2006 Bentley Continental Gt Turbo 6l W12 60v Automatic Awd Coupe Premium on 2040-cars

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Bentley starts testing the sold-out, 200-mph Bacalar roadster

Bentley took the limited-edition Bacalar from a sketch to a 200-plus-mph roadster in nine months, a shockingly short amount of time. Its engineers are now putting the first car through its paces at the same break-neck speed. Although the Bacalar is based on the Continental GT, the British firm explained nearly everything the driver will see and feel is specific to the car. Bentley developed over 750 new parts for it, including 40 built with carbon fiber, and the roadster shares no body panels with other members of the company's range. All of these components have to meet the same stringent quality standards as those created for regular-production models. Bentley gave its team 20 weeks to fine-tune the first prototype (pictured), which it calls car zero. Testing started earlier in 2020, so the car has already been put through a wind tunnel and pushed to the limit at triple-digit speeds — it's as stable and quiet as customers expect. Next, test drivers will pile on the miles to see how it holds up over time. They'll then test it at up to 176 degrees, and the final step will be validating the electrical system. Power for the Bacalar comes from a twin-turbocharged 6.0-liter W12 engine, which produces 650 horsepower and 667 pound-feet of torque. It spins the four wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission. Bentley hasn't revealed what it will do with car zero at the end of the testing phase. Production is scheduled to start in 2021, and the 12 examples planned have already been spoken for. Each one will be unique; buyers will be invited to work directly with the company's design department to configure the interior and the exterior. Related Video:

Bentley to retire aging 6.75-liter V8 with current Mulsanne

The massive 6.75-liter V8 in the Bentley Mulsanne is one of the oldest engines still in production. But it may not be around for much longer. According to Car and Driver, Bentley intends to finally put the big old pushrod V8 to pasture once the current Mulsanne is phased out, thus putting an end to a saga that goes back some 57 years. Powerful as it may be, ever-stricter exhaust emissions and fuel-consumption regulations will see that the L Series V8, originally introduced way back in 1957, doesn't stay in production forever. Whenever the Mulsanne is replaced, it will reportedly get a brand-new twelve-cylinder engine. Bentley is currently the world's largest producer of dozen-pot powerplants. Production of the British automaker's 6.0-liter twin-turbo W12 far outpaces anything from Rolls-Royce, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Ferrari, or Lamborghini. Over the decades since its introduction, Bentley's long-serving V8 has gone from making an "adequate" amount of power and torque to an impressive 530 horsepower and a positively massive 811 pound-feet (with the help of a couple of turbochargers). Its eventual discontinuation wouldn't be the first attempt on the life of the 6.75-liter engine. When BMW briefly took control of both Rolls and Bentley, it replaced the big engine by a smaller 4.4-liter V8. Customer demand led Bentley to bring the old engine back. It will likely be some time before we get details of Bentley's next powerplant. Models like the Mulsanne and Rolls-Royce Phantom tend to stick around for a long time, and the latest version of Bentley's flagship was just released earlier this year. Related Video:

Bentley preps 'Centennary Specification' for all models built in 2019

For the entirety of Bentley's 100th year in business, the English carmaker will adorn its products with a Centenary Specification. The package consists of unique badging with specially developed Centenary Gold badge highlights, available Centenary Gold thread for the headrest logos, contrast stitching and cross stitching, and a "centenary welcome light" outside the vehicle. The in-house craftsmen have also developed unique embroidery. Bentley says the gold hue was inspired by metalwork on vintage models like the 1919 EXP 2 (pictured, red and silver) and 1929 Birkin Blower (pictured, green), the latter one of the company's Le Mans winners driven by Sir Henry "Tim" Birkin. The hue possesses an "elegant warm tone and a deep fluid shadow." The steering wheel badge, key fob, shift knob, and wheel center caps feature the tinted ring. The "B" badge on the radiator surround also features "1919-2019" script, and that script is found on the tread plates, too. For those who don't know, eponymous founder Walter Owen Bentley's engineering career began with locomotives — which he loved more than cars at one point — and motorcycles, before settling on automobiles. He bought his first car in 1910, a French DFP, and after improving it himself, set a 10-lap record at the Brooklands circuit. In 1912 he opened a DFP franchise with his brother Horace Milner as Bentley & Bentley, and further upgraded the car with a new piston design that was 88 percent aluminum and 12 percent copper. The Royal Naval Air Service adopted Bentley's piston design and Bentley's re-designed Clerget airplane engines, dubbed the Bentley Rotary. After the war, Bentley refocused on cars, and in 1919 released the 3-Litre, which boasted features like a cross-flow head, overhead cams working four valves per cylinder, and twin plugs in each cylinder. The company delivered the first production model in 1921, then went racing and won the second edition of Le Mans in 1924. That is how Bentley began to become "Bentley, ahem ...", and here we are. Next year, on July 10, the company plans to celebrate the feat appropriately. Related Video: