the United Kingdom with a starting price of 449,995 British pounds ($609,842 at current exchange rates), and production at the company's facility in Milton Keynes (also home of the Red Bull Racing F1 team). But Urban's expansion into the U.S. with a dedicated facility means these modifications could soon be available to customers on this side of the Atlantic as well. What customers get for that considerable chunk of change is a full carbon-fiber body kit, including a new front bumper, two-piece splitter, fender flares, sill extensions, a rear bumper with diffuser and anodized aluminum exhaust finishers, and a pair of spoilers. The package also includes 24-inch Urban-Vossen forged wheels. "We felt the Series II model needed a more aggressive look and some Urban enhancements to its design," Urban Automotive founder Simon Dearn said in a statement. Dearn pointed out the DRLs, which extend down nearly to the bottom of the front bumper. That fits with Urban's "OEM+" ethos, as it largely follows the stock styling. So do the vertical bars in the front bumper's air intakes, which match the grille. But the look is also indeed more aggressive than stock. It's unlikely that Rolls-Royce would produce anything with such prominent fender flares, and the quad exhaust tips and rear diffuser are markers of performance not normally associated with Rolls. Speaking of performance, Urban didn't discuss any modifications to the Cullinan's twin-turbocharged 6.7-liter V12, which makes up to 591 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque in Series II Black Badge models. Just last week, Urban Automotive announced the opening of a dedicated Americas division, anchored by a new warehouse and distribution facility in Phoenix, Arizona. The company previously relied on Tennessee-based Milltek Corp. for U.S. distribution. Urban has said that running its own facility is intended to reduce delivery times, improve customer service, and build more relationships with dealers and car builders in the U.S. Founded in 2014, Urban reported a 173% year-over-year increase in overseas sales in 2023, helping to justify its U.S. expansion. Copyright 2025 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Miami Herald
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Miami Herald
Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II Black Badge gets the wide-body treatment
It was only a matter of time before the aftermarket got its hands on the Rolls-Royce Cullinan Series II, the face-lifted version of Rolls' SUV, and it appears that trend is in full swing. Los Angeles-based RDB LA recently unveiled a Cullinan Series II Black Badge with a bit more street presence, courtesy of a wide-body kit from 1016 Industries. This is actually the second Cullinan Series II to roll out (no pun intended) of RDB with one of these body kits, which sell for up to $100,000. The first, unveiled just month, had 26-inch RDB wheels and a body painted black. This one retains black wheels, but they're contrasted by Tempest Grey paint. It also takes things a bit further with thin LED daytime running lights mounted in the lower part of the front bumper. Modifying an expensive car will likely always be controversial, but Rolls-Royce customers have plenty of cash and appetite for personalization, as evidenced by the automaker's massive catalog of paint and trim options. And it's more likely than not that those customers will be buying a Cullinan, which become Rolls' bestselling model after debuting in 2018. The Cullinan Series II launched in 2024 as a mid-cycle refresh, although changes were small, LED jowls on the outside and a more contemporary dashboard screen arrangement inside being the highlights. Also offered on the pre-refresh Cullinan, the Black Badge spec adds darkened trim. Power comes from a twin-turbocharged 6.7-liter V12-producing 591 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque in Black Badge models-connected to an eight-speed automatic transmission and all-wheel drive. Copyright 2025 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
The Guardian
27-02-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Roll-Royce's recovery is stunning: from basket case to No 8 in the Footsie
Tufan Erginbilgiç didn't quite catch the bottom for Rolls-Royce's share price when he joined as chief executive at the start of 2023, but he came close. The reference price for his £7.5m-worth of 'golden hello' shares – the cost of extracting him from the world of private equity – was 91p. The engine-maker's share price is now 732p, up 16% on Thursday's ultra-bullish full-year report, meaning the value of Erginbilgiç's signing-on package has inflated to a princely £60m. Not bad for two-and-a-bit years' work. He has to wait until 2027 and 2028 to collect the shares, but, unless a pandemic bigger than Covid lies around the corner, the risk of the paper gains evaporating before they become real looks negligible. The full-year numbers were streets ahead of what even City optimists had expected. First, 'midterm' 2027 targets for operating profits will be hit two years ahead of schedule, said Rolls. Second, its new forecasts for 2028 represent another big bound forwards – from £2.7bn-£2.9bn this year to £3.6bn-£3.9bn. Third, Erginbilgiç says Rolls won't stop there – 'these mid-term targets are a milestone, not a destination,' he declared with a flourish. A few remaining City doubters maintain that the pace of the recovery is misleading and that the game for Rolls will get harder. The sceptical argument says currency movements, the civil aviation industry's roaring comeback from Covid and backlogs in the delivery of new aircraft have all assisted Erginbilgiç's much-vaunted renegotiation of contracts with airlines and suppliers. Erginbilgiç bristles at suggestions that renegotiating better terms represents a soft sort of victory – 'if you classify that as an easy gain, you should be in the meeting room and you'll change your mind'. He surely has a point because it's hard to quibble with Rolls' new-found ability to generate heaps of cash, the measure on which it fell short for about two decades even before Covid grounded planes and ripped through revenues from servicing engines. The company had to borrow heavily to survive the pandemic but is already debt-free and can afford a £1bn share buy-back. It expects to be spitting out £4.2bn-£4.5bn of cash in 2028. Given the contracted nature of the business, the solidity around the projections ought to be good. As for the 'strong growth prospects beyond the mid-term', it's also hard to dispute that Rolls finds itself in multiple sweet spots. Small modular reactors should (finally) get the go-ahead. The power systems business can expect a new class of customer in the form of data centres. The defence division was nicely supported by the Aukus submarine partnership even before governments' boost to military spending. And the potential biggie, sometime in the 2030s, would be Rolls' re-entry into the market for engines for narrow-body airplanes – it currently supplies only the wide-body market. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion None of the new adventures would be cheap and one long-term danger is that the new streams of cash are spent inefficiently; alternatively Rolls could fail to attract the right partners. But those are tomorrow's challenges. In the meantime, it's enough to say the stunning revival at Rolls appears genuine. Four and a half years ago, the company was virtually bust and needed an £2bn emergency rights issue. Now it is worth £62bn and is the eighth largest company in the FTSE 100 index.
Yahoo
18-02-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Rolls-Royce unveils details about its latest bespoke machine: the Black Badge Spectre
Let's be honest: with a few notable exceptions, these are not particularly bold times when it comes to cars. If anything, the venerable automobile, into which we enthusiasts pour so much emotion and symbolism, risks becoming a mere appliance devoid of sound, fury, and even a driver. That's why it's time to rejoice at some news from one of the industry's oldest players, Rolls-Royce. That these wonderful behemoths still exist is already cause for celebration, but that's even more the case now that the world will soon have an even more outrageous beast on the road in the shape of the new Rolls-Royce Black Badge readers will, of course, know that the Spectre was introduced in 2023 in posh Napa Valley, California. It was Rolls' massive two-door, four-seat entry into the electric car market, even if Spectre is to a Tesla Model 3 EV what a drone is to SpaceX: not in the same universe. For some Rolls-Royce clients, the Spectre was apparently not quite unique enough despite being 17 feet long, 7 feet wide, and boasting the bearing of a small yacht. So, for them, drum roll, please: The folks in Goodwood, England, have turned things up to 11, guided by their anonymized driving habit details. In 2016, Rolls-Royce's custom (better known in Brit-speak as Bespoke) department rebooted its long-standing practice of producing more unique and often high-powered iterations of their cars under the name Black Badge, described by the company as being a more rowdy 'alter ego' to the otherwise stately countenance of the marque. So far, there have been Black Badge versions of the Ghost, Wraith, Cullinan, and Dawn. Now it's the turn of Spectre, which, sorry, keeps making us think of the dastardly villains in James Bond movies. 'Black Badge owners from around the world permitted our specialists to access their anonymized data, enabling us to create a new driving experience perfectly suited to, and validated by, the way our clients use their motor car,' Dr. Bernhard Dressler, Rolls' director of engineering, said when explaining the company's development process. 'Following internal development, a small tranche of 'secret' Black Badge Spectres was built for a group of clients who requested the earliest possible access … and emphatically approved of our engineering response.'Let's get to the meat of it all. In Black Badge guise, the new Spectre can benefit from a temporary boost in electric-motor power to 659 hp from 585 hp. This is called Infinity Mode – playing off the infinity symbol that is a hallmark of this special series – and can be summoned by pressing the symbol on the steering wheel. Also new is Spirited Mode, which draws inspiration from the ability of British Spitfire pilots to instantly summon more power from their aircraft engines. In the Spectre, Spirited Mode acts as a launch-control function, where fully depressing the brake and throttle bumps torque up to 792 lb-ft and results in a 0-to-60 dash of 4.1 seconds. Not bad at all for a car weighing 6,600 pounds. The rest of the main Black Badge Spectre features are all visual. And boy, do they impress. For its global debut, the Black Badge Spectre is being unveiled in an outrageous new paint hue called Vapor Violet, which takes the basic black theme to a new level. Rolls says the color is supposed to evoke 'the neon ambiance of the 1980s and 1990s club culture.' There's also a new Iced Black hood option, which can be paired with any of the company's palette of 44,000 on-demand shades. It's best to consult your designer first. Rolls designers have come up with a new 23-inch five-spoke forged aluminum wheel design for the Black Badge Spectre that is a bit more sporting than most Rolls wheels. The wheel is available in either a part-polished or all-black finish. As always with Black Badge variants, the brightwork is toned down with a signature dark finish, including the classic Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament, which leans more forward than in vintage models to, of course, assist with aerodynamics a the coolest feature associated with the ornament is that anyone looking to snap her off a parked Spectre as a souvenir is in for a surprise. Tug on her violently, and she'll suddenly disappear out of your hand and into the bodywork, ready to be summoned again by the car's owner. Yet another design flourish for the Black Badge Spectre concerns the company's legendary and often quite massive front grille. In the Spectre, the grille is toned down just a touch and now boasts an Illuminated Grille backplate in purple, blue, yellow, chartreuse, and something called turchese. This touch can also be extended to illuminated treadplates and even the interior. Subtle, this car is not intended to be. Inside, there is more of the same opulence, color, and luxury. The front fascia features an abstract version of the Spirit of Ecstasy, as well as frequent appearances of the aforementioned Infinity symbol, which Rolls points out was typically associated with 'historical water-speed records.' The fascia also sparkles with more than 5,500 hand-laid fiber-optic 'stars' all set in a piano-black 'sky,' while the digital instrument dials are offered in a choice of five color themes: Vivid 'Grellow,' Neon Nights, Cyan Fire, Ultraviolent, and Synth clear is that Rolls-Royce, which forever had been associated with older owners, many of them chauffeured, is aiming for a younger monied crowd with cars like the Spectre, which also adds EV silence and eco-efficiency to its dance card with a 266-mile range. In fact, the sprinting ability of Infinity Mode was designed specifically after determining that Rolls owners do like to put their foot in it but only to produce quick sprints rather than cruising at high speeds for extended periods of time. But that's not to say the company expects anyone to buy these handcrafted stallions as daily drivers. In fact, Rolls points out that in surveying its clientele, it has determined that most owners possess an 'average of seven cars in their garage and drive an average of 3,200 miles in their current Rolls-Royce per year.' Put another way, these cars are really more about having occasional automotive experiences that frankly have nothing to do with running a mall errand in your fill-in-the-blank machine. This is about going back in time to when motorcars, as the Brits call them, could be truly transformational experiences. It was a time when how you got there was more important than where you were going. And for that, we're glad Rolls-Royce and its craftspeople are still doing what they do, even if most of us will only experience one of these four-wheeled cruise ships as it glides quietly past. And that goes double when the Rolls in question is on an even more lofty plain like the Black Badge. Sorry, 007, but all hail this Spectre. Love reading Autoblog? Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get exclusive articles, insider insights, and the latest updates delivered right to your inbox. Click here to sign up now!
Yahoo
27-01-2025
- Yahoo
Man Steals Back His Stolen Rolls-Royce Dawn
⚡️ Read the full article on Motorious Car thieves continue to go shopping at dealerships and even people's homes for whatever vehicle they want like there are zero consequences. While some are met with the wrong end of a gun, others see little resistance and even if caught get off with light sentences, if any at all. This helps explain why a group of crooks broke into a nice Staten Island home in New York at 4 am on June 12, then drove off with the owner's Rolls-Royce Dawn Drophead. While the guy didn't blow the thieves away, he did get his car back almost immediately. Read more from Motorious here. The thieves didn't have a sophisticated plan to swipe the car – they just smashed a window using a rock, grabbed the keys to the Rolls-Royce Dawn Drophead, and drove off with it. They didn't seem to care the house was occupied, likely because they believed the risk they'd be shot was low. In just seconds, the owner was downstairs just in time to see the thieves pull away in his car, which was parked in the driveway. It's probably a good thing he didn't get down there sooner, because there's a good chance those guys were armed. After checking that his family hadn't been hurt, the guy hopped on his computer and activated the factory GPS tracker, immediately pinpointing the Rolls' location. Realizing they had crossed into New Jersey, the owner hit the remote kill switch, and the vehicle came to a rest in Newark. The owner believes the thieves tried to turn the engine back on before ultimately ditching the Dawn Drophead. With the car disabled, the owner went to Newark and picked it up. He's lucky the thieves didn't figure out what he'd done and ambushed him outside the vehicle. Police say these guys are suspects in a whole string of break-ins and car thefts on Staten Island. They can't be that good at what they do considering their tool of choice is a rock. That's not to say they aren't dangerous, because the risk of someone being seriously hurt of killed eventually is too much for comfort. Car thefts on Staten Island have shot up 114% so far in 2022. This whole story is a good reminder that while some thieves use sophisticated technologies to swipe cars, other will absolutely turn to smash-and-grab tactics. Keeping your car in a locked garage out of sight at night helps lower the risk, as do other security measures. Source: New York Post
