I was fortunate to be invited to the Bentley Factory as part of my work with Bentley Calgary. The factory tour was given to introduce the Bentley Continental Supersports and get a preview of the Bentley Arnage replacement which Bentley calls Project Kimberly.
The factory at Crewe, about 45 min from Manchester by road, was built to ramp up for Rolls Royce Merlin aircraft engine production just prior to WWII. Rolls Royce had purchased Bentley in 1931 and was making both vehicles in Derby up to that point. There were significant infrastructure challenges to get the new factory up and running and it is a credit to all the men that they did so in approximately one year from breaking ground. From 1939 to 1945 Crewe produced 26,000 Merlin and 2000 Griffon aero engines.
After WWII, the decision was made to shift Automobile production from Derby (pronounced Darby) to Crewe to start up post war production. Less than 3 months after the last Griffon engine was completed, the first car rolled off the assembly line. There was some hesitancy at Rolls Royce, as some directors felt that Crewe lacked the skilled workforce that was at Derby, and as they were more protective of the Rolls Royce name, the first cars that came out of Crewe were Bentley models. They need not have worried, quality was excellent and in not too long all post war Rolls Royces and Bentleys were produced there.
While production after the war was on pre-war Rolls Royce Silver Dawn designs, a new motorcar was introduced to the world’s press in April of 1955. Badged as either a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud or a Bentley S Type, this was the start of the uniformity of
Rolls Royce and Bentley motorcars up until the mid-1980’s when the Bentley Mulsanne and later Turbo R were introduced to give Bentley a more sporting disposition. The market responded positively and by the late 1990’s Bentley’s outsold Rolls Royce 2:1.
The Bentley S-Type Series II, and the Rolls Royce Silver Cloud II received a 6.25L V8 engine in 1959. The next major Rolls/Bentley was the Silver Shadow/Bentley T type, introduced in 1966, which featured the first monocoque chassis and retaining a 6.75L version of the V8. The Rolls Royce Silver Spirt/Bentley Mulsanne came in 1980, with the Bentley Turbo R following mid decade. In 1998 the Rolls Silver Seraph/Bentley Arnage were introduced with many parts sourced from BMW; the Arnage getting a twin turbo version of BMW’s V8, and the Silver Seraph getting a version of the BMW V12. The last Rolls Royce, a Corniche, was completed at Crewe in 2002 after the complicated sale in 1998 involving VW/Audi, who purchased the factory and contents, and BMW who purchased the Rolls Royce trademark and moved production to Goodwood. Today the factory at Crewe produces all the Bentley models.
In 1999, when it looked like Bentley might face some supply problems with the BMW sourced twin-turbo V8 engines, they re-engined the Arnage with the venerable 6.75L Turbo engine, and created the Bentley Arnage Red Label. Bentley still made the Arnage with the BMW V8 engine, calling it the Green Label, though it went out of production in 2001. Rolls Royce continued to produce the BMW V12 engined version of the car called the Silver Seraph until the arrival of the Phantom in 2004. The Bentley Arnage has been constantly developed, the latest versions from 2002 onward being the Bentley Arnage R and Arnage T, standing for Refinement and Turbo respectively. 2009 will be the last year of Arnage production, though the Brooklands Coupe and Azure Convertible variants will continue to be sold in very small numbers. There will be a run-out edition of the Arnage, of very limited production, called the Final Series and will be available in the second half of 2009.
Which brings us to project Kimberly, which is the Arnage replacement, and one of the reasons for my trip. At Bentley they call this the new “large car”, as if the Flying Spur is a small car! As the automobile industry is being increasingly globalized, and with it a huge rationalization of vehicle brands and platforms, I was expecting the new Arnage to be a platform shared car to a large extent. The VW/Audi group has Lamborghini and Bugatti to draw on for powertrains, and Audi is coming up with a new all-aluminium A8 chassis. I was expecting the new Bentley to make heavy use of its cousins componentry, under the skin at least, as the economics obviously favour it heavily. Also, I was expecting Crewe to be more of a final assembly plant, rather than the Crewe of the 50’s and 60’s where everything was made under one roof. I went as far as to tell people that the current Arnage would be the last ‘British’ Bentley, and while its replacement would no doubt be a better automobile, it likley wouldn’t have the craftsmanship of the old car.
I am pleased to report that my assumptions were wrong.
Bentley is still very British. Crewe isn’t a final assembly factory. And the Arnage replacement isn’t a platform-shared Audi.
In fact, there isn’t really any indication that Bentley is owned by VW/Audi, and the only clue was some parts trolleys that were marked with the Audi logo. All the senior design staff and production managers are British, and the Factory, while substantially modernized and upgraded, still provides the same work as it has for the last 60 years. All the CAD/CAM is designed in house as is all the production software. The wood shop is massive, is carrying on milling timbers and matching veneers in exactly the same way they have done since the 1950’s. There were perhaps 30 women sewing hides, and a group of men stretching them over interior trim pieces. I wanted to spend more time there.
Project Kimberly has a unique platform and isn’t shared with any other Bentley let alone Audi. The the decision was made to give the 6.75L V8 a substantial re-engineering rather than modify an existing powerplant like the Lamborghini/Audi V10 or the Bugatti W16. Although those hi-tech multi valve engine produce prodigious power, none have the low end torque characteristics that old-school Bentley customers expect.
And the car looks good. So many of the super luxury vehicles such as the Maybach, or the Rolls Royce Phantom lack grace and beauty. Imposing and imperious sure, but good looking? Not so much. The new Bentley is different; it is still a large motorcar, but it is styled to look smaller than it is, and it retains classic proportions. It carries a retro influence in the front end, borrowing from the Silver Cloud/S Type, but it is not overdone. Audi has provided the latest generation of electronics and infotainment which is welcome. It is a small volume hand built car, but you won’t have to apologize for it missing anything. They have made a small number of prototypes which are undergoing durability testing, and we should see the production ready versions in mid-2010.
The Bentley Continental Supersports is a higher performance variant of the very successful Continental GT range. The engine has been breathed upon for another 20hp on top of the Continental Speed’s 600hp which is in turn up from the 550hp GT. The gearbox has been reworked for shifting in half the time, the rear track has been pushed out by new 20” wheels with decreased offset, and the exhaust (and exhaust note) is much more puposeful. Bentley is claiming a half second decrease on 0-100km/hr to 3.7s and a top speed over 330km/hr. The Carbon brakes are larger, and the wheels super light forged items with a unique satin grey finish. The bodywork gets subtle changes, most notably a more aggressive front bumper with larger air intakes. The hood also gets functional extractor vents to keep the engine bay cooler. The interior is drastically stripped out, with carbon fiber shell racing seats from the Bugatti Veyron replacing the heavy electrically powered items saving about 100kg. The rear seats have been removed and in there place is a luggage shelf with a carbon fiber brace behind the front seats. Alcantara trim is prevalent throughout. There will be a comfort version that will come out later, with the electric seats (and weight) returned, which will no doubt account for the majority of sales.
The most fundamental change is the fact that the car can now run on biofuel, and will accept any combination of a gas/biofuel mixture. There were substantial changes to the fuel system, as you need about 30% more fuel flow for the same power as gasoline. As biofuel is basically alcohol and carries static electricity, it was necessary to ground the whole electrical system to prevent sparks. Also biofuel has no ‘cushioning’ effect on the valve train, so stronger valves and different valve seats were deemed necessary. No changes were needed for the gasket or engine seals however. Bentley claims a 70% reduction in life-cycle C02 emissions that are possible with the conversion to biofuel, though this is based on sugar cane biofuel, not corn which we use in North America. The figure with our biofuel is probably closer to 20% though there are apparently more advanced fuels in the works.
Lastly, there were some very cool satin paint finishes that I would be very tempted to order. There is a dark charcoal satin and a lighter medium grey. I liked the lighter colour best, as it highlighted the GTs lines spectacularly. The satin finish is very expensive, about $30,000, and I’m told that it takes another 2 weeks of paint preparation as it shows absolutely everything in the paint. Paint thickness, orange peel etc are all magnified and because it has a satin finish, it can’t be polished. The paint has to go on perfectly, on a perfect body the first time...
We should have our first Supersports in the showroom in July 2009....
-Lawrence
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