Monday, October 26, 2009

Bentley's New $300,000 Sedan

If you text and drive, this could happen to you.


A lot of people may be resentful of Wall Street bonuses, but Bentley executives are not among them. Bentley Motors Inc. gave a preview of its upcoming Mulsanne luxury sedan in New York Oct. 22. The car, which will cost close to $300,000, has an eight-cylinder engine which, despite using an old-fashioned design, generates more than 500 horsepower.

Named after a long, fast straightaway at the Le Mans racing track in France, the Mulsanne is part of the company's plan to re-establish itself as a top-tier maker of exclusive luxury cars -- sales have been drastically down. The new model will compete with a handful of other rarefied sedans already on the market, including the Maybach 57 and Rolls-Royce Phantom. Bentley, a British unit of German carmaker Volkswagen AG, has not named an exact price for the new car, which will go on sale in the U.S. a year from now. But since the Rolls-Royce Phantom, built by BMW AG, and Maybach 57, part of the Daimler AG family, both cost closer to $400,000, the less-costly Mulsanne will take advantage of a largely untapped sweet spot in luxury-car pricing.

While there certainly are people who can afford the Mulsanne, its release into a struggling economy may be a case of bad timing. Bentley says it expects worldwide sales of its current cars, priced mostly between $150,000 and $200,000, to total about 4,500 vehicles for 2009, down from 10,040 in 2007 and 7,600 in 2008. In a more acute case of poor timing, the Mulsanne refused to start during the preview and had to be manually pushed off its truck and into the display gallery (see video).

Friday, October 23, 2009

2009 New York: Bentley Continental Supersports

$267,000 – that’s how much you’ll have to cash out to own the fastest, most powerful Bentley ever produced – otherwise known as the Bentley Continental Supersports. You can place your order starting October 2009.

Power comes from a 6.0L W12 twin-turbocharged engine making 621-hp and a maximum torque of 590 lb-ft. The engine is capable of running on gasoline and E85 biofuel or any combination of the two. Keep in mind that the first couple hundred units headed to the U.S. will be gas only.

0 to 62 mph for the Bentley Continental Supersports comes in 3.9 seconds with a top speed of 204 mph.

2010 Bentley Arnage

http://photos.webridestv.com/datastore/images/user/68ac106295cef1abc54f93c860edc2eb/Bentley_Arnage_2010_91205_20080617_l.jpg
2010 Bentley Arnage

2010 Bentley Continental Supersport

$267,000 - that’s how much you’ll have to cash out to own the fastest, most powerful Bentley ever produced - otherwise known as the Bentley Continental Supersports. You can place your order starting October 2009.


Power comes from a 6.0L W12 twin-turbocharged engine making 621-hp and a maximum torque of 590 lb-ft. The engine is capable of running on gasoline and E85 biofuel or any combination of the two. Keep in mind that the first couple hundred units headed to the U.S. will be gas only.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

2010 Bentley Arnage

2010 bentley arnage
Autocar reports that the Bentley Arnage will be replaced with a new model for the 2010 model year. Amid speculation that the Veyron-engined Arnage built recently and described by Bentley as a “prototype” is an indication of the next-generation Arnage’s powerplant – almost 1000 hp – the word is that the 2010 Arnage will have an aluminum spaceframe chassis produced by Audi, an aluminum body, and possibly a hybrid version of the current 6.75 liter V-8 using the transmission developed for the Audi Q7
hybrid or the hybrid transmission currently under development for the next Audi Quattro.

Autocar cites Audi’s chief of engineering, Michael Dick, as a source for the spaceframe information. Dick has recently said that Audi’s spaceframe would be the basis for all new Bentleys, saving about 330 lbs. in weight. Bentley has also disclosed that it will display a concept model which emphasizes “green” thinking at the 2008 Geneva Motor Show. It is also expected that there may be major modifications made to the Bentley factory, both to accommodate the next Arnage and to accommodate production of other future Bentley models which will be based on the same spaceframe.

Despite the recent appearance of a Veyron-engined prototype version of the current Arnage, Bentley’s boss, Franz-Joseph Paefgen, has said that the company intends to keep the 6.75 liter powerplant used in the current model, but retune it to meet 2009 European Union emissions standards. That will be quite a feat for an engine that was first introduced fifty years ago. Even more challenging will be the next set of emissions standards. But, the company is currently working, according to Paefgen, on meeting the 2013-15 EU emissions standards with the 6.75 liter engine. “All our engineers want to keep the engine alive,” he said. Perhaps the W16 from the Veyron is merely a fall-back plan.

Introducing a model smaller than the current Bentleys, however, seems to be a plan that’s been rejected. Though Bentley anticipates that it may need to improve fuel efficiency by 20%, it does not intend to downsize the cars. “We may need to shed weight, but we still need to produce cars of a Bentley size,” according to Paefgen.

2010 Bentley Azure T







Based on Azure model, the Bentley Azure T offers a wide palette of discrete properties of the body, which pronounce even more the power and announce some potential in sport performance. Through the key elements that describe it, our attention is drown by the 20 inches aroid rims that are made from two pieces and 5 spokes also the air scoops “Le Mans” placed on the front wings.

Other standard characteristic from Azure are available such as standard option like the radiator grid, the lower grid painted in dark colors, the tank cover “Jewel” and side mirrors in the same color as the body.
Just like Bentley Brooklands, Azure T approaches the legendary “B with wings”. For the concept of the car we have to thank the artist F. Gordon Crosby, this emblem was mounted for the first time on the Bentley cars on the 8 liters engine in 1930.

With the exterior lines that reveal visual elements just like the Bentley Mk.6 from 1946, Azure was welcome with enthusiasm in 2005 in Los Angeles. Now with the preparing for the launch of Azure T in Los Angeles, Raul Pires, the director of the design department of the body from Bentley Motors a notice:
” The proportions of Azure have offer us a base idea to create the new Azure T. The bold wings on the rear and her “top model” body have inspired our designers to reinterpret the convertible Bentley.

Exceptional lines of the rims go together with the trunk line that sows us that this one is smaller and younger, but makes room to a round dash board and is in a hors shoe form. This elegant form is a smile for the first Bentley built at Crewe, The Mk 6 model, and the main effect is a discreet illusion of the power and performance that lies in the body of Azure T.

The subtlest chrome elements pronounce the fluid lines of Bentley Azure T, and also include the frame of the lights, the exhaust end and the fine vanillin’s that are over the car.

Bentley invest time and effort to transform the hood of Bentley Azure T a hood that has it looks but it is also functional. It’s made from 3 layers of calico, the hood it is hydraulic opened, with a simple touch of a button. The roof, when is acted, elegant rearrange itself in 25 seconds also with a simple touch of a button. Being stored in a independent zone, the roof dos not change the space of the trunk, trunk that is design to hold 2 equipment of golf and a hand bag.

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Bentley

The Bentley Continental Supersport blends luxury and performance. Photo / Supplied

The Bentley Continental Supersport blends luxury and performance. Photo / Supplied

Unlike new variants of production cars, Bentley's Supersport wasn't planned. It came, according to Bentley's head of exterior design Raul Pires, after the company's engineers began playing around.

As they were developing the Continental range, "the designers over-engineered, then we made a judgment call," Pires says. "We realised we could make an extreme Bentley."

Pires says the engineers worked on weight saving and technical changes, and it all went from there.

It sounds amazingly casual, but petrol just leaks from Bentley folk, they can't help themselves. So those engineers gave Pires a play in their altered GT to get the feel of it and he got to work, his changes largely mandated by technical tweaks to the standard Continental GT.

"A car is never too wide or too low," Pires says, pointing out the wider rear arches to accommodate a 50mm increase in track and beefier wheels. They underline the greater rear-drive bias - the torque split for the four-wheel-drive system now 40:60 front to rear.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Bentley's GTC Speed has got your number

Bentley GTC Speed

On the prowl: the Bentley GTC Speed may be a 200mph soft-top, but it'll be driven slowly in cities by narcissists. Photograph: James Royall

BENTLEY GTC SPEED
£153,400
MILES PER GALLON: 17
CO2 PER KM: 396 GRAMS
GOOD FOR: SHOW PONIES
BAD FOR: PIT PONIES

If you've ever arrived in London from the west via the great maw of the M4, colliding with the congested capital like a piece of arterial plaque swirling into a diseased heart, you may have found yourself edging down towards Chelsea. You'd have hit the river – and standstill traffic – at Cheyne Walk and, if you were still in touch with your senses, you might have noticed on your left two Bentleys which are usually parked in an open-fronted private garage. Their number plates read 2B and NOT 2B. Plates such as these sell for huge sums. A few months ago 1O went for £210,242. A personalised plate is the ultimate accessory for the super-rich car owner. I knew I had to start looking for a new dentist when the one I'd been seeing for years bought GOB 1 for his Porsche – a shade of dark grey that reminded me of my fillings. And, true or not, Peter Andre's gift of BO55Y KT for Jordan's Range Rover must have been worth every penny.

Research carried out by the insurance company elephant.co.uk shows that if you are the owner of a nursing home, live in western Stirlingshire and own a Ferrari 360, you will almost certainly have a personalised number plate, because that's the occupation, location and vehicle which have the highest percentage of personalised plates in Britain. Incidentally, if you are a janitor, live on Merseyside and drive a Ford Orion you will almost certainly not own a personalised plate.

This week, I've been driving a Bentley with the number 2000TU. TU was a local registration plate for the Chester area and Bentley own a dozen or so "cherish plates" with this suffix. They also own 1 WO and 21 WO – the WO standing for Wilfred Owen (Bentley), the founder of the historic marque. During a long sunny weekend in the Bentley, plenty of people stopped and stared, but I don't think it had much to do with the cherish plate and everything to do with the fact that the Bentley in question was a pearlescent white convertible with "smoked" low-pro 20in alloys and a Glastonbury-sized stereo.

It's impossible to sit in the 200mph, 6-litre, twin-turbo, 600bhp, two-and-a-half tonne tourer without being in two minds. On the one hand, it's the epitome of limitless power and budgetless motoring. On the other it is an expression of unmatched vulgarity and over-the-top excess. There is no justification for its dreadful fuel consumption or poor emissions record. The Speed variant costs 20 grand more than its standard GTC cousin, and for that you get 15% more power, nicer seats, bigger wheels and wider exhaust pipes. Given that it stood out on my suburban street like Lady Gaga at a Women's Institute cake sale, I was braced for abuse. But all I got was a steady stream of "Nice car, mister!", "Good choice" and "That's the car, man!" My wife had two women come up to her and cheer, "You go girl!"

Saturday, October 10, 2009

2010 Bentley Continental Supersports First Drive

2010 Bentley Continental Supersports

2010 Bentley Continental Supersports

2010 Bentley Continental Supersports

Bentley describes the new 2010 Bentley Continental Supersports as “a fusion of extremes.” And that it is, starting with the name itself, which fuses the “Continental” badge, which dates to the brand’s 1950s models, and “Supersports,” a descriptor first given to a series of speed-record-setting Bentleys in the 1920s. Styling-wise, 2010 Bentley Continental Supersports look is also a blend of the elegant body shape of the Continental GT coupe and sinister elements such as black wheels and gaping front intakes. The interior remains inarguably luxurious, yet eschews stodgy wood and puffy seats in favor of intense carbon-fiber trim and lightweight racing shells.

If this sounds like high-brow automotive schizophrenia, just know tha­­­­t each enhancement achieves the purpose stated by the Supersports name, contributing small but effective measures that elevate the Supersports out of the sphere where normal Continentals exist and into a world of faster, more exclusive, and even more prestigious nameplates. Think of it as a big-boned Aston Martin DBS and you won’t be far off.
2010 Bentley Continental Supersports

Bentley Builds a Velvet Battering Ram

bently_mg_5482

Bentley’s new flagship is a massive yet stately battering ram of an automobile that oh-so-politely says, “I am very important. Please do get out of my way.”

Nothing about the Mulsanne is subtle, from the 505-horsepower twin-turbo V8 propelling the behemoth to the optional 21-inch wheels carrying it. The Mulsanne almost makes a Cadillac Escalade on dubs look understated. This is a car that no more than a few thousand people will ever buy, and as such it provides the utmost luxury — and lets everyone know it.

“This car is obviously a statement,” Christophe Georges, the company’s president and chief operating officer, told Wired.com during a sneak-peek in San Francisco before the car was unveiled today at the Frankfurt auto show. “We want this car to be the pinnacle of Bentley.”

“Car” seems too plebeian for something that takes nine weeks to build and almost certainly costs more than $350,000.

Although Bentley remains a British company that has built cars in Crewe since W.O. Bentley spun wrenches, it is owned by Volkswagen. You can see Teutonic influence in the styling, which is muscular and athletic. The Mulsanne looks like it was milled from billet. It is huge, almost 219 inches long and 76 inches wide, but more graceful than the Rolls-Royce Phantom and Maybach 57. Bentley hasn’t said what the Mulsanne weighs, but the Arnage is just shy of three tons.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Bentley may make Continental Supersports convertible

Bentley Continental Supersports f

The Bentley Continental is getting isn't getting any younger and soon it's going to need replacing. But while Bentley's focus is firmly fixed on the new Mulsanne and the variations expected to follow, the "entry-level" Continental hasn't been forgotten. The Continental has already spawned seven different derivatives – including the GT coupe, GTC cabrio, Flying Spur sedan, Speed versions of each and the Supersports coupe – but recent reports indicate that adding an eighth version is being considered.

The variant in question would be a Supersports convertible, featuring the same 621-horsepower, flex-fuel twin-turbo 6.0-litre W12 (21 hp more than standard) as the Supersports coupe. In the process, the GTC would drop some weight – and receive carbon ceramic brakes andonly have room for two occupants. Sources indicate that if goes ahead, the Continental Supersports convertible would likely reach market about a year from now, where it would almost certainly command the highest price in the Continental range.

Friday, October 2, 2009

2010 Bentley Continental GT Supersports


2010 Bentley Continental GT Supersports

On the other hand, if you think it possible – by way of octane-rich biofuel – to reconcile massive, brain-pan-sloshing displays of horsepower and torque with a reduction in carbon emissions - and keep a straight face - then by all means read on.

Bentley’s comeback-kid Continental GT, introduced in 2004, was better known as a grand tourer than a jagged-edged racetrack scamp. Then came the GT Speed, which added more power and nimble road manners, and it became the first Bentley to reach over 200 miles per hour. Then, a 24-month skunkworks project yielded the Supersport, an even more powerful variant that’s also lighter and, set up to run on ethanol – large quantities of it - emits less CO2.

Of course, only the most passionate lovers of internal-combustion engines might cut Bentley slack for kicking off an environmental sensitivity project with a fuel-swilling, neck-snapping bruiser of a sports car. But the Volkswagen-owned company has committed to cutting carbon emissions, and you can't deny the Supersports is a conversation starter in that regard. Bentley says using biofuel in the Supersports sums to 70 percent less emissions "well to wheels," which takes into account all the CO2s emitted as fossil fuels go from primordial ooze to food for supercars.

Plus, since the average Bentley owner has six other cars in his garage to choose from, a typical model logs just 8,000 miles a year. It's always possible for one of those other cars in heavy rotation to be a Prius, or a bicycle.

But enough sturm und drang. The Supersports' reason for being is simply outrageous fun. It gets power from the typical Bentley 6.0-liter, twin-turbocharged W12, tweaked to 621 hp and 590 pounds-feet of torque. That sounds like a lot, but the 12-pot has to pull serious weight -- 2.5 short tons. That’s 4,939 pounds – a ton more than a Ferrari F430. Nonetheless, the Supersports’ power-to-weight ratio works out quite well, indeed.

A strategic weight-reduction plan helped push the right end of that ratio downward. Swapping the Continental GT's luxury seats with lightweight racing buckets from Sparco, clad in diamond-stitched leather and alcantara (a grippy faux suede), along with other interior shavings cut 157 pounds. Changing the big steel brakes with carbon-ceramics saved 44 pounds of unsprung mass, new wheels: 22 lbs, chassis mods: 20 lbs. It doesn't sound like much, considering the traditional Continental GT weighs over five large, but the physics of it all belie the numbers.

That means it can dance. Imagine the late Andre the Giant in the Ballet Russe. Light, quick steering and heightened antiroll hardware connive to give the massive Supersports the alert feel of a smaller car hauling around far fewer pounds. Along the winding secondary highways of upstate, New York, the Supersports flitted from hill to dale like a Kodiak bear performing Cirque du Soleil’s “flying man” act (the one where they hang from the ropes). Hat tip to the engineers.

Keeping all that power under command is a traction control system that’s been modified for the Supersports’ higher performance. It's more compliant than similar systems. If a driver overcooks a turn and loses traction, for example, the system's software algorithm can detect a skilled move to correct, or a ham-fisted saw at the wheel. In the case of former, the ESP will add a strategic touch of brakes, but won’t intrude to cut power like others do.