Bentley’s Design team, led by Dirk van Braeckel, commissioned an exhaustive research study to identify the classic signature features that have defined Bentleys from the 1920s to the present day, as Dirk explains:

“Hundreds of cars were the subject of a painstaking review to define highly challenging targets for every facet of the new Mulsanne’s interior. This embraced key elements, such as materials, colour harmony and craftsmanship, ensuring the new Mulsanne will become the purest expression of Bentley design yet.”

Similarly stringent targets were set for the operational refinement and robustness of all control mechanisms to provide Crewe’s craftsmen and women with materials and components of the highest quality and authenticity.

Responding to customer demand, the research study even extended to the smell of the leather hides. This resulted in the reintroduction of a complex, traditional tanning process to create a rich, mature leather aroma, evoking that of vintage Bentleys.

When production begins later this year, Mulsanne customers may select from a broad palette of hides, including a range of 24 ‘standard’ colours as well as a wide selection of rich ‘heritage’ colours from previous Bentley models. These colours may be specified in single-tone or duo-tone combinations in four different styles (colour splits) allowing the customer to choose not just the colour scheme but also the mood of the interior – from very elegant to sporty.

These exquisite hides are fashioned by a team of craftsmen and women who apply the same fastidious attention to every detail of the opulent cabin. All stowage compartments, including iPod drawer, glovebox and luggage compartment are leather-lined, while the creation of the hand-sewn leather rim around the Mulsanne’s steering wheel takes two days of intense, expert concentration – even longer if the customer opts for cross-stitching.

Bentley’s unrivalled expertise in the crafting of leather is complemented by the extraordinary skills of the company’s ‘Wood Shop’, the largest of its kind in the luxury car industry.

It takes five weeks to turn a rough ‘root ball’ (individually selected by Bentley experts) into a full set of mirror-matched, fine-polished leaves. Each piece of veneer is carefully stored in a special humidity-controlled chamber and then applied onto a solid walnut base, a process that alone takes two weeks to complete. Veneers are then polished to a perfect mirror finish. The quality of every piece is carefully inspected and approved before being delivered to the vehicle assembly hall.

The entire Mulsanne cabin is encased by a ‘ring of wood’ waistrail, as part of which a single, ‘unbroken’ panel of wood graces the Mulsanne’s dashboard. Customers may select from an extensive range of premium quality veneers, unbleached for a natural appearance, including Walnut, Piano Black, Oak, Bird’s Eye Maple, Vavona, Olive Ash and Sapelli Pommele, harvested from sustainable sources across the globe.

Utilising the intricate skills of the Crewe-based experts, two marquetry options are available for the new Mulsanne: picture framing-style inlays to waistrails and contemporary-style crossbanding and inlay to dashboard and waistrails.

One of the most striking examples of Bentley craft skills can be found on the Mulsanne’s upper dashboard where a new 8-inch multimedia screen is housed unobtrusively behind an electrically operated veneered door. When the screen is not required the door blends effortlessly into the veneered dashboard.

The exquisite hides and veneers of Bentley’s new flagship are fashioned by the company’s highly skilled craftsmen and women with over 40 years’ experience who will invest over 170 hours into creating the interior of just one Mulsanne, as Robin Page, Head of Interior Design, comments:

“Crafting the Mulsanne’s interior represents a substantial part of the build process. At Crewe, Bentley’s way of working is the exact opposite of mass production – we start where others stop.”

The ‘starting where others stop’ philosophy has been applied to virtually every feature of the Mulsanne’s cabin. The use of wood and leather hides has been significantly increased for an even more refined and sumptuous cabin, while the stainless steel brightware receives an intensive 10-hour finishing process to offer a near-perfect gleam (ensuring that even the smallest part will catch the eye). The carpet has been given increased fibre depth and density to further enhance the quality feel.

An ultra-rigorous approach to quality, applied from the earliest planning stages, means that the Mulsanne’s interior will be enjoyed by current as well as future generations of drivers. Every new leather and wood veneer option was subjected to extreme temperatures as well as an exhaustive array of further durability tests. Sun creams, skin lotions and even a chemical formula for human perspiration were applied to leather hide samples to ensure no staining or fading.

And perhaps most remarkably, the durability of a hide will be is tested over 20,000 times by a team of people of varying height and weight (rather than the robots used by other manufacturers) to provide the most authentic, real-world assessment possible.

“Much of our work takes place behind the scenes,” explains John Minshull, Head of the Bentley Laboratory at Crewe.

“However, this development and scientific testing work is a key part of the Mulsanne story as it provides our craftsmen and women with the best quality materials. And it is the combination of their creativity and our research which makes the Mulsanne interior so special.”

The new Mulsanne, designed and engineered at Crewe from the ground-up, reaffirms the marque’s intent to create a new flagship Bentley with refined performance and unparalleled levels of luxury with the coach building elegance for which the marque has long been renowned.

The Series 51 Continental GTC represents Bentley exterior and interior styling at its most vibrant and will enable customers to order ‘off the peg’ from an exclusive range created by Dirk van Braeckel’s renowned team of Crewe-based designers.

“The Detroit Motor Show remains an important stop for Bentley on the annual calendar of international motoring events,” said Christophe Georges, President & Chief Operating Officer for Bentley Motors Inc. “Detroit is also the motor show debut for our flagship Mulsanne and the Series 51 Continental in The Americas region – our single largest worldwide – so it is an important opportunity to reach key influencers.

“Our annual NAIAS private customer previews have also proved successful and that proud record looks set to continue especially as we’re the only ultra-luxury manufacturer with a stand alone display this year,” Georges added. “Bentley has a busy year ahead and displaying our Mulsanne and Series 51 Continental GTC among Detroit’s automotive insiders, influencers and customers is central to our launch strategy.”

Flagship Bentley Mulsanne
The Bentley Mulsanne, which goes on sale in the fall of this year, will be priced at $285,000 in the United States. The Mulsanne will offer customers a degree of choice when commissioning their cars which is unmatched in the industry.  The luxury Bentley flagship offers a palette of 114 paint colours, 21 carpet colours, nine wood veneers and 24 interior leather hides, all of which will be tanned using a decades-old process to ensure this future classic retains its distinctive scent. 

Series 51 Continental GTC
The Series 51 package, available on the Continental range’s GT, GT Speed, GTC and GTC Speed models, will be priced from $192,750 for the GT coupe model. It provides for a virtually bespoke vehicle experience due to the thousands of configurations available through Bentley’s expansive colour and trim catalogue.

The aim is to raise money for The Christie Hospital in Manchester, a leading international centre for research and treatment. The art will be auctioned at an invitation-only evening event from 6pm to 8pm on Tuesday December 1 at Bonhams the auction house in London.

The collection includes a vast array of sculptures, painting, digital art and photography. Created in many different media, from sculptures in bronze and set in wood, to metal and leather, to Perspex, to palette knife and brush paintings on canvas, the works showcase the imagination of the men and women who design Bentley cars.

A total of 22 designers have been involved in the project, including digital designers and clay modellers.

Dirk van Braeckel, head designer, says the work embodies the best aesthetics possible, with advanced technology in the forefront, a combination “of the work we do technically with a passion for the brand that is very very strong in this team.

“The team worked up some early ideas on sketches and pen and paper but everything else is all done on a computer,” he says. “There has been a tremendous response from all the team from the day the idea was born. People have been doing additional work – after originally saying they would do one piece, they want to add more work.”

The team has received support and encouragement from the Bentley board, with 10 of the pieces on display to international press and customers who attended the Frankfurt Motor Show in September.

The inspiration originated with Richard Gilmartin, whose mother died of cancer and who has been raising money for the Christie since 2001.

Bonhams the auctioneer has donated its premises in Bond St, London, to hold the auction for 300 invited guests. The auction will be conducted by James Knight, international managing director of Collectors Cars at Bonhams.

Online bidding will be available exclusively on the Bentley website www.bentleydesignpassion.com.  All 40 pieces will be open for bidding from Nov 4, Online bidding will finish at midday on the day of the Bentley auction at Bonhams and the highest bids transferred to the auction room. The live auction of 25 artworks will take place at Bonhams, where guests will still be encouraged to bid silently at the event for the remaining 15 pieces.

The Christie is a specialist cancer centre in Manchester that treats 40,000 patients a year. It is currently building the largest early phase 1 clinical trials unit in the world that will further enhance its reputation for international research. The Christie Charity helps fund cancer research, cutting edge treatments, major new developments and extra patient services that fall outside the remit of NHS funding. These include complementary therapies, counselling and creative projects such as art and music therapy. Together they enable patients to take charge of their illness and them to work towards their recovery.

Conceived, styled and engineered entirely at Bentley’s headquarters in Crewe, England, the Mulsanne goes into production next year in a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility within the Crewe factory.

Introducing the Bentley Mulsanne at Pebble Beach, where Bentley was the featured marque, Dr. Franz-Josef Paefgen, Chairman and Chief Executive of Bentley Motors, said:
"The challenge we set our engineers was to create a new grand Bentley that would stand as the pinnacle of British luxury motoring, offering the world’s most exclusive driving experience. They have responded to this challenge with real passion and the result is a luxury grand tourer that sets new standards in terms of comfort, effortless performance and hand-crafted refinement – the very qualities for which Bentley is renowned."

The Bentley Mulsanne will go on sale from mid 2010. It will also be displayed at the forthcoming IAA Frankfurt Motor Show (15-27th September, 2009) where Bentley Motors will provide additional product information.

“This was surely one of the biggest gatherings of Bentleys of all ages you could ever hope to see – and so many of the cars are historically famous,” said Sebastian Welch, Competitions Captain of the BDC. But it’s the atmosphere that sets this meeting apart, as much as the full grids and race action. “Our aim was to celebrate 60 years of BDC racing at Silverstone with two days of ‘proper’ club racing, from highly competitive dicing on track to a non-stop slideshow of archive pictures in the pit garage and family picnics on the grass at Copse. Racers and spectators responded with enthusiasm, as shown by the record turnout of 180 cars in the Bentley parade – where any BDC member who turns up in a Bentley, new or old, can drive three laps of the circuit.”

Over the two days, 18 races welcomed full grids of both Bentleys and other invited marques. One of the highlights for spectators was the chance to see modern Bentleys racing much older machinery in both the Bentley Handicap and Bentley Scratch races.

Saturday’s Bentley-only Scratch race saw 25 Bentleys taking to the track, in a race which pitted the eventual winner, the 1949 MkVI Special of Michael Higginbotham, against much older cars – such as the Vintage Bentleys of the 1920s – and much younger cars, such as the two Turbo Rs from 1990! Meanwhile, the Bentley Handicap race allowed a Continental GT (driven by Robert Gate) to come fourth overall, despite being a standard road car and looking as though it had just driven out of the showroom.

Aside from the racing, other attractions included track demonstrations of the fabulous 1933 Napier-Railton, John Cobb’s 24-litre Brooklands lap-record holder; and of the mighty, 600bhp, 217mph 2003 Le Mans-winning Bentley Speed 8. Off-track displays of Bentley race cars included past Le Mans winners, Brooklands cars, and Bentleys that have raced at BDC events throughout the past 60 years.

“Those who recall the first BDC race meeting back in 1949, when the main straight was the Lancaster runway and the pits were made from straw bales, tell us that things are very different today. Nevertheless, we hope we lived up to the spirit and tradition of this great annual event,” concluded Sebastian Welch.

For more information on the Bentley Drivers Club, see www.bdcl.org.

Manchester-based company Vehicle Consulting was used to sell Ronaldo’s 2004 Mercedes Benz C-Class and 2008 Bentley Continental GT Speed, similar to the one pictured, with the latter fetching £115,000. The five year old Mercedes C-Class sold for substantially sell than the Bentley.

The Continental GT Speed is the most powerful production Bentley ever and the first to top 200mph, thanks to the W12 engine delivering 600bhp and a 9% increase in power over the standard Continental GT.

Ronaldo who at the turn of 2009 smashed and wrote off his Ferrari in a tunnel under a Manchester Airport runway, has finally joined his boyhood club after almost leaving the English champions in the summer of 2008.

At a special ceremony held at Old Billingsgate in London, Julia Gill, Attraction and Development Manager for Trainees at Bentley Motors was presented with the commendation. Despite being the Company’s first appearance at the finals after winning the North West Regional Finals in May, the Bentley scheme was recognised as being one of the very best in the Country and in the top 3 in its category. Over 100,000 companies nationwide now participate in the National Apprenticeship Scheme.

In recognising Bentley, the Learning and Skills Council commended the breadth of the Company’s scheme; rather than just manufacturing, the Bentley apprenticeship scheme includes all areas of the business, such as logistics, engineering and sales and marketing. One of the most attractive aspects for the apprentices is the opportunity to spend a period of time living and working abroad within the Volkswagen Group, part of an exchange programme which sees Bentley host foreign apprentices wishing to gain some experience working in the luxury car sector at the Crewe plant.

Bentley Motors employs 51 apprentices who follow a three to four year training programme across a number of disciplines.  The apprenticeship programme is run in conjunction with the training provider Total People Ltd.  In addition, apprentices undertake day release to a local college to complete the necessary academic qualifications and develop the required underpinning knowledge. The Bentley scheme is renowned for producing high calibre apprentices. Chris Coates, a former Bentley apprentice was recently selected for the UK Team to compete in the World Skills competition which takes place in Canada later this year.  Bentley Motors is currently in the process of finalising its apprentice in-take in September 2009, a sign of its continued commitment to the apprenticeship programme.

This latest award comes at a significant time for the Company. 2009 is the 90th anniversary of Bentley and the anniversary is being marked with the launch of an all-new grand Bentley next month. Designed, engineered and built in the company’s historic Crewe plant, it is exciting projects such as this which enables Bentley to attract young talent and provide high-skill career paths for its apprentices.

Christine Gaskell, Member of the Board for Personnel and Apprenticeship Ambassador explained,
“We are exceptionally proud of this award. Being recognised at not only a regional, but a national level, is a great testament to everyone involved in the scheme. Recruiting apprentices enables Bentley Motors to meet our skills needs in critical areas.  It allows us to select the right person and develop them in a way that meets the needs of both the company and the apprentice.

The automotive industry is a great place to work and, as this award demonstrates, it is a sector which all ambitious young people should consider if they want a challenging but rewarding career. ”

One of the motor industry’s hidden treasure troves will be opened for the first time in September when Bentley Motors holds a one-off parts and accessories sales fair.

The famous Crewe-based manufacturer will be offering professional traders and owners of both Bentley and Crewe-built Rolls-Royce cars, as well as enthusiasts of these iconic British marques, the opportunity to purchase anything from a V8 engine block or replacement gearbox right through to an indicator bulb or pristine, beautifully illustrated 1950s handbook.

Bentley Motors holds over 55,000 part lines for all Bentley models (1955 onwards) as well as Rolls-Royce cars built in Crewe (1955-2002) at its state-of-the-art 143,000 square foot warehouse on the outskirts of the Cheshire town. This equates to an astonishing 7 million items – all stored and catalogued on the company’s database.

The September sales fair will enable Bentley to create additional space for parts and accessories for upcoming cars like the Continental Supersports and the much anticipated all-new Bentley which is due to make its debut in California this August.

“Even Bentley employees describe our parts and accessories operation as a ‘goldmine’ and are slightly overawed by the sheer number and variety of parts and accessories we can supply”, comments Steve O’Hara Director of Aftersales at Bentley Motors.

“However with so many Bentley and Rolls-Royce cars enjoying far longer lives than a typical vehicle and owners seeking to keep them in the best possible condition, we need to be able to support these customers and many more generations of owners. We take real pride in being able to provide anything from a humble speedometer cable through to replacement body panels anywhere in the world.

This event will be a real one-off. It is very rare for us to be able to open the doors like this so we hope that Bentley and Rolls-Royce aficionados will make the most of the opportunity.”

Over the weekend a range of Bentley’s factory trained experts will be on-site to provide visitors with advice on identifying and sourcing the correct parts for their car. All the items will be clearly catalogued and displayed by model type with a range of systems available to source the perfect part.

Unlike a typical ‘autojumble’, all the parts available will be original and unused, backed with a  manufacturer warranty and many provided in branded packaging. Bentley’s official logistics partner will also attend the weekend to support any customers needing parts to be shipped.

Richard Lawrie, Heritage Parts Manager at Bentley Motors, comments:

“We will be providing a large marquee to display the parts and hope that the selection will meet the requirements of specialist companies who restore and service these remarkable cars as well as the owner enthusiast seeking a rare item and the opportunity to buy directly from the warehouse.”

Anyone wishing to attend this unique Bentley parts and accessories can register their interest by contacting the team at heritage.event@bentley.co.uk by 21 August 2009.