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Weekly Recap: Bentley Bentayga leads luxury SUV charge at Frankfurt

The Bentley Bentayga is launching a new era of ultra high-end sport utility vehicles that will see luxury makers vie for the world's richest and most exclusive customers. The Bentayga is Bentley's first SUV, and it will formally debut next week at the Frankfurt Motor Show. It's loaded with Bentley's best technology and features, led by a 600-horsepower W12 engine. The mission is simple: stop giving up sales to other companies by not having an SUV in its portfolio. "It creates an entirely new category of ultra-luxury SUV, where there are currently few rivals," IHS Automotive analyst Ian Fletcher said in a report. But Bentley and the Bentayga will soon face stiff competition. Archrival Rolls-Royce will produce its own crossover to be built in England, though timing is unclear. Lamborghini has approved plans for a ute that will be assembled in Italy and launch in 2018. Even the sportier British brands are getting into the market. Aston Martin will make a crossover version of the DBX concept shown earlier this year in Geneva, and Jaguar is launching the F-Pace crossover, which will debut in Frankfurt. These new entries will invigorate a segment that's comprised of the Mercedes G63 AMG and the Land Rover Range Rover SV Autobiography, and Bentley is poised to grab a large share of it, Fletcher noted. IHS forecasts Bentayga sales could hit 3,000 units per year in 2017 and 2018, pushing total Bentley sales to more than 10,000 in the next few years. The vehicle will also get plug-in hybrid and diesel variants to widen its reach. The Bentayga is a sales grab, for sure, but Bentley took care to ensure the SUV remained true to the brand. It's laden with the top-shelf wood, leather, and metal, and it comes standard with an expansive panoramic glass roof. It also has intelligent features like electronic night vision and an optional responsive off-road system that can be configured to adapt to eight different settings. It's a different kind of Bentley, but it's a harbinger of things to come for the world's richest luxury makers. Other News & Notes Toyota debuts next-gen Prius Toyota revealed the next-generation of its iconic fuel-sipping hybrid, the 2016 Prius, at an event in Las Vegas. The car promises 10-percent gains in fuel efficiency, though actual figures – and even powertrain specifics – were not revealed. We estimate that could mean about 56 miles per gallon in city driving and 53 on the highway.

Father-son team grows close by building tuned Porsche

We've seen several heartwarming videos of kids bonding over cars with their parents, whether racing together or giving them as gifts. The story of Leh Keen and his father McGrath, though, is somewhat different. Not many dads are looking for a vehicle quite this mental.
As Leh tells it, his dad saw a video online of one of the wild Porsches from Japanese tuner Rauh-Welt Begriff and decided that he needed one of the creations in his own garage. Since Leh knows something about cars himself as a driver for Alex Job Racing in the United SportsCar Championship, McGrath put his son in charge of managing the build from the company.
When the car made it to the US for completion from Rauh's famed builder Nakai, father and son bonded over the red, widebody 993-platform 911. The final product is certainly eye-catching. Scroll down to watch the video that features not only an engrossing father-son tale but also a seriously wicked, tuned Porsche from one of Japan's finest.

Xcar considers the Porsche 911 GT3's PDK

Porsche ruffled some feathers when it unveiled the latest 911 GT3 a couple of years ago with a dual-clutch transmission instead of an old-school manual. The rationale was (and remains) that the PDK makes the enthusiast's Elfen faster than it would be with a stick. The purists scoffed, but Zuffenhausen held firm – and even did the same with the even more hardcore GT3 RS. In its latest video, the boys at Xcar set out to find out if the GT3 with its fancy automated gearbox is as good as the previous model (or as good as the current model could be) with a manual – and took in some of the track toy's other trickery while they were at it. Check out the video above to find out what conclusion they reached.