First Drive Review: 2011 Bentley Mulsanne

In one light, the 2011 Bentley Mulsanne is just another expensive car. But refocus that light slightly, and its launch becomes a rare occurrence indeed.


It is the first car designed from the ground up solely as a Bentley since the 8-Litre of 1928, and it is meant to represent all that Bentley stands for. It succeeds the 2009 Arnage, which went out of production last October, as the marque's largest sedan.

The Mulsanne was first revealed last year at the Pebble Beach Concours d"Elegance in August, and first customer deliveries will start this fall. The Mulsanne is built and trimed at the traditional Bentley factory in Crewe, which was renovated for the new luxury sedan.

The new 2011 Mulsanne is a fast, luxurious, four-door sedan that hides a fair amount of modern technology inconspicuously within a classic recipe. In the words of Stuart McCullough, Bentley's board member for sales and marketing, the 2011 Mulsanne is "a big, heavy car, and unashamedly so."

It provides drivers with a "stately, dominant feeling," and it is meant to rule the category of ultra-luxurious four-door sedans. But it does so quietly, in a slightly understated way. As the Brits would say, the Mulsanne isn't flash. It's just big, and handcrafted.

That makes it entirely different in spirit and presentation from such new entries as the Porsche Panamera and Aston-Martin Rapide.

Bentley have been building cars like this since the 1920s, and existing Arnage owners were quite clear that they wanted a Bentley that maintained the traditional values- a huge low-revving V-8 engine providing a "wave of torque" in a hand-built four-door car with an interior crafted of woods, leathers, and metals-and were willing to pay for it.

The U.S. price starts at $285,000, plus a $2,595 delivery fee--and options will add up quickly.

Bentley Mulsanne sold out

The Bentley customers have booked all the Mulsanne units to be built by 2012. The British company considers increasing the production to meet the demand.

The Brits from Bentley announced that all Mulsanne units which will be produced by 2012 have been booked by customers. By 2012, the Crewe manufacturer has committed to build 800 Bentley Mulsanne units to meet orders made before. Although officials have announced that Bentley take into account the increase in production, it will not be achieved easily.

As you know, Bentley Mulsanne is painted in 86 hours and the assembling takes 170 hours. The painting of all 800 units that will be produced by 2012 will take about 68,800 hours and their assembly will take 136,000 hours. Increasing the number of employees is not an option for those of Bentley than small areas because of their training lasts very long, and each employee needs a time until it is ready for production line.

2010 Bentley Continental Ultrasports : Wheelsandmore

Wheelsandmore, german individual tuner for sports- and supersportscars, has revealed their custom modifications on the Bentley Continental Supersports.







With serial power about 630 hp the Bentley Continental Supersports already is the most powerful and fastest sportscoupe ever built by Bentley. But Wheelsandmore thought of much more and developed an ecu upgrade, combined with a handmade, stainless steel exhaust system. With special sportcatalysts, the ecu upgrade and within a remote controlled valve flap system, they increased the power up to 702 bhp and 650 lb-ft of torque.

2011 Bentley Mulsanne First Drive

It didn't seem like a dangerous maneuver at first: a simple pass on a two-lane road in a car with an engine putting out 752 pound-feet of torque. Piece of cake, right? Yeah, well, even with its aluminum body panels this new 2011 Bentley Mulsanne still weighs 5,700 pounds, which is only slightly less than the sizable truck bearing down on us from the opposite direction.

No backing off, though; this isn't a Rolls-Royce. We keep our foot in it and the eight-speed transmission drops another gear or two. The Mulsanne doesn't exactly leap forward and doesn't make much noise either, but according to the speedometer we are indeed moving quite a bit faster.

We clear the little penalty box that was slowing us up and snap the Mulsanne back into our own lane before the opposing truck gets a new, $285,000 hood ornament. The Bentley tucks back in nicely before settling down onto its air-spring suspension as if it just rounded a gentle curve.