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Bentley EXP 10 Speed 6 Concept is our first, maybe best, 2015 Geneva surprise [w/video]

Legend has it that Ettore Bugatti once referred to the machines from Bentley as "the world's fastest lorries." While a lot has changed in Crewe over the years, the company's status as a maker of big, heavy, bruising GT cars has carried on. Then the 2015 Geneva Motor Show arrived, and Bentley dropped the EXP 10 Speed 6. First and foremost, it's a two-seater, rather than a 2+2, like so many Bentley coupes before. It's svelte and curvy, all the while appearing more muscular than any other Bentley has been in a long time. Certain Bentley styling trademarks, like the way the huge rear haunches feed over the rear wheels and into the profile and egg-crate grille (complete with heritage-inspired "6" logo) are there, but there's so much new here. The powerful scooped hood, pert rear end and massive ducts behind the front wheels are decidedly more aggressive than what we've come to expect from Bentley, while the slim rear taillights are a different take on the units found on the Continental GT. The headlights, meanwhile, carry on the look of modern Bentleys, but feature a beautifully intricate design in the main lamp. The outer pair of lights, meanwhile, look like a mix of accent and fog lights. One of the biggest complaints about modern Bentleys is that their interiors are quite antiquated. The materials remain top notch, but the technology is ancient relative to the rest of the auto industry. The EXP 10 Speed 6 finally addresses this, and in grand fashion. A gorgeous leather-wrapped steering wheel is flanked by huge leather and metal paddles, while a digital gauge cluster is a big improvement on the Conti's analog dials. A tablet-like interface crowns the high center console, while a beautiful, fat shifter looks ready to fall right to the driver's hand. We'll have more on the EXP 10 Speed 6 in the coming days. Check out the official images and press release on the new concept, as well as a few Short Cut videos we captured during the car's debut at Volkswagen's sprawling Group Night show, below. EXP 10 SPEED 6 - A VISION OF BENTLEY DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE MAR 2, 2015 Concept for sector-defining two-seater sportscar Futuristic Bentley design, a statement in modern British luxury Potential future model line (Crewe / Geneva, 2nd March 2015) Bentley Motors is showing the future direction of luxury and performance with the EXP 10 Speed 6 at the 2015 Geneva International Motor Show.

2015 Bentley Mulsanne Speed unleashes a tidal wave of torque

811 lb-ft of torque puts the Mulsanne Speed out ahead of every so-called muscle car on the market and eclipses most million-dollar hypercars.
Those in the market for a sedan with equal levels of performance and luxury would do well to stop by their local Bentley dealership, and have a look at the Flying Spur. Though not available in Speed trim like the previous four-door Continental, the W12 model already packs the 616-horsepower 6.0-liter twin-turbo W12 from the Continental GT Speed - and we wouldn't be surprised to see the British automaker come out with an even more performance-oriented version in the future. But what about the Mulsanne?

Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark explains carmaker's situation and plan for recovery

In August, we posted on some of the issues plaguing Bentley at the moment, namely the large loss the carmaker's posted this year. The same Autocar piece we referenced, carmaker CEO Adrian Hallmark said Bentley would not be making more sports cars. Bentley wrote to us to clarify that a single year's loss isn't a calamity, that "it is a mistake to suggest that sports cars are the same as GTs," and that the brand "will continue to design, engineer, and craft" GT cars. We must note, though, that at the time, Hallmark himself said, "The sports car sector – like our own...." More recently, Hallmark expounded on some of the factors slowing the company down this year, from delayed launches to exchange rates. Through the first nine months of the year, Bentley sold 6,654 units, an 11 percent decline from the 7,498 units sold through the first nine months of 2017. In addition to other matters like huge investments in new technologies, that helped the Crewe carmaker to a $44.7-million year-over-year drop in revenue, and a $156-million overall loss, compared to a $35 million profit over the same period last year. On top of declining sales overall, the nine-month delay in launching the Continental GT, the brand's second-best seller, was the first of two big issues causing red finances. Hallmark said the Continental GT "just wasn't ready for launch. But we'd paid for it – we'd paid all the money out, but not got any money back in." Having got that sorted, the second issue arose: WLTP certification. Unlike the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC) before it, the Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Procedure requires every model variant get tested for certification. Hallmark told Automotive News Europe, "We were not quick enough unfortunately to book capacity or prioritize our derivatives within some of the group processes to get them certified on time." Bentley wasn't alone in this; Volkswagen had only managed to get seven of its 14 models approved by September 1 when the WLTP rules took effect. Bentley's much smaller scale exacerbated the problem, turning the situation "close to catastrophic." Hallmark said the snafu robbed the Bentayga of 300 to 400 sales - a gigantic number with respect to a $200,000 vehicle - and pushed the Bentayga plug-in hybrid launch back to March 2019 so Bentley could get volume models certified. Furthermore, preparing for Brexit hasn't been easy on any of the UK's manufacturers.