CULLINAN BLACK BADGE ROLLS-ROYCE

The dark side of the Rolls-Royce Cullinan certainly deserves a ‘Black Badge’

- SUNDEEP GAJJAR

I started out as a motorcyclist and I always will be one. For the most part, I have seen motorcyclists frowning upon cars and while it wasn’t the most logical thing ever, it used to make some sense at least. But in the recent past, I have been getting opportunities to pilot some of the finest specimens of 4-wheeled automotive and I dare say that I have been impressed… moved even. A few of the highlights of these experiences came from Goodwood, England. Rolls-Royce. And in this particular story, our protagonist is a Rolls-Royce Cullinan Black Badge.

There is a word in the English language… Sacrilege. A word mostly used in a negative sense. I have always believed that it is about perception. I’ll explain with an example. A majority of the motorcycling enthusiasts refer to cars as cages in an almost sacred manner. I am one too… always will be and yet, I do not believe in that particular sentiment. More firmly now than ever. And there it is sacrilege.

Onwards to perception now. Let me start out by saying that a motorcycling enthusiast should never drive a good car… most definitely not a Rolls-Royce… and a Black Badge from Goodwood must be avoided at all costs. It will bewitch you and shake your immovable faith in the adage (if there isn’t one in existence, now it is) that an engine is more suited to two wheels than four.

Sacrilege… but here it is used in perhaps the most positive sense that one can use this word in. Rolls-Royce Cullinan Black Badge… what a damned phenomenon! I was right to refer to Black Badge cars as Goodwood’s Dark Art. The sheer allure is ‘Unstoppable Force’ incarnate… only, I am nowhere near being the ‘Immovable Object’.