For decades now Bentley has been a strong competitor to the likes of Rolls Royce. They offered machines like the Mulsanne that offered ultimate levels of comfort and luxury for the dignitaries, rulers and drug-lords of the world. But then Volkswagen rebadged the Phaeton to create the Continental and things changed forever. Bentley instantly swapped from a boring ho-hum brand of machines for the ultra-rich to a company that offered sporting luxury GT cars like Aston Martin and Maserati . Then Bentley went and made a faster, better version they dubbed Speed and it was good. Now Bentley is looking to once again inject a bit of speed and excitement into their lineup and they have made a new Speed version of the Mulsanne?!
That is right, Bentley has taken its gigantic luxo-barge and crammed it full of engine and upgraded chassis bits to create the Mulsanne Speed. Despite record levels of power and performance for the brand, Bentley was smart to keep a rather subtle (or as subtle as a giant Bentley can be) exterior design.
Did Bentley just create the ultimate luxury sleeper? Read on to find out all the details and decide for yourself.
Updated 10/03/2014: Bentley unveiled at the 2014 Paris Auto Show the most powerful, fastest Mulsanne ever.
In our rendering, the Mulsanne Speed wears a splitter up front, side skirts, smoked headlamps with black inserts and a dark-black metal mesh grille. We also lowered its stance slightly and topped it off with a ’Speed’ badge on the side.
As with all cars of this level, the exterior design is quite restrained and clean considering its sporting intentions. From the old Mulsanne, Bentley has added a dark finish to the grilles that cover the nose, lower bumper vents and wing vents. If you have a very sharp eye, you will also notice that the headlamps and taillamps are tinted a bit darker as well.
One of the more noticeable changes for the new Bentley Mulsanne Speed is the new set of wheels. These new wheels are directional, a first for Bentley, and are “handed;" meaning they are set for one side of the car or the other. No left-to-right tire rotations here, folks. Expect them to cost a fortune to replace if you ever damage them. Each 21-inch roller is individually machined from solid, forged blanks.
To round out the changes, Bentley has added some nice new rifled exhaust pipes for the upgraded engine and four new paint colors: Spectre, Candy Red, Camel and Marlin. The weird black/gold/green car we have here in our photos is the new Spectre paint.
EXTERIOR DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase | 3,266 mm / 128.6" |
---|---|
Overall length | 5,575 mm / 219.5" |
Width (across body) | 1,926 mm / 75.8" (width with mirrors folded) |
Width (inc. mirrors) | 2,208 mm / 86.9" |
Overall height | 1,521 mm / 59.9" |
Fuel tank | 96 liters / 21.1 gallons / 25.4 US gallons |
Boot volume | 443 liters / 15.64 cu. ft |
Kerb weight (EU) | 2,685 kg / 5,919 lb |
Gross vehicle weight | 3,200 kg / 7,055 lb |
http://www.topspeed.com/
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