Automotive Einstein

If you were the proud owner of a luxury convertible and you lived in the snowy Midwest, late January might seem like the perfect time to drive your droptop to Miami, Palm Springs, or some other sun-baked locale.

Photo Gallery: Top Down, Up North: Audi A5 Cabriolet, Bentley Continental GTC, and BMW 650i Convertible – Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: Top Down, Up North: Audi A5 Cabriolet, Bentley Continental GTC, and BMW 650i Convertible – Automobile Magazine

We’ve already heard quite a bit about Bentley’s SUV project. Bentley chairman and CEO Wolfgang Durheimer has excitedly talked up the luxury SUV for some time now, shedding light on various details regarding the new project. At the annual Volkswagen Group Night extravaganza before the start of the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, Durheimer finally gets to show off his new baby in the form of a concept version of a possible new SUV, the Bentley EXP 9 F Concept.

Photo Gallery: Bentley EXP 9 F Concept First Look – 2012 Geneva Motor Show – Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: Bentley EXP 9 F Concept First Look – 2012 Geneva Motor Show – Automobile Magazine

Under previous chairman Franz-Josef Paefgen, Bentley recorded several remarkable achievements: It returned to Le Mans with a cleverly disguised Audi R10 and won. It sold more than 10,000 cars for the first time in 2007. It expanded its model range to six different body styles. So why is Bentley today not swimming in cash and commanding long waiting lists? Because management applied the classic “wood and leather and bagfuls of torque” formula instead of considering more timely approaches like low weight, high fuel efficiency, and a more varied portfolio. Enter Wolfgang Duerheimer, who now handles Bentley, Bugatti, and the VW Group’s motorsports activities. Asked for his recipe to restore the winged B to its former glory, the new chairman answers immediately: “I am confident that we are going to see five figures again, but I need a bit more time to get there. Le Mans? It’s like betting all your money on one rather dark horse. For Porsche, this is a no-brainer, but despite the admittedly interesting efficiency-based new homologation rules, Bentley won’t compete there. I have a different idea. It revolves around a popular race series that is staged in North America, Europe, and Asia. That’s a big podium — big enough for Bentley, Audi, and Porsche. A rotational scheme could put the three brands through their paces in the three most important world markets with minimum investment and maximum effect. New products? Can’t talk about them, obviously. But it’s an open secret that Bentley is working on an SUV. It will be based on the next Cayenne/Q7 and is bound to attract at least 5000 buyers per year. In the States alone, I can see 20,000 potential customers — all of them current Bentley owners. And all of them have an SUV in the garage.”

Photo Gallery: Sneak Preview: Bentley – Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: Sneak Preview: Bentley – Automobile Magazine

The numbers, put into perspective
The new Bentley Continental GT V-8 is 55 pounds lighter than the W-12.
That’s good, but not great. At least, the weight was removed where it matters most: on top of the front wheels.

Photo Gallery: First Drive: Bentley Continental GT V8 – Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: First Drive: Bentley Continental GT V8 – Automobile Magazine

The Mulsanne is the ultimate Bentley sedan, a car that combines tradition, engineering, and luxury like no other. It boasts aluminum front fenders and a composite trunk lid in a largely vain effort to save weight, but that hardly matters since there’s a twin-turbo V-8 under the hood sending an incredible 752 lb-ft of torque through an eight-speed automatic transmission. Bentley quotes a top speed of 184 mph, not bad for a 5700-pound sedan lined with your choice of eight standard wood veneers and twenty-four standard interior leather colors. (Any custom color you want is available through Bentley’s Mulliner specialty division.) Indeed, this is a car that deftly combines the old and the new. Bentley assembly specialists spend 170 hours handcrafting the interior of each car, and it shows. If you ever have the privilege of riding in a Mulsanne, you might just decide to move in and live there. Who could blame you? The infotainment system (featuring an eight-inch color screen, navigation, a 60-gigabyte hard drive, and Bluetooth) hides discreetly behind a power-operated veneered wood door. Likewise, a media player storage drawer, lined in leather, holds iPods and other devices that can be played on the standard fourteen-speaker stereo system or the optional 2200-watt Naim stereo. Deep pile carpets beg you to remove your shoes, dig in your toes, and stay awhile, but the truth is, you’ll want to leave your driving moccasins on, because the Mulsanne is as good to drive as to be driven in.

The Continental Flying Spur sedan is a long-wheelbase version of the Continental GT coupe and convertible. Unlike those two-door models, which have just been redone, the Flying Spur is still based on the first-generation Continental, which dates to 2003. Bentley is in no particular hurry to update the Flying Spur because it still sells quite well, and truth be told, it still looks great, even if the much newer, much more expensive, much more exclusive, and much more over-the-top Mulsanne has overshadowed it as the ultimate Bentley sedan. The all-wheel-drive Flying Spur’s claim to fame is that it manages, like all Bentleys, to overcome the laws of physics. It’s a large and heavy (5380 pound) sedan that summons the forces produced by its mighty twin-turbocharged W-12 engine to propel itself to speeds that would do any lightweight, carbon-fiber supercar proud: 194 mph in the Flying Spur and an incredible 200 mph in the Flying Spur Speed. With a sumptuous and spacious cabin that’s lined with richly detailed leather, wood inlays, and lamb’s wool carpets, this effectively means that the Flying Spur is a $200,000, 200-mph living room. We consider that to be quite an achievement. We suspect one of the reasons the Flying Spur is so popular is that it is actually fairly discreet. Unlike the Mulsanne, which screams, “I’m rich,” to anyone who so much as glances at it, the Flying Spur can slip through traffic largely unnoticed; many people perceive it as just an anonymous big fancy car and have no idea that it costs twice as much as a Mercedes-Benz S-class.

The all-new Continental GT coupe that went on sale in spring 2011 is joined for 2012 by the Continental GTC convertible, which shares its striking new sheetmetal, LED running lamps, and much-improved navigation system. The first-generation Continental, for its part, sticks around in the form of two special-edition, high-performance models: the $285,598 Supersports convertible and the $297,495 Supersports convertible ISR (Ice Speed Record). The ISR convertible is an homage to a world record run on the frozen Baltic Sea by Finnish rally champion Juha Kankkunen, who summoned the courage to take a similar version to 205.48 mph on the ice. If you can summon the courage to pay a grossly inflated price for what is essentially a limited-edition paint and trim package, by all means, indulge yourself in either one of those outdated droptops. Our money is on the new Continental GTC, which, at $215,595, looks fantastic and will save you enough cash to fully indulge yourself in Bentley’s never-ending list of sybaritic options. Both of the second-generation Continental models — GT coupe and GTC convertible — have exquisitely detailed and handcrafted cabins, a sumptuous array of available colors and fabrics, and a surfeit of speed. They are more than pretty, though. They offer the responsiveness of a supercar with the comfort and ease of operation of a luxury grand tourer. These two-door Bentleys handle, steer, and ride with a sense of purpose and substance that few cars can equal.