Undisclosed location, Nev. – On a bright November morning, two hours north of Las Vegas in the central Nevada desert – not far from Area 51 – a fleet of six Rolls-Royces lines up across a dry lakebed. It’s early the morning after the Wynn Concours, as well as the Los Angeles Dodgers’ dramatic World Series win in an overtime Game 7 finish, but luckily, I restrained my celebrations, knowing that two Ghosts, three Cullinans, and a Spectre awaited me for top-speed runs on the flat expanse of tan sand, where speed limits did not apply.
The lakebed surface actually ripples more than expected, with silty and smooth pads split into almost hexagonal patterns of expansion cracks from water pooling, then drying, then pooling, then drying… All the way to the horizon. And then, as if some sort of mirage under the blistering sun, the Rolls-Royces appear, every Spirit of Ecstacy hood ornament gleaming.
Rather than wearing racing or off-road tires, though, each arrived with regular street-legal rubber mounted on the 22 and 23-inch wheels. So naturally, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Americas CEO Jon Colbeth gave a quick safety briefing to the handful of adventurous drivers in attendance: The Ghosts and Spectres would be allowed to do hard launches on about a quarter-mile delineated by cones, but afterward the Cullinans thanks to slightly higher tire sidewalls eventually might hit their electronically limited top speed of 155 miles per hour – going off-road needn’t mean slow speeds!
Colbeth advised warming up to the handling, applying brakes with even pressure, and adjusting to the radical environment. But sure, go ahead and do some donuts by turning off traction control. Which, it turns out, isn’t particularly easy in a Rolls and takes diving deep into menu options via the central touchscreen. Sure wish I knew how to do this while trying to ice drift a Cullinan earlier this year!
Clearly, Rolls-Royce knows how to have fun. But the practicalities of running half- million dollar cruisers to top speed with street tires fully inflated to the advised 42 psi kept cropping up in the back of my head. I started out in a Ghost, with traction control fully activated, not really sure what to expect. I’ve driven at high speed off-road, in lifted trucks and side-by-sides, and even prepped rally cars, but all featured heavily upgraded suspension and legit knobby tires.
No supercar launch control nor anti-lag in this stately sedan, either! Alright then, deep breath. I put my left foot on the brake, right foot nudging into the gas pedal to help the Ghost squat a bit. Done the old-fashioned way, traction control kicked in immediately, dialing back power as the tires scrabbled for grip over the first 25 yards or so. Those Goodyears simply lacked the traction necessary to blast off in such a slippery environment.
The SUV launched slightly slower, tail end dipping more due to a more upright posture. Between about 40 and 80 miles an hour on the sand, the floatiness bordered on a legitimate speedboating sensation. But passing the cones at full throttle, pushing up to about 125 miles per hour on this first run, the Cullinan settled down. Now I felt wind effects battling the complete lack of aerodynamic efficiency from this beefy SUV hustling along the wide-open lakebed. Past the pinch of the shoreline, the terrain opened up a bit. Time to keep upping the numbers, then.
I braked harder, felt the nose dive, and kicked into a donut or two on the way back to the start line. But even with traction control off, the weight of a twin-turbo V12 over the front axles definitely contributed to more understeering, and I wanted to avoid popping a tire off the bead and ruining my shot at a top speed run.
Still, I built up steadily, hitting 135 then 145, the acceleration starting to peter off despite unleashing all 600 horsepower and 664 lb-ft of torque. I hit the electronically limited limit of 155 mph anyway, after an interminable crawl that probably took 30 seconds or more to get from 135 to 155 miles per hour. By my mental math, that probably translated to about another mile of imaginary runway – and this lake must end somewhere… Even as a southwest breeze pushed the Cullinan further and further to the left.
I lifted at 155 mph and coasted for a bit, beginning to use the brakes. Slowing down let the pungent smell of toasting rubber creep in from the tires, so I took a quick break to let everything cool down before going again. What if the wind helps? With a little more confidence in the distance required, for my next run, I determined to hold full throttle up to the limit.
This time, the chip kicked in and cut power, but I still crested to 156. The next run, I spied 157, then 158. Trying, trying, but despite keeping the pedal matted, fuel cutoff brought me back down to 155 again. And now the end of the lakebed approached, slightly uphill, the surface getting rougher with less silt and cushion.
Back at base camp, the rest of the crew threw out their top speeds. Another duPont Registry contributor, Basem Wasef, claimed 157 mph – in a Ghost, no less. Better aero but also even less ideal tires. Everybody else typically dialed back around 135 mph or so. Then I climbed back into my Cullinan for the most comfortable six-hour drive possible back to Los Angeles.
<- Gallery ->
Not the most typical road trip day of my life, to say the least! And a few days later, Rolls-Royce reached out with some news: I might now hold the United States land speed record for a production Rolly Polly! That’s hard to verify, but three ticks past the ECU’s official restriction, thanks to wind and slick conditions and traction control, sounds pretty reasonable to claim.
Of course, from a historical perspective, Rolls-Royce in 2021 launched a limited run of 25 Black Badge Dawn and Wraith models dubbed the Landspeed Collection to honor Captain George Eyston, who set a Bonneville Salt Flats speed of 357.497 mph in 1938 driving the “Thunderbolt” car, an eight-wheeler powered by a pair of Rolls-Royce V12 aero engines.
I might have hit just under half that pace, but I still begged for some sort of commemorative certification or official plaque. Instead, I just get bragging rights and the gratification of memory. And awe, at the fact that Rolls-Royce today feels confident enough in the cars to allow this kind of entirely unnecessary hooligan behavior on a lakebed, even if, just like Area 51, the exact location must remain confidential.
View All Rolls-Royce Motor Cars For Sale
Images: Michael Van Runkle, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars
