The origin of the Off-Roller

The BBC has an article by Brendan McAleer about an unlikely off-road vehicle:

To many, the idea of Rolls-Royce building an SUV is absurd, avaricious, and heretical. What rough beast is this, slouching towards Crewe, England, to be born? Perish the thought and preserve the heritage, purists cry.
Perhaps sensing a little pushback to its development of a de rigeur sport-utility vehicle with an eye-watering price tag, Rolls-Royce officially chooses to refer to its project as a “high-sided, all-terrain motor car”. The cageyness seems misplaced, though, as the Rolls bloodline is actually studded with toughness.
It would be gross understatement to describe the 1970 Daily Mirror London to Mexico World Cup Rally as "grueling". Kicking off at Wembley Stadium on 19 April 1970, the race covered some sixteen thousand miles through Europe, South America, and Central America, before concluding in Mexico City, Mexico on 27 May 1970. Among the more than a hundred cars to start (a list that included the now-legendary Ford Escort Mk1), there was one genuine surprise: a modified Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow (photo above). British Rally Champion Bill Bengry race-prepped the car by adding driving lights and a roof-mounted spare, and routing the exhaust pipes through the hood and up along the A-pillars. To Rolls-Royce, of course, the car was nothing less than a monstrosity; the company resolutely refused to support the effort. But Bengry carried on and, though the car didn't win (that honor went to Ford drivers Hannu Mikkola and Gunnar Palm) this unusual Silver Ghost, despite mechanical calamity and an ugly crash in Brazil, survived to cross the finish line.
When their SUV rolls out, in 2017 or thereabouts, it will not be a slap in the face to its ancestry. Rather, it will continue a heritage of visiting impossible places and doing impossible things. Like a modern noble family, if you trace the roots of Rolls-Royce back far enough, you'll find adventurers, explorers and knights-at-arms.
When Henry Royce and Charles Rolls first began manufacturing automobiles, they were not built to a high standard of craftsmanship for ostentation’s sake. Rather, the luxury offered by a stout and overbuilt vehicle was a swift, stealthy dependability: the luxury of travelling with haste, yet arriving unruffled.
Sensing that this durability would appeal to those living in remote areas and demanding climes, British businessman Frank Norbury pulled an unusual stunt. Locking the hood of his Rolls-Royce 40/50hp, better known today as a Silver Ghost, he allegedly tossed away his toolkit and took the car over the rugged passes of India’s Ghat Mountains. The trip from Bombay to Kohlapur covered six hundred miles of poorly maintained paths, over which Norbury sailed undaunted, his Rolls-Royce performing without fault.
Seeing this peerless performance, the maharajahs of India hurried to snap up examples of this new mechanical elephant, going on to adorn their Ghosts like royal howdahs. Norbury's car ended up in the hands of the Maharaja of Gwalior, who painted the car with pulverized pearls. It would later forever be referred to as The Pearl of the East.
Thousands of miles away, in the rain-soaked British Isles, war clouds were forming. With slow inevitability, the Colonial era was leading towards the cataclysm of World War One and, when nobility eventually went into battle, they brought their Rolls-Royces.
At first, the cars served as speedy rescue for airmen downed while battling the scourge of the German Zeppelins. Wing Commander Charles Rumney Samson attached a Maxim machine gun to the back of his open tourer and used it to strafe a German staff car he happened upon. Sensing success for this newfangled weapon of war, Samson swept into Lille, France.

 

Hearing of success in the field, the British War Office commissioned Rolls-Royce to build armored cars in an official capacity. Turreted vehicles with heavy, riveted steel armor (photo, above), they were armed most commonly with Vickers machine guns, and could manage seventy miles an hour.
When the Western Front bogged down into muddy trench warfare, Rolls-Royce armoured cars would head to Russia, China and the deserts of the Middle East. TE Lawrence, better known as Lawrence of Arabia, is on record as having said, “A Rolls in the desert is above rubies.”

The armored Rolls-Royce would later play a significant role in the Irish Civil War, where it would be treated as a sort of rolling fortress (photo, above). The Irish called the Rolls “Whippets”, as they were quick-striking and relatively quiet. Having been mortally wounded in an ambush, the Irish National Army General Michael Collins was transported in one that is still in existence.
This innate toughness has translated into incredible longevity for the early Rolls-Royce. Many Ghosts still compete in long-distance endurance events, such as the grueling Peking-to-Paris race. Genteel these cars and their owners may be, but the latter do not shy from rolling up their sleeves, and the former lay claim to being the original high-sided all-terrain motor cars: no apologies required.

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The BBC also has an article by James Brodie about the new SUV being made by Rolls:

No, the photo above is not a Rolls-Royce Phantom after an unscheduled trip to John Hennessey's workshop. That is Project Cullinan.
It's a Rolls-Royce development mule for a new all-wheel drive system, and our first official, embryotic glimpse at the firm's upcoming SUV.
The underpinnings of that SUV are hidden beneath a shortened Phantom II body on stilts. That's a clue that the production 4x4 will (a) have a chunk more ground clearance than the Phantom, and (b) be shorter than the Rolls flagship. Most things are.
The huge rear wing is not there for flat-through-eau-rouge japes, but instead to simulate the impact of the extra weight and drag of the taller SUV body.
Rolls is very keen to make clear that Project Cullinan offers no hint at how its SUV could look. The company says this mule features no design aspects of the eventual “high-sided, all-terrain motor car”, which is probably a good thing.
Also likely to be a good thing is the ride quality of the Rolls 4x4. The Goodwood engineering team's first tests with Project Cullinan center on nailing the ride to Rolls' traditional “magic carpet” standards, both on-road and off, with all new suspension in development for high-bodied stability.
Though Rolls hasn't announced when its production SUV will arrive, expect a launch no earlier than 2017, with the as-yet-unnamed 4x4 boasting a new aluminum space frame and a V12 under the bonnet. A plug-in hybrid powertrain could follow.
Oh, and it'll be reassuringly expensive, even in comparison to other coming ultra-posh SUVs, including Bentley's Bentayga and the Maserati Levante. Expect prices to start from somewhere around £250,000 and head as far north from there as your jewel-encrusted wallet permits.

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