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2017 Bentley Flying Spur W12 S laughs at the 200-mph barrier

A 200-plus-mile-per-hour sedan will always be more audacious than a similarly speedy coupe. These days, cracking 200 in a lightweight two-door is basically just expected. But reaching that speed in a sedan – a big, heavy, leather-and-wood-lined palace of a four-door – is more challenging. Bentley has finally done it. The new Flying Spur W12 S takes the smaller of Bentley's two sedans up to a lofty 202 mph – up from 199 in the standard model – thanks to the efforts of a more potent W12. The company's engineers boosted output from 616 to 626 horsepower and torque from 590 pound-feet to 605. On top of the increased top speed, the W12 S can hit 60 miles per hour in just 4.2 seconds. A retuned suspension with unique damper and stability control settings promises a more agile Flying Spur flagship, too. There are also aesthetic tweaks to set the Flying Spur's headlining act. We're digging the black elements in the LED headlights and taillights. The new lights play nice with the blacked-out grille – which Bentley insists on calling Beluga – 21-inch wheels, and other accents scattered around the body. We think the pale blue sedan in the gallery works better than on the Jack-O-Lantern orange Flying Spur. Changes in the cabin are more modest – there's a nice "W12 S" script in the headrests and a new two-tone color split interior that's limited to this range-topping S model. Bentley will deliver the first Flying Spur W12 S sedans near the end of 2016. And if you want an even more potent Flying Spur, somehow, we're guessing a Speed model will supplant the W12 S sooner rather than later. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2017 Bentley Flying Spur W12 S News Source: BentleyImage Credit: Bentley Bentley Luxury Performance Sedan bentley flying spur

Bentley's 1,000th Mulliner project is a one-off purple Bentayga

Bentley's Mulliner division completed its 1,000th project in July 2021, and the milestone car is one you can't miss unless you park it in a lavender field. It's a one-off Bentayga painted purple and fitted with special interior accents. It took seven years for Mulliner to reach this milestone; it formed its own design team in 2014. It designed the sweet potato-colored Bentayga for an anonymous client in Europe who worked closely with the division to create a one-of-a-kind SUV. Look beyond the exterior (or try, at least), and you'll see the cabin features Olive Ash wood trim, which is normally found in the now-retired Mulsanne, plus twin-stitching on the seats and on the door panels. Mulliner's work extends far beyond unusual paint colors and new stitching patterns. Its first project was bringing a limited-edition model named Flying Spur Serenity to life. The sedan received redesigned seats, among other features. It also developed stone veneers for some of Bentley's cars, a variant of the Mulsanne Speed named Blue Train that honors Bentley's racing heritage, a Mulsanne-based six-seater limousine, and the Bacalar roadster, which is limited to 12 examples worldwide. It's based on the Continental GT, but the two models share no body panels. It has also applied its expertise to a handful of unusual projects. For example, Mulliner sometimes helps design the liveries worn by Bentley's GT3 race cars. It fine-tuned details on the 1929 Team Blower continuation car, and its resume also includes creating scale models, sculptures, plus picnic baskets complete with silverware and glasses. Related Video:

Bentley considering diesel engine for new SUV

Turns out, in case you didn't know, the rich are just like regular people. They too are concerned about the environment, even when tooling around town in their super-luxurious Bentleys. So the automaker is weighing the idea of offering a diesel engine in its SUV offering, which could help satisfy customers' demands for more fuel-efficient engines.
Chairman and CEO Wolfgang Schreiber told Autoblog in a roundtable interview at the Geneva Auto Show that the automaker is researching whether or not a diesel engine makes sense for the brand. Bentley, owned by the Volkswagen Group, could in theory use a diesel engine from anywhere in the Volkswagen Group family. We at Autoblog have hopes they'll revive the V10 TDI used in the VW Touareg until 2010, but ever-stricter emissions laws would likely make that problematic.
But rich people aren't so much like us that they'll be worried about petty things like pricing. Schreiber admitted the diesel engine could be a $15,000 option, which he said customers would probably find "acceptable." Given that the cheapest Bentley today starts at $177,000, typical customers probably won't be diddling around worrying about an extra 15 grand.