EXPLORING ROLLS-ROYCE'S 'HIGH-SIDED VEHICLE' HISTORY

Rather, the Anglo-Germanic marque had been consistently calling the Cullinan a "high-sided vehicle," even though with the camo its profile is not that far from a Range Rover simply wearing a different grille.

From Rolls-Royce's perspective, this makes a tiny bit of sense as most Cullinans will be city dwellers, shuttling their owners from guarded compounds just outside cities like London, Moscow, Shanghai and (insert your favorite emirate here). The "sport" part of a potential SUV label, then, would really depend on your definition of sport: Flouting traffic rules via a siren and strobe system, keeping a 2-yard distance from the bumper of an armored SUV as part of a motorcade lest an attacking vehicle tries to separate it from its limo or finding two available parallel parking spots to park itself can certainly be sports. And in some countries they are sports. When it comes to the "utility" part of the SUV acronym, there is certainly as much utility on offer as on other large AWD things that aren't ashamed of the label, including the aforementioned Rangie. And it certainly is a vehicle. In fact, it will weigh as much as two or three vehicles.

This whole "high-sided vehicle" label seems to stem from corporate parent BMW's similar insistence on the equally clumsy and forced-sounding SAV, or Sport Activity Vehicle, label it has assigned to its own range of X-badged cars for equally dubious reasons.

But does Rolls-Royce already have a pedigree when it comes to so-called high-sided vehicles that may not really fit into the same mold as SUVs?

It just so happens that we have seen several vintage Rolls-Royce cars that aren't sedans and are perhaps too big to be called wagons.

Back in the day, when "sport" in Britain exclusively meant blasting birds with rifles that cost the same as a family car while wearing a tweed cap and Wellington rubber boots, wealthy car owners commissioned coachbuilders to create wagon versions of their luxury cars with wagon bodies. As Rolls-Royce cars of the day were really pickup truck-size to begin with, viewed through modern eyes, the resulting wagons were equally large. They were still classified as "estates," or "shooting brakes," but when it came to car size in 1950s Britain, they absolutely dwarfed just about everything else on the road that was not a "lorry" or a commercial van, which barely existed.

Are these arguably high-sided vehicles the spiritual predecessors of the Cullinan?

Rolls-Royce certainly has a history of letting coachbuilders go a little crazy for the sake of duck hunting via a luxury vehicle. Though, in recent decades it was usually the Bentley models that were converted into station wagons. They were also a lot smaller on the outside than the Clouds converted in the 1950s.

Even before the twin Cloud cars (please excuse than pun) shown above were built, other coachbuilders reworked Rolls-Royce cars into something high-sided and woody-sided, like the 1932 20/35HP model seen below. This example made an appearance at Lime Rock Concours in 2011, when we had a chance to poke around its interior. You'll notice it has more of a Town & Country vibe to it due to the wood doors and sides, but it's still a rather large car for its day.

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A FAST RIDE IN THE BENTLEY BENTAYGA THAT WILL TAKE ON PIKES PEAK

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Arguably the craziest part of this high-sided rabbit hole is that we can't be sure if Rolls-Royce has not made actual SUVs in its recent past. Because officially its former Vickers sister brand Bentley hasn't made SUVs either, yet there are grainy photos of Bentley Dominator SUVs from the 1990s that have been floating around magazines and internets for over a decade. And Bentley still does not acknowledge them and may not have given them official VINs. After all, if they're heading to country that is a monarchy and does not have such a requirement in the first place or if any requirement can be waived by a royal, then an automaker is free to create whatever it gets paid to build.

So while Rolls-Royce's SUV roots remain blank or perhaps inconclusive, it does have a history of letting coachbuilders create high-sided vehicles that aren't sedans with a trunk, and that are perhaps closer in size to light trucks. This is the general direction in which Rolls-Royce feels comfortable taking the Cullinan, rather than embracing the SUV designation lest it "sink" to the level of Bentley and its grinning Bentayga, and at the very least there are some cars in its history that mix the amenities of a high-riding sedan with a wagon tail.

Today, on the eve of the Cullinan's debut Rolls-Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös did finally embrace the SUV designation for the Cullinan.

"Tomorrow at noon, UK time, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars will reveal the world’s most anticipated SUV," the Rolls-Royce CEO said. "Cullinan began over four years ago as an idea and a mere sketch; an aspiration to bring ultimate luxury to the SUV market. Now it’s here."

Does this have something to do with booming SUV sales and greater acceptance of high-sided and high-priced vehicles?

High-sided vehicles are out and SUVs are in, we figure.