The long overdue Arnage replacement from Bentley will be in the showroom by late 2010, the Crewe firm 'revealing' its new car with a single image today. The picture, which comes with no technical details and only shows the new car's flying-B badge and a portion of its bonnet, is accompanied by a short video and a website link (
www.newgrandbentley.com).
The accompanying website promises that the new flagship will be a 'fusion of extremes' and 'the epitome of Bentley'. Quite what that means is open to debate, but extreme luxury, extreme performance and of course extreme pricing are all certain to be a given. The gravitas it brings should be pure Bentley, too. The outgoing Arnage can trace its roots back to the days when Bentley and Rolls-Royce co-existed happily together rather than competing head on. The new Grand Bentley will do battle with the Rolls-Royce Phantom, as well as Maybach's 57 and 62 models.
Combining sumptuous luxury with the sort of sporting, effortless performance Bentley buyers expect will require a mighty powerplant. Bentley has long held that its V8 engine is the unit of choice for its flagship saloons, but its access to the VW group parts bin does give the Crewe firm a tantalising range of options to pick from should it choose to pension off the 50-year-old engine. There are rumours of a prototype Bentley powered by a version of the
Bugatti Veyron's quad-turbo W16 engine, Volkswagen known to be keen to recoup some of the massive investment it poured into Bugatti's engine development by slotting it under another bonnet. The Grand Bentley would look like a natural candidate, though sources within Bentley claim the new car is a completely Crewe-designed project.
Despite Bentley's aim to reduce its CO
2 output and fuel consumption, it's unlikely that the new Grand Bentley will feature diesel or hybrid powertrains. Instead, economy savings will be made by weight and other efficiency savings. Like the Arnage, the new flagship will offer plenty of individualisation options, Bentley's Mulliner department certain to be able to provide the new car to the exacting specifications of its demanding customers.
Timings for the new car's launch are a little less vague than the technical details; Bentley is expected to reveal a near production-ready model later this summer, with cars running down the production line from 2010. Bentley's most loyal customers will probably already have deposits in place, the new car likely to weigh in with a price tag above that of the circa £200,000 starting price for an Arnage and closer to the near £300,000 rivals ask for their flagship luxury saloons.
Kyle Fortune - 10 Jun 2009