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The Bentley Bacalar went from a sketch to a 650-hp roadster in nine months

Bentley's Mulliner division cemented its status as a modern-day coachbuilder when it unveiled the Bacalar, a two-seater roadster loosely based on the Continental GT. Nearly every part that drivers will see and feel is specific to the model, including the body panels and most of the interior, yet the company created it in just nine months. Mulliner has worked on many one- and few-off models in the past, it notably turned the stately Mulsanne into a six-seater limousine in 2016, but the Bacalar (pictured) takes customization to an entirely new level. Repeated requests from its most loyal clients convinced Bentley to expand the scope of its coachbuilding division. "We felt a strong demand from our high-end customers. They asked again and again, 'can you do something very special?' They weren't talking about one of a hundred, but one of 10 or even one of one," explained Stefan Sielaff, the company's lead designer, in an interview with Autoblog. He added the Bacalar project started shortly after Bentley introduced the EXP 100 GT in 2019 to celebrate its 100th birthday. This explains some of the visual parallels between the two cars. While the concept was electric, the sold-out production model receives a mighty, 650-horsepower W12 engine because Bentley couldn't create a suitable battery-powered drivetrain in the short amount of time it had to make the roadster a reality. Sielaff stressed the effort his team put into making the Bacalar in nine months shouldn't be underestimated. "We had to make sure the car was road-legal, homologated, and certified. The car you would have seen at the Geneva auto show is literally what the customer will get. It's not a crazy show car. The only difference will be the colors and the materials, because we will work with each customer to make an individual statement," he said. In the United States, the Bacalar will be imported under the Show and Display law, like the McLaren Speedtail. The expedited design process meant the 12 future Bacalar owners signed the dotted line after seeing only digital renderings of the car. They weren't shown the final product until much later. Their enthusiasm is encouraging; it tells Sielaff there's a tremendous appetite for one- and few-off Bentley models among wealthy clients.

Bentley designers talk about Intelligent Details

Bentley Director of Design Luc Donckerwolke certainly thinks highly of the vehicles he creates. "We are the only ones that offer performance compatible with luxury," he says in Intelligent Details, a new short documentary commissioned by the brand. While that might be a bit hyperbolic (the Mercedes-Benz S65 AMG says hello), the company does have a long history of blending elegant interiors, sophisticated exteriors and powerful engines. The film examines how crafting that works in the modern world.
Intelligent Details stars Donckerwolke and his colleague Head of Exterior Design Sang Yup Lee as they ride in two contrasting Bentley Mulsannes through New York City. They talk about what makes a Bentley special, but their biggest focus is their belief that automotive interiors can no longer by "a closed cocoon," according to Donckerwolke. It has to transform into a living space thanks to the brand's interior infotainment technology.
The message might be self-aggrandizing, but the short film itself is beautifully shot and edited with some loving looks at the city. The way it was actually made could be the most surprising part of all. We don't want to spoil it here, but scroll down and watch the whole video to see.

The Volkswagen Group switches official language to English

The Volkswagen Group can't be fairly thought of as entirely German anymore, so the news that the company is switching its official language to English to help attract managers and executives is a rational, if surprising, decision. While many VW Group companies are still staidly German in character and culture, consider the other companies that it controls: Bentley (British), Bugatti (French), Ducati and Lamborghini (Italian), Skoda (Czech), Scania trucks (Swedish), and SEAT (Spanish). Not to mention the large Volkswagen Group of America operation, which constructs cars in Chattanooga, TN. Volkswagen's explicit motivation is to improve management recruitment – making sure the company isn't losing out on candidates for important positions because they can't speak German – and that's inherently sensible in a globalized economy. Particularly considering, like it or lump it, that English is the lingua franca of said global economy. It also should make it inherently easier to communicate between its world-wide subsidiaries and coordinate operations. It's hard to say for sure if this will have any impact on the consumer, although it's easy to see the benefits if, say, VW Group hires some American product planners or engineers and they push for features and designs that more closely suit American needs. After all, the US is a hugely important market for any manufacturer, and so the switch to English almost certainly has something to do with the outsized influence of the US in the global economy. And there doesn't seem to be a downside from a purely rational perspective, although it could mean that the Group's corporate culture becomes less German. Whether that's a good or a bad thing depends on your perspective. Related Video: Image Credit: Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images Plants/Manufacturing Audi Bentley Bugatti Porsche Volkswagen SEAT Skoda