RSS

Contact us

Saturday 11 October 2008

Bentley beauty

Alan Judd goes Motoring

To start with, it looks good — flowing, graceful, no B pillar but tons (literally) of road presence. Coupés have to convince because otherwise they’re simply saloons with the inconvenience of two doors and low-rear headroom, and this looks right from every angle. In the back there are reclining rear seats and enough room to snooze in comfort. The interior is all wood and leather (a herd of 16 donated their hides) with the roof lining cleverly panelled to suggest something nautical. Fascia controls — the radio, particularly — are simple and elegant, with plenty of knurled finishing and Eric Gill’s peerless typeface. Gizmos and gimmicks such as more gauges or self-closing doors are eschewed — by customer preference — though they could do with a simple mechanism for closing the boot without dirtying your fingers in Tuscan mud. You can, however, once again have the famous winged B on the bonnet (as an extra), now retractable and impact-tested.

Beneath that bonnet is the most powerful version yet of Bentley’s 49-year-old V8, the world’s second-oldest continuous-production car engine (Chevrolet’s 1953 small block V8 was first). With 530bhp and 774lb ft of torque available at the end of the (sensibly long-travel) throttle, the engineering problem was to keep the rest of the car on the road; it is achieved with a scarcely credible combination of almost sporting agility, luxury and solidity of feel. I mention that two people complained of feeling sick in the back on those winding roads merely to have something critical to say.

Of course, if they’d heeded market research they’d never have built it. There was no gap in the Bentley line-up and environmentally its 14.5mpg and CO2 rating of 465g/km will be seen by some as provocative (although the entire Bentley range is due to reduce consumption by 40 per cent and run on renewable fuels by 2012). That it was built was due to two men, chief designer Dirk van Braeckel and chief executive Dr Franz-Josef Paefgen. The former saw it grow in his mind’s eye as he contemplated a crashed Azure (the big convertible) in the workshop one day; the latter had the vision, determination and engineering confidence to see this as a car that creates its own market. Both were triumphantly right: it’s a handsome great beast that has proved a commercial success before it even hits the road. They’re going to make only 550, will take three years to do it and have already sold nearly 500. Call Crewe now if you want one.

More articles from: Alan Judd | this section

Print this article  |  Email to a friend  |  Permalink  |   Comment

Post this entry to:   del.icio.us | Digg | Newsvine | NowPublic | Reddit

Advertisement

Spectator Business | Apollo Magazine

Corporate | Advertising | Privacy | Terms

Spectator, 22 Old Queen Street, London, SW1H 9HP

All Articles and Content Copyright ©2008 by The Spectator | All Rights Reserved