2008 Bentley Continental Flying Spur on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Bentley Continental Flying Spur spied lapping the 'Ring

It's been months since we've heard anything about the next-gen Bentley Continental Flying Spur. We know the four-door variant of the Bentley Continental GT is coming sometime soon, but all we've seen so far is one batch of spy shots of a car that doesn't stray too far from the current model. This new batch of photos shows another familiar car lapping the Nurburgring. Although this car is still heavily camouflaged (with some stickers that make it look like the current car), we can make some good assumptions based on the Continental GT. The car will have a larger grille, a new headlight design and oval taillights that mirror the exhaust tips. Under the hood, we expect the turbocharged W12 to carry over. Look for V8 and plug-in hybrid variants to arrive sometime down the line. We don't know when the car will go on sale, but don't expect to wait too much longer. It's been eight months since the Continental GT was revealed, and this is really nothing more than a platform variant. Look for a full reveal sometime this summer. Related Video: Featured Gallery Bentley Flying Spur spy shots View 10 Photos Image Credit: CarPix Design/Style Spy Photos Bentley Luxury Sedan bentley flying spur bentley continental flying spur

Audi CEO says brand's EVs are almost as profitable as its other cars

After, oh, a hundred years or so of building vehicles primarily powered by internal combustion engines, automakers around the world have been and still are pumping billions of dollars into the development of electric vehicle technology. Everything from platforms and batteries to motors and the software to control it all requires untold hours of development, and that takes time and money. Fortunately, it's not going to take long for that massive investment to start paying off, at least according to Audi CEO Markus Duesmann, who told Reuters in an interview that "The point where we earn as much money with electric cars as with combustion engine cars is now, or ... next year, 2023. They are very even now, the prices." As a brand, Audi contributed more than a quarter of overall profit for the massive Volkswagen Group, which has such powerhouse brands as Volkswagen and Porsche among others. Under the Audi umbrella are Lamborghini, Bentley and Ducati, and it seems those high-end branches aren't going anywhere, at least for now. "These brands ... are very valuable very profitable brands, where we can even expand the synergy level in the future," Duesmann said in the interview. "There are no plans whatsoever to get rid of them." Despite the overall profitability of the brand, the ongoing global chip crisis is causing headaches. "We had a very strong first half in 2021. We do expect a much weaker second half," said Duesmann, who added, "We really have trouble." In fact, so serious is the trouble that the brand is forced into "a day-to-day troubleshooting process" to limit the chip-shortage damage. The good news for the automaker is that Audi has been able to boost its profit margin from 8% prior to the pandemic in 2019 to 10.7% in the first half of 2021. The bad news is that various chip shortages aren't expected to get a whole lot better over the rest of the year. Related video:

Luc Donckerwolke named Director of Design for Bentley

Bentley has announced Luc Donckerwolke will take over as the automaker's Director of Design. Donckerwolke started with Volkswagen in 1992 as a designer for Audi. Since then, he's worked with Škoda, Lamborghini and Seat in various design roles. His resume includes helping sketch out both the Lamborghini Murciélago and Gallardo among other notable models.
The designer steps into the vacancy left by Dirk van Braeckel, who has moved on to work with Volkswagen Group design under Walter de Silva.
As you may recall, van Braeckel is responsible for a number of Bentley's most successful models, including both the Continental GT and the Mulsanne. He joined the ultra luxury automaker in 1999. You can take a look at the official announcement below for more information.