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2024 Bentley Bentayga EWB Mulliner is a private jet for the road

The high-riding Bentayga has stood proud as Bentley's range-topping model since the Mulsanne retired in 2020. The brand is cementing its first SUV's flagship positioning by launching an even more luxurious evolution of the extended-wheelbase version called EWB Mulliner. Developed, as its name implies, by the in-house Mulliner division, the long-wheelbase SUV rides on 22-inch wheels fitted with self-leveling center caps and wears a model-specific Double Diamond grille. Designers also added a chromed lower front grille, a Mulliner-branded badge on each fender, and two-tone door mirror caps. The list of options includes an appearance package called Mulliner Blackline Specification that replaces most of the bright trim pieces with gloss black parts and adds gloss black-finished 21-inch wheels for a more subtle look. We doubt anyone will yell "shotgun!" before taking a long trip in the Bentayga EWB Mulliner, as the best seats in the house are in the back. Offered with four or five seats, the SUV comes standard with the Bentley Airline Seat option that brings 22-way power-adjustable rear seats, an automatic climate-sensing system that detects whether the occupants are hot or cold and adjusts the heating or the ventilation accordingly, and postural adjustment technology that continuously changes the shape of the seat to ease pressure points. Two seating modes are available: Relax reclines the seat to nearly 40 degrees and deploys a footrest while Business moves it to its most upright position. Mulliner also added diamond-quilted leather upholstery, wood interior trim, wool floor mats and a three-dimensional diamond-milled finish on the center console, and it lets buyers choose one of eight three-color upholstery combinations created specifically for the flagship Bentayga. Alternatively, customers can work with the brand to design a one-of-a-kind interior. The finishing touch is an analog clock on the dashboard. If you have something to celebrate, Bentley can help: there's space for a bottle and two champagne flutes on the rear center console. Power comes from a 4.0-liter V8 that's twin-turbocharged to 542 horsepower and 568 pound-feet of torque. It spins the four wheels via an eight-speed automatic transmission, and it sends this living room on wheels from 0-60 mph in 4.5 seconds and on to a top speed of 180 mph. The list of standard features includes rear-wheel steering, a 48-volt anti-roll control system and an air suspension system.

Bentley plotting rear-drive Continental GT3-R?

Coupe, convertible or Flying Spur sedan: no matter what body-style you get, or what engine you specify, the Bentley Continental comes with all-wheel drive. It's been that way since the model line was first introduced a dozen years ago. But that looks poised to change... at least for one notable exception. According to Autocar, Bentley is all but certain to launch a rear-drive version of the Continental GT3-R sometime next year, ditching the front half of the drivetrain to cut a good 440 pounds off the curb weight to make it the lightest Conti yet. The Continental GT3-R launched last year with less weight and more power, along with a stiffer suspension, upgraded brakes and a titanium exhaust. It drew its inspiration from the Continental GT3 racer, but unlike the competition version, kept the AWD drivetrain in place. "A lot of people expected the GT3-R to be a proper rear-wheel-drive sports car," Bentley's chief engineer Rolf Frech said to Autocar, "but the problem was timing. We needed the car at the end of the first season of our GT3 racing car, and to do a proper change of the complete powertrain needed longer than we had. But we have the concept in our mind, so why not?" Denuded of its all-wheel drive, the Conti GT3-RS – assuming Porsche doesn't mind lending the name to its sister company – would be the most hardcore version of the go-to luxury coupe, and would promise to cut its already blitzkreig 3.6-second 0-60 time down even further. Especially if the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 were tuned to deliver even more than the 572 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque it already kicks out in the existing GT3-R. Chances are it'd be even less accessible, though: the 99 examples of the Conti GT3-R that are coming to the States out of the 300 total to be made already carry a $337k sticker price, and the rear-drive model would likely push the production:price see-saw even higher to the right.

Bentley teases restyled production SUV

Bentley insists that customers responded positively, but journalists weren't particularly enamored with the EXP 9 F concept when it was unveiled two years ago at the Geneva Motor Show. And so it went back to the drawing board, honing the design to make it more pleasing to the eye.
The production model won't hit the road until 2016, but at its annual shareholders meeting today in London, the British automaker revealed the first image of the finished design - or at least the front end, which was arguably the most controversial element of the design in the first place.
The rendering, as you can see above, is highly stylized and obscured by flying sand (as many customer examples are likely to be in the dunes of the Middle East). But from what we can see, it appears that Bentley has moved the secondary headlights from below the primary ones to beside them. It's hard to tell, but it appears that their place on the edges of the front bumper have been replaced by air vents, giving it an altogether Continental-like front end. The shape of the grille, hood, fenders and greenhouse otherwise appear similar to the EXP 9 F we've already seen, though the air dam appears taller than the concept's.