2013 Bentley Continental Gt V8 Mulliner on 2040-cars

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The Bentley Mulsanne exits the stage as production ends

Bentley is done with the Mulsanne. The one you’re looking at here is the penultimate car to come out of the factory in Crewe, Cheshire, England. Apparently, the owner of the last one is rather secretive and wants to keep their car under wraps. That being the case, Bentley has surrounded this Tungsten and Rose Gold Mulsanne with all the pomp and circumstance one would expect from the end of an era at Bentley. At least, as much as the pandemic will allow. Bentley employees are pictured here next to the car, standing apart with masks on. ItÂ’s one of the Mulsanne 6.75 Edition cars Bentley previously announced, which the company limited to just 30 units. The end of the Mulsanne also means the end of the 6.75-liter V8 at Bentley. We gave that engine its own sendoff post, but needless to say, the engine series is an old one and can be traced back to 1959. BentleyÂ’s Mulsanne is much less old. This flagship sedan was introduced at Pebble Beach in 2009, and has been in production ever since. Bentley has given it a couple rounds of updates, with the addition of the faster Mulsanne Speed in 2015, along with a design and tech refresh in 2016. Bentley built just over 7,300 total Mulsannes, and itÂ’s released a few eye-popping production stats. In the end, about 700 people were part of the production process to build the Mulsanne, putting in nearly 3 million total hours. Over a million total hours have been spent creating the interiors, and nearly 90,000 hours have been spent polishing the cars.  “I am immensely proud of the hundreds of designers, engineers and craftspeople that brought the Mulsanne to life over the last 10 years,” said Adrian Hallmark, Bentley CEO. “Now, as we begin BentleyÂ’s journey to define the future of sustainable luxury mobility through our Beyond100 strategy, the role of Bentley flagship is passed to the new Flying Spur.” ThatÂ’s right, the Flying Spur is the new flagship for the time being. Though, the latest rumors point to Bentley making a gigantic SUV as its future flagship vehicle to properly replace the Mulsanne. Is anybody surprised? Related video:

Bentley going back to Pikes Peak with a Continental GT

Bentley is headed to the clouds again, with Rhys Millen once more at the wheel. The English luxury brand took on the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb last year with a Bentayga, Millen setting a production SUV record of 10:49.902. This year the duo want to claim the production car record over the 12.42-mile, 156-corner course with the new W12-powered Bentley Continental GT. The Pikes Peak organization doesn't list "Production Car" on its list of records. The closest we could find is a record run of 10:26.896 set by David Donner in a 2014 Porsche 911 Turbo S in the Time Attack 2 class. It appears a production car only needs the necessary safety gear like a roll cage and fire extinguisher to qualify for Time Attack 2. An Acura NSX won the category in 2016, just two seconds off Donner's time. Bentley is already working on its run and likely has simulations showing it can outdo Donner's time, but this will be a battle of lean vs. largesse. The Continental GT has all-wheel drive like the 911 Turbo S, and one more gear in its eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox compared to the Porsche. The Turbo S put out 560 horsepower and 553 pound-feet of torque, compared to Millen's ride getting 626 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque. But the Bentley weighs roughly 1,400 pounds more than the Porsche, a healthy handicap to drag up to the 14,115-foot summit. Millen's the man to make the attempt, though, having raced up the mountain 25 times and taken five overall and seven class victories. The race goes down - or up, rather - on June 30.

Bentley designer hints at even faster Continental GT3-R

Does Bentley have room in its Continental GT lineup for an even more extreme version than the new GT3-R? Luc Donckerwolke seems to think so. Speaking with Autocar, the Bentley design chief suggested that an even more performance-focused Continental GT could be in the works, potentially ditching the heavy all-wheel drive system in an effort to further reduce weight, improve handling and drop even more ticks off the 0-60 time that's already down to a best-yet 3.6 seconds in the GT3-R.
To borrow a page from the same playbook used not only by sister-companies Audi and Porsche but also by Renault and Jaguar (to name just a few), we'll tentatively call it the Continental GT3-RS. Whatever the name, though, power would likely come from an even more potent version of the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 co-developed with sister-company Audi. Considering that engine already produces 500 horsepower in the Continental GT V8, 521 hp in the V8 S and 572 hp in the GT3-R, we could be looking at as much as 600 horses to make it the most powerful V8 model to date. With that much juice, it would even eclipse some of the W12 models that start at 567 hp in the core Continental GT and range up to the 616 hp in the Speed, which currently ranks not only as the most powerful Conti yet, but also the fastest road car Bentley has ever made.
Donckerwolke says that Bentley has already sold the entire production run for the Continental GT3-R and that customers are already clamoring for something more focused. Younger buyers are likely to be even further drawn to the brand by the ne-plus-ultra Conti, especially if the racing team advanced from its current fifth place in the Blancpain Endurance Series standings.