2013 Used Turbo 6l W12 48v Automatic Awd Convertible Premium on 2040-cars

Auto blog

2017 Bentley Mulsanne Speed is more ostentatious than ever

As it was, the Bentley Mulsanne was a pretty bold and ostentatious (and totally awesome) show of luxury. It was big and brutal in a classically British way, but it was also outperformed and out-teched by more modern (and cheaper) luxury sedans from Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and even Audi. Buying one was a classic case study in vehicular statement-making, a vote for old-school refinement instead of modern gee-whizzery. Bentley clearly recognized that fact, because it's doubled-down on the big Mulsanne's aristocratic, give-no-craps demeanor as part of its latest aesthetic update. We love it. For one, the car on display in Geneva is painted is painted in an eye-catching (and questionable) metallic yellow-green. It is not subtle, but weirdly, it kind of works. The new, even more imposing grille is similarly blunt. It's been stretched three inches and is now home to polished stainless steel vanes. As we explained in our original post on the Mulsanne, the new headlight arrangement seeks to eliminate the "droopiness" of the current car. The LED units largely succeed, while somehow giving the front end an even snootier look. Styling changes elsewhere are subtler, which is to say there's still no mistaking the Mulsanne for anything else. The tail gets tasteful new LED lights, while changes along the long, smooth profile look to be nonexistent. It's a similar story in the cabin, which is a place filled with leather, chrome, and wood. It's proper and restrained, in contrast to the look-at-me face. But don't let the handsome and clean interior fool you – the only thing less subtle than the Mulsanne's new front fascia is the performance of this Speed variant. The 6.75-liter, twin-turbocharged V8 continues to reside under hood, turning out 530 horsepower and 811 pound-feet of torque. That's good for a 4.8-second 0-60 time and a 190-mile-per-hour top speed. Those are impressive figures for a genuine sports car, but they're just hilarious in a vehicle the size of a New York City apartment and the weight of a piece of construction equipment. The Mulsanne is an unnecessary, silly vehicle – a Mercedes-AMG S65 is a much better value. But simply put, few cars make such a bold statement about your wealth and power.

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.

Bentley Bentayga interior teased in new video

The Bentley Bentayga is growing ever closer to launch, and we already have a pretty good idea of what the production version looks like. Now, Bentley is giving us a surprisingly detailed tour of the super-luxurious crossover's interior in a new video. The clip focuses on some of the plush CUV's tech and does so by actually showing it off in the cabin. We get a good view of the center console that includes a gearshift with the Brit brand's emblem on top, two cupholders and a rotary dial to switch between multiple driving modes. There are also some close-up shots of the Bentayga's instrument cluster with large, round dials for the speedometer and tachometer. Between them is a digital display that's teased here for the night vision system and later for the navigation duties. In front of the driver, a head-up display projects the nav and speed info, as well. For now, this is a pretty good idea of what to expect from the inside of the Bentayga. The crossover will be fully revealed later this year and will go on sale in 2016 with prices for some of them even above the Mulsanne. It'll ride on a platform shared with the latest Audi Q7, but the powertrain lineup will include a W12 at launch. A diesel V8 and plug-in hybrid version will likely join the range later.