Bentley has finally unveiled its new flagship saloon - the Mulsanne - reviving a name last used on its cars in 1992.
The successor to the venerable Arnage, which has been around since 1998, was revealed at the weekend's Pebble Beach Concours D'Elegance in Monterey, California. The new Mulsanne shared podium space at the event with the 1930 8-litre Bentley, the last car to be entirely designed, engineered and built from scratch by Bentley as an independent company before its merger with Rolls-Royce.
"The 8-litre's breathtaking performance and quality was perhaps the finest example of a 'pure' grand Bentley. Every mechanical detail carried W.O. Bentley's unique stamp and it was the clearest demonstration of a car built without compromise," commented Dr. Ulrich Eichhorn, Member of the Board Engineering. "The Mulsanne has been designed with exactly the same guiding principles, so it is entirely fitting that these Bentleys from different eras share the same stage."
The new Bentley Mulsanne sits on a unique platform and is an utterly bespoke product - even the doorhandles have been developed specifically for the car. It will be built in an all-new manufacturing facility within the company's Crewe HQ. Other than that, Bentley has revealed little technical information about the car, although the famous 6.75-litre V8 is retained, albeit in a much-modified form.
As for the looks of the thing, the Bentley press release says: "The Bentley design team, lead by Dirk van Braeckel, have created a flagship that offers the classic sporting, styling cues long-associated with Bentley - expressed in a thoroughly contemporary way."
We wouldn't argue too much with that. All the classic design cues are there - the prominent clamshell bonnet, the mesh grille, the quad headlamps, the tapered tailgate (a nod to the Bentleys of the '50s and '60s). It all looks pretty modern, too, particularly the treatment of the headlights. One thing though - does it really need those 21-inch wheels?
The New Bentley Mulsanne will be on show at Frankfurt in September, and will go into production early next year. The first cars should reach customers by mid-2010.
1930 8-litre said to inspire the Mulsanne