Check out this new special edition Bentley – the Bentley Continental Series 51. You can freely compare it to Rolls-Royce’s spiffy Bespoke Collection which will be unveiled at the Frankfurt show.

Cars in the Series 51 line serves as a tribute to the establishment of Bentley’s official styling department that was started by John Blatchley in Crewe.

Frankfurt will see a Continental Series 51 serving as an example of the Series 51 styling line. Bentley is planning to release seven more all with different stylings inside and outside the car.

Each of the cars are set to be the design team’s take if they had their way with the lines which they had with the Series 51. To identify the series, the cars would have ‘51′ badges on the front wings.

Source: Autocar

Finally, after all those teasers that have gone way old, Bentley unveiled their replacement for the Arnage – the Bentley Mulsanne – at the Pebble Beach Concours in California. As the Arnage replacement, the Mulsanne will be the new top range car in Bentley’s fleet.

Despite all of the hoopla, Bentley now says that the Mulsanne is “neither an evolution or revision of Arnage.” Which is quite a weird way of putting it given that the design’s almost all new and that it shares only just one piece with another Bentley (the door mirrors from the SuperSports).

“The Mulsanne combines the technological feel of the Continental models with the prestige of the Arnage,” he said. “But we wanted to preserve the Arnage’s exclusivity, and avoid duplicating the Continental’s look. The Mulsanne needs to express a higher level of a coachbuilt look, and be more bespoke.”

Powering the Mulsanne is an updated version of the L-series 6.75L V8 that traces its roots all the way back to 1959. The updates basically modernize the car to pass current emission standards. Bentley also promises the engine to churn out more torque.

Source: Leftlane

Hehehe. Nothing spoils a long-drawn teaser run than a couple of spy shooters with good eyes and lenses. Sorry, Bentley, you don’t have to tease us as much now. We’ve got a pretty good idea of what you’ve been teasing us with.

Kudos to your cover-up guys doing a good job imitating the Rolls-Royce Phantom to disguise your mule. But those headlights are a dead give-away. The other parts like the chromed intake under the grille takes off from Bentley’s parent company VW’s current design themes.

Powering the new “Grand Bentley” is the turbocharged 6.75-litre V8 but with new components. The engine design has been in use from way back mid-20th century.

Well this raises the stakes for Bentley. Whether they surprise us by dropping a bombshell come the Pebble Beach concours when they unveil the car in its full naked glory.

Source and Photo Credit: Autocar

Bentley has released a teaser image of its new grand Bentley luxury car, which will be replacing the Bentley Arnage once its 150-unit Final Series stops production within the year. Bentley says that it will be “the purest expression of the Bentley spirit.”

The teaser image reveals the hood portion of the car, showing a clamshell-style bonnet tapering as it approaches the grille. The Bentley wings spread out atop the grill. The new design will have some similarities to the Continental and the Flying Spur

The new Grand Bentley is touted to be the vanguard of Bentley’s new design philosophies. Bentley says that future designs could also feature spaceframe chassis modified from those that Audi uses.

In addition, Bentley chairman Franz-Josef Paefgen confirmed that the company will not be dabbling in the diesel market even if the company has the tech to manufacture diesel variants of its cars. Paefgen admits that the company won’t be able to push for the lead when it comes to diesel cars, and that Bentley will have to see how Volkswagen and other automakers do with their diesel sales in the US.

Watch out. Tweed-wearing gents with a lot of money can give young rockstars in their Ferraris a run for their money. Bentley will be debuting their fastest car ever – the Bentley Continental Supersports – in Geneva.

The car packs a 6.0L W12 twin-turbo engine that dishes out massive 621 horses with a maximum of 590 lb-ft of torque. The engine propels the car from naught to sixty in just 3.9 seconds and a top speed of 204 mph – clearly numbers that can scare other supercars drivers. And that’s a feat given that Bentleys are typical houses on wheels though the Supersports is lighter than the old GT.

Amazingly, the car runs on both gasoline and biofuel through Bentley’s FlexFuel compatible system. No pricing yet and more details will be made available as launch date nears.

Source: Bentley

The Bentley Continental GTC is getting a makeover for 2009, with the launch of the Bentley Continental GTC Speed, providing a power boost for the grand tourer coupe convertible.

The Bentley Continental GTC Speed will sport a tweaked 6.0-liter W12 compared to the one on the standard GTC. The Speed’s is capable of 600 brake horsepower (the non-Speed goes only 552 bhp). With the top down, the Speed can go for a top speed of 195 mph. If it’s got the roof up, it can go 200 mph. It has a 0-60 time of 4.5 seconds.

The GTC Speed’s front suspension is lowered by 10mm, while the rear is lowered by 15mm. It also features all-new dampers and springs. The Speed also features a new Dynamic mode for the Electronic Stability Program, which allows faster and easier cornering. Other additional updates include a redesigned front bumper with bigger intakes for better cooling, a new grille, bigger tailpipes, and new 20-inch wheels.

The 2009 Bentley Continental GTC is surely a looker, and the updated styling and upgraded features should more than make up for the cost.

Source: Autocar

In an interview with Auto Motor und Sport of Germany, Martin Winterkorn, chairman of Volkswagen AG, said that Bentley could very well start using diesel engines on some of its models. Just when they said they wouldn’t. Ugh.

“With Bentley we will react to the changing market conditions. I could well imagine a six-cylinder twin-turbocharged diesel in a Bentley,” Winterkorn said in the interview.

This goes against the intentions of Franz Josef Paefgen, who had already made a statement that Bentley did not have any plans to make use of diesel engines on upcoming cars. Winterkorn is quite possibly looking at the new 3.0-litre V6 that Audi is currently working on. The engine is reportedly capable of 300 brake horsepower and 440lb.-ft. of torque. The engine will be revealed at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show.

Bentley currently uses variations on Volkswagen’s reciprocating engines or piston engines, such as the 6.0-liter turbocharged W12 engine found in the Bentley Continental GT and the Bentley Continental Flying Spur. Bentley is also borrowing heavily from VW’s hybrid engine technology in its efforts to produce its own hybrid cars.

Source: Autocar

If you think these elite luxury badges wouldn’t feel the brunt of the crunch, think again. Apparently even names like Bentley do feel the brunt of falling sales figures. The company decided to axe 300 workers from its Continental production line.

The factory used to run a three-day at three shifts per day a week. Now, they decided to create a four-day week with two shifts each work day. While some workers will be assimilated into the new shift schedules, 300 workers will still be left without jobs after the move.

The Crewe factory in Cheshite will be the first factory to lay off such a number of workers due to dropping sales figures. But with the horrible trend of the car market these days? It will not be surprising to see others follow suit.

Source: Autocar

Now it’s Bentley’s turn to preview their offering for the upcoming Paris Motor Show and what an offering it is. It’s a special limited edition of the Arnage dubbed the Final Series. The Arnage was initially launched by Bentley ten years ago as an entirely new design for the company. It has made a lot of incarnations since then and since all good thing must come to an end, we have this Final Series.

Bentley will make only 150 of these models. Powering each of these very special vehicles is a Bentley 6.75 L V8 twin-turbo that produces 500 bhp and 738 lb-ft of torque. Mind you that this powerplant is a legend of its own, taking roots as far as 50 years back.

This Final Series is said to have the combined performance of the Arnage T and the luxuriousness of the R. A few unique details like the rear cocktail cabinet with a stainless steel flask unique to the Final Series that comes with two shot glasses as a set. Four Bentley umbrellas are mounted in the trunk to shield you from the elements when walking to and from this car. That and the obvious statement to the world that you ride a Bentley.

And since this is really the final run for the Arnage, Bentley should be looking forward into the future then. While they can’t give any concrete statements, Bentley mentioned that they are well under way into developing their new flagship vehicle which is slated to be suited for a more selected clientele.

Source: Bentley

Is there a some sign in the world where it says “Diesel is for poor people”? Not that it can even be argued to this point. Everyone else is going diesel. And that includes Merc and even Porsche. Even Ferrari experimented on diesel last year with F1 no less. But here we have Bentley saying “No.”

At least Bentley deflects the responsibility towards their customers citing buyers’ opinion. Bentley drivers are opposed to their favored cars running on diesel. Most of the Bentleys are sold in US and Asia markets which aren’t big diesel markets and making Europe an isolated case seems to be a not-so-wise business move.

But that doesn’t stop Bentley from going green as well. They are now pursuing ranges that would be running on biofuel and made from waste material at that!. Now that’d be nice. Seeing rich people getting smug about their Bentleys running on waste. But hey, doesn’t Prince Charles’ car run on booze?

Oh vanity, thy name is some rich motorist bastard. Or just plainly some rich bastard. Presenting another one of those useless inventions of all time – a Bentley laptop. Oh and spare us that “closest thing you can get to driving a Bentley” quip. I mean, sure, the rest of humankind wouldn’t be able own (or even ride) a Bentley unless we all get a lot of money to burn, but who would want a Bentley laptop produced by Ego.

The specs aren’t even drool worthy – 64-bit CPU with a 160 GB hard drive that runs on Windows F*cking Vista? For £10,000 ($19,920), you’d better off buying seven 17-inch MacBook Pros with that kind of money. The Acer Ferrari and the Asus Lamborghini packed more bang than this thing and those don’t cost a fortune!

I have to agree with Autoblog in their take that it looks like it’s a spiffed up George Forman Grille, because it does. Only it comes with custom stitching and a carrying handle inspired by a Bentley door handle.

After wowing us by driving the oozing-with-sex-appeal Aston Martin DBS in the movie Casino Royale, everyone’s favorite British spy will go back to driving a Bentley. Not for the movies though, but for the new novel Devil May Care.

Written by Sebastian Faulks, the book commemorates the centenary of the birth of Bond creator Ian Fleming. With this, Faulks brings 007 back to the car that he originally drove – the Bentley.

The new novel is set in 1967 at the height of the Cold war. The plot’s kept secret but word has it that the Bentley will be ‘battleship grey’ which is the same color of the Bentley driven by Bond in the Casino Royale novel. Further speculation says that it might be a T-series probably the T1 (pictured, manufactured by Bentley from 1965 to 1977.

If rumor is true, then 007 will be plowing the roads with some good old V8 powerhouse in a Bentley. James May owns a T2 though. So would that make this Bond car “Seriously Uncool” on the Cool Wall?

Source: Top Gear