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Bentley celebrates its founder with the Mulsanne W.O. Edition by Mulliner

July 10, 2018, marked the beginning of Bentley's centenary celebration. We can look forward to a year of commemorations, starting with the Mulsanne W.O. Edition by Mulliner, limited to 100 units. The sedan, available in standard, long-wheelbase, and Speed versions, celebrates founder Walter Owen Bentley and his 1930 8 Litre. The founder's personal car, the last vehicle he designed for his company and the second example off the production line, wore a coachbuilt body from Henry Jervis Mulliner & Co. That's the same Mulliner firm that personalizes Bentleys to this day. Walter Owen didn't get to enjoy his "ultimate expression of automotive engineering" for long; financial troubles forced him to sell it in 1931. Bentley bought the 8-Litre in 2006, and part of the "sympathetic" restoration meant replacing the crankshaft. That crank is the central feature of the W.O. Edition Mulsanne: Bentley cut the crankshaft into 100 pieces, and will place each piece inside a custom, illuminated cocktail cabinet in the rear quarters of the 100 special Mulsannes. Four different woods and aluminum create a marquetry scene that frames a glass display with the emblematic crankshaft. Around that, the show vehicle gets Heritage Hides in Fireglow, with Beluga details and stitching, Dark Stain Burr Walnute veneers, and Fireglow lambswool carpets. The exterior's drenched in Onyx, with Beluga Black wheels, accessorized by a chrome hood strip, optional chrome grille and surround, and discrete special edition badging. Customers can, naturally, option their own W.O. Edition Mulsannes any way they wish. Bentley's chosen to skip Goodwood as the reveal of this particular treat. The public unveiling comes on our shores, at next month's Monterey Car Week, on Aug. 24. Related Video:

2017 Bentley Mulsanne Speed First Drive

You can hear it loud and clear – that is, the sound of nearly nothing at all – when hurtling along at 160 mph. The quiet part isn't surprising; after all, this is a $300,000 ubersedan. But the speed? The sensation is disarming and utterly intriguing. It's safe to say that three tons of mass have no right to move through space so effortlessly. Welcome to the latest ultraluxe, four-wheeled hyperloop from Bentley. In case you missed the engraved announcement, the Mulsanne is the higher-priced, handcrafted flagship that plays big brother to the Flying Spur, the (relatively) more ubiquitous sedan that shares a good amount of parts with the Continental GT. Imagine the snooty older sibling that studied at Wharton, wears tailored suits to breakfast and an ascot to supper, and dangles a pipe from the corner of his mouth, and you've got a good idea of what distinguishes the more finely finished Mulsanne from its stablemate. Not only does a base Mulsanne command a $100,000 premium over the Spur, it's a more laboriously assembled specimen that takes a staggering 400 man-hours to build. Unlike the Spur, whose top model boasts a W12, the Mulsanne is powered by a 6.75-liter pushrod (!) V8. Less is usually less in this stratospheric segment, but this humungous eight-cylinder has a history stretching back six decades – precisely the sort of tweedy legacy stuff that appeals to old money. This is the last Bentley to use this engine, and it will be replaced by a new twelve-cylinder. For 2017, the big, bad platform reaps its first significant series of updates since its 2009 debut (the Speed variant was introduced 18 months ago). Upgrades to the Mulsanne were focused on refinement, among them a smoother ride, revised styling, an updated interior, and yes, a quieter cabin. Despite its undercurrents of old-world opulence, the Mulsanne's face has been modernized with flusher features, LED headlamps, and a wider grille. Though it retains the delightfully anachronistic Flying B hood ornament, the winged capital letter can now be ordered in a refreshingly modern smoked black hue. Mean. Revisions at the rear include a redesigned bumper and subtle Bs incorporated into the tail lamps. Inside, new seats with revised foam offer greater comfiness. Perhaps more notably, the infotainment system gains a much-needed upgrade with an 8-inch touchscreen, a 4G LTE WiFi hotspot, and Apple Carplay functionality (for front passengers).

Bentley shifting W12 engine production to UK

Who would you think would be the largest producer of 12-cylinder engines in the world? Mercedes? BMW? Ferrari? Think again: as you might have guessed from the headline, it's Bentley. The thing is that, while all Bentley automobiles are manufactured in the UK, its engines aren't: while the 6.75-liter V8 in the Mulsanne is made at home, the innovative 6.0-liter twin-turbo W12 engine in Continental models so equipped (like the newer 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8) is shipped in from Germany. But that won't be the case any longer.
Bentley has just announced that production of the W12 engine is moving to its home base in Crewe by the end of this year. The shift in production (which follows the migration of the Flying Spur from Dresden to Crewe in 2007) will create 100 jobs in the UK - a country which employs some 142,000 workers in the automotive sector - and produce as many as 9,000 engines per year. That in and of itself would account for the vast majority of the 10,000-plus cars Bentley made last year, but will also make Bentley an exporter of engines for the first time in its history.
Right there at the factory, Bentley will fit the engines into twelve-cylinder versions of the Continental GT, GTC and Flying Spur, and send some back to Germany for use in the Audi A8. Applications within the Volkswagen brand itself like the Phaeton and Touareg no longer use the W12 engine, but could conceivably use it again in the future - they'll just have to bring them in from England is all.