Continental Gt Speed - Lemans Edition on 2040-cars

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A diesel V8 is the perfect engine for the Bentley Bentayga

Endless, effortless torque is something that's so often taken for granted. Sure, horsepower figures make all the headlines, but the sensation that comes with immediate and readily available thrust is something that can't be overstated, especially in luxury vehicles. High-strung, high-horsepower engines are great in certain applications, but Bentley owners don't want to work for the power, they just expect it to be there. That's why the 4.0-liter diesel V8 from the Audi SQ7 and its 664 lb-ft of torque make perfect sense for the new Bentley Bentayga. We've known for a while that Bentley is planning a diesel variant of the Bentayga, but it wasn't clear from where the engine was being sourced. According to Telegraaf in Holland, Bentley is pulling the diesel from the heart of its sibling Audi, and it won't be an effort to improve fuel efficiency. The all engine features two exhaust-driven turbos plus a 48-volt compressor that effectively cuts lag to nothing and propels the SQ7 TDI to 62 mph in 4.8 seconds. Expect a similar number in the Bentley. This engine is exactly what the Bentayga needs. There is nothing wrong with the W12 in the standard model, and you could argue a 12-cylinder engine is a better fit in a Bentley. But that's just because W12 sounds better than diesel. While the gasoline engine may more powerful and therefore make the vehicle quicker (leading to that " fastest SUV" claim Bentley loves), no owner will actually be racing their Bentayga to its theoretical top speed of 187 mph. They will be racing away from stoplights, though, in an effort to leave more plebeian cars and SUVs behind. All that low-end grunt is what those owners really want. It's unclear if Bentley will bring the Bentayga diesel to the United States, and given the current state of diesel here, the proposition seems unlikely. Expect an official debut at the Paris motor show in October. Related Video: News Source: Telegraaf Rumormill Bentley SUV Diesel Vehicles Luxury bentley bentayga audi sq7

New Bentley Supersports coming in 2014

A report in Autocar says the next Bentley Continental Supersports will be ready for retail duty in 2014. If true, the coupe is meant to follow the same formula as the first generation, which means weight loss, honed reflexes and "improving braking power," that last one an eyebrow raiser because the Continental series already has some of the largest diameter brakes available on a production car.
A vulgar gain in horsepower isn't planned, however; the Supersports was never primarily about pure grunt, but rather being more connected to the grunt the Continental had. The previous Supersports (Bentley no longer offers it) put out 621 horsepower, but it's said that the coming model will move up to 650 hp, and that would put healthy distance between it and the 616-hp Continental GT Speed.
The Supersports would take a place at the head of the Continental line-up, but be briefly usurped there by a road-going version of the Continental GT3 race car if that comes to fruition. But whereas the street-legal GT3 car would be limited production, the new Supersports would be a series offering.

The mood at this year’s Paris Motor Show: Quiet

The Paris Motor Show, held every other year in the early fall, typically kicks off the annual cavalcade of automotive conclaves, one that traverses the globe between autumn and spring, introducing projective, conceptual and production-ready vehicle models to the international automotive press, automotive aficionados and a public hungry for news of our increasingly futuristic mobility enterprise. But this year, at the press preview days for the show, the grounds of the Porte de Versailles convention center felt a bit more sparsely populated than usual. This was not simply a subjective sensation, or one influenced by the center's atypically dispersed assemblage of seven discrete buildings, which tends to spread out the cars and the crowds. There were not only fewer new vehicles being premiered in Paris this year, there were fewer manufacturers there to display them. Major mainstream European OEM stalwarts such as Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Nissan and Volkswagen chose to sit out Paris this year, as did boutique manufacturers like Bentley, Aston Martin and Lamborghini. This is not simply based in some antipathy on the part of the German, British and Italian manufacturers toward the French market — though for a variety of historical and societal reasons that market may be more dominated by vehicles produced domestically than others. Rather, it is part of a larger trend in the industry. Last year, Mercedes-Benz announced that it would not be participating in the flagship North American International Auto Show in 2019 — and that it might not return. Other brands including Jaguar/Land Rover, Audi, Porsche, Mazda and nearly every exotic carmaker have also departed the Detroit show. Some of these brands will still appear in the city in which the show is taking place, and host an event offsite, to capitalize on the presence of a large number of reporters in attendance. And even brands that do have a presence at the show have shifted their vehicle introductions to the days before the official press opening in an attempt to stand out from the crowd. In many ways, this makes sense. With an expanding number of automakers, with diversification and niche-ification of models and with wholesale shifts that necessitate the introduction of EV or autonomous sub-brands, there is a growing sense that, with everyone shouting at the same time, no one can be heard.