Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Vancouver, Presenting Sponsor of Brand Royalty 2026, brings the Spectre and the Cullinan to Vancouver Island for the brand’s first formal activation here.

Crossing to Vancouver Island is a state of mind as much as a ferry ride: the water sets a slower clock, giving the time to notice what you pass. A Rolls-Royce keeps the same time. This June, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Vancouver makes the crossing, Spectre and Cullinan in tow, as Presenting Sponsor of Brand Royalty 2026. It is the brand’s first formal activation on the Island, and it arrives with a practical question attached: which Rolls-Royce, and for what kind of Island day?

Made by Human Hands

Alex Camilleri has a short answer for the part of Rolls-Royce that is easy to miss from the outside. “The product itself is almost entirely made by human hands,” says the Assistant Marketing Manager for Brand & Partnerships at OpenRoad Auto Group, which has operated Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Vancouver since 2014. The brand, as he puts it, represents “what it means to strive for perfection.”

That perfection is personal. Every car that leaves Goodwood is essentially a one-off, and 2025 was the Bespoke program’s biggest year on record, with commissions from the brand’s Private Offices more than doubling. Alex frames the stakes plainly: “The bespoke commissions are a reflection of the owners. If not done right, the motor car is just a motor car, rather than a statement of identity.”

The same thinking shapes how the dealership shows up in public. In recent years it has appeared at the Vancouver International Boat Show with M&P Yacht Centre, hosted the Spirit of Excellence evening at Elysium Equine with Otter Trail Winery, and unveiled the Ghost Series II alongside Holt Renfrew at Spirit & Skyline. None of them reads as a car event. “We want to elevate our client’s experience,” Alex says, “by collaborating with other notable brands and groups to curate experiences that go beyond just owning the vehicles.”

Across the Water

For all that reach, the map has mostly stopped at the water. “We’ve almost always focused entirely on the Lower Mainland,” Alex says. In 2026 the thinking widened: showcase the brand across the entire province. Victoria stood out. “The Victoria area in particular has such a diverse population, and many people would appreciate having Rolls-Royce come to their city instead of relying on them to come to us.”

So on June 20, the Spectre and the Cullinan anchor the floor at the Victoria Conference Centre, where Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Vancouver presents Brand Royalty 2026.

Alex’s LinkedIn bio reads “Events Unify People,” and he extends the idea past the owners’ circle. “Our events unify all types of people, even those who are not owners,” he says. His hope for the June room is that at least one guest leaves motivated to strive for greatness, a founding philosophy of Sir Henry Royce.

The Island, Two Ways

Ask Alex what either motor car is for, and he resists the destination entirely. “Any destination or experience with the Spectre is immediately elevated. The drive itself is the experience, the destinations along the way are just what makes it all fit together.”

We have taken him at his word and sketched two Island days, one for each car.

The Spectre: Golf, Wine, and the Old Island Highway

Start the Spectre’s tour where the yachts sit. Breakfast on the water at Victoria International Marina, the coupe parked above hulls it shares more than a postal code with: Rolls-Royce drew the Spectre’s lines from yacht design, and the resemblance reads best at a dock. From there the day bends to taste. A morning round of golf at Olympic View Golf Club (Table Nineteen pours the post-round debrief) before leaving the city, or straight north onto the Malahat, where the highway climbs through Douglas fir and opens above the Saanich Inlet. Villa Eyrie waits near the summit for anyone inclined to stretch one day into two, and Unsworth Vineyards sits below it in Mill Bay, where lunch is served from a restored 1900s farmhouse overlooking an old apple and walnut orchard. Further up the valley, the Vancouver Island Motorsport Circuit offers nineteen corners for drivers who want their afternoon at a different tempo.

The second day is built as a loop, and the two highways split the work. Northbound, take the Old Island Highway: two lanes along the water through Parksville and Qualicum Beach, past the storefronts and the pubs, the Strait of Georgia keeping pace on the right. It is the road for travellers with more time than schedule, and the Spectre is the car that makes that arithmetic feel like the point. Dinner is the Qualicum Beach Cafe, ocean from every seat, run by the same hands behind Gastown’s Water St. Cafe. Then the return leg belongs to the Inland Island Highway: 120 km/h, nothing to stop for, nothing left to see that you have not already seen slowly. The sightseeing is done; let the car carry you home.

Alex pictures a particular driver in it. “Any person who appreciates the quiet moments in life,” he says. The drive experience, in his words, is like nothing else.

The Cullinan: West to Tofino

The Cullinan’s trip runs west instead of north. At Parksville the road turns inland and crosses the Island’s spine: Cathedral Grove first, where Douglas firs eight centuries old close over the highway, then the long climb past Port Alberni and Kennedy Lake until the air changes and the Pacific announces itself before you see it. Tofino sits at the end of it, cedar lodges and June surf, with gravel pull-outs and forestry roads the whole way out for anyone inclined to leave the pavement.

This is the car for the gear: the boards, the clubs, the weekend’s worth of everything. Alex already knows how the day ends. “What I imagine is the Cullinan backed up at an amazing viewpoint with the viewing suite set up, taking in what makes Vancouver Island beautiful.” The Viewing Suite is the Cullinan’s quiet party trick, two leather seats and a table that unfold from the tailgate. “The Cullinan is an extremely capable vehicle that can take you wherever your heart desires.”

The June crossing is a first, and Alex talks about it as a beginning. The work he is most looking forward to runs well past one weekend: “Continuing to build our network of clients, partners and friends across Vancouver Island, the Okanagan, and the Lower Mainland.”