For decades now Bentley has been a strong competitor to the likes of Rolls Royce. They offered machines like the Mulsanne that offered ultimate levels of comfort and luxury for the dignitaries, rulers and drug-lords of the world. But then Volkswagen rebadged the Phaeton to create the Continental and things changed forever. Bentley instantly swapped from a boring ho-hum brand of machines for the ultra-rich to a company that offered sporting luxury GT cars like Aston Martin and Maserati . Then Bentley went and made a faster, better version they dubbed Speed and it was good. Now Bentley is looking to once again inject a bit of speed and excitement into their lineup and they have made a new Speed version of the Mulsanne?!
That is right, Bentley has taken its gigantic luxo-barge and crammed it full of engine and upgraded chassis bits to create the Mulsanne Speed. Despite record levels of power and performance for the brand, Bentley was smart to keep a rather subtle (or as subtle as a giant Bentley can be) exterior design.
Did Bentley just create the ultimate luxury sleeper? Read on to find out all the details and decide for yourself.
As with all cars of this level, the exterior design is quite restrained and clean considering its sporting intentions. From the old Mulsanne, Bentley has added a dark finish to the grilles that cover the nose, lower bumper vents and wing vents. If you have a very sharp eye, you will also notice that the headlamps and taillamps are tinted a bit darker as well.
One of the more noticeable changes for the new Bentley Mulsanne Speed is the new set of wheels. These new wheels are directional, a first for Bentley, and are “handed;" meaning they are set for one side of the car or the other. No left-to-right tire rotations here, folks. Expect them to cost a fortune to replace if you ever damage them. Each 21-inch roller is individually machined from solid, forged blanks.
To round out the changes, Bentley has added some nice new rifled exhaust pipes for the upgraded engine and four new paint colors: Spectre, Candy Red, Camel and Marlin. The weird black/gold/green car we have here in our photos is the new Spectre paint.
As car that is created just as much to be driven in as it is to drive, the interior got some extra-special touches for this new Speed model. Again, this is still a fairly stately machine, so the changes that constitute the company’s “contemporary reinterpretation of the exquisite interior” are a bit silly. The largest change is a new, unique color split for the two-toned interior and new stitch lines.
Seriously, a whole new sports model and they changed the stitching.
Bentley did also add a new “technical veneer” interior option, which is a set of Piano Black panels with carbon-fiber inlays. Bentley was at least kind enough to dump all the extra Mulliner Driving Specification interior options into the mix free of charge. That little interior equipment bump nets buyers diamond quilting on the doors and seats, embroidered logos in all seats, knurling on the shift knob and alloy sports pedals.
They do give buyers plenty of chances for customization though. There are 24 different interior color choices, 10 different veneer colors and six different color splits.
On the technology front, Bentley provides a hard drive-based infotainment system with 60 GB of storage space, electric seat-back tables for rear passengers and iPads with matching keyboards. There is Wi-Fi onboard, and, of course, the requisite frosted-glass bottle cooler with matching crystal champagne glasses. If music is your thing, there is an optional 2,200-watt Naim premium audio system.
Now we get to the fun stuff; the oily bits. Now technically Bentley is referring to this as a new engine, but it shares quite a bit with the old mill, including the iconic 6.75-liter displacement. Bentley started with the old motor as a base and then completely redesigned the combustion chambers, inlet ports and fuel injectors, while also adjusting the compression ratio. These changes combine with a variable valve timing and better boost control for the two turbochargers to create the torquiest engine to ever grace the nose of a Bentley. Bentley claims there is a full 811 pound-feet of twist on tap, and you have access to all that power from a ridiculously low 1,750 rpm. Horsepower is a slightly less impressive at 530 ponies.
Thanks to all that grunt in the bottom end, Bentley claims the new Mulsanne Speed with complete the 0-to-60 run in 4.8 seconds. Top speed is quoted as 190 mph. This is one fast machine.
To make the best use of all this new torque, the transmission has been completely recalibrated. There is also a new “S” mode that keeps the engine spinning above 2,000 rpm at all times so the car constantly has boost built up in the turbochargers.
More power is useless without a better chassis to make good use of it, so Bentley wisely made some modifications under the sheet metal to make the new Mulsanne Speed a little nimbler. A new “Sport” mode has been added to the air suspension that stiffens everything up for better responses and reduced body roll. The steering system is also adjusted for better feedback and accuracy. Bentley has also smartly added a “Custom” mode that allows for a combination of any level of the steering, chassis and engine tunes.
The new Mulsanne Speed is the answer to a question nobody ever asked. The market the Mulsanne is aimed at hardly has need for a “sporty” version of the car they are driven around in. A bigger engine and a tighter suspension is only a recipe for spilling champagne on the matching iPads and keyboards.
That said, there is a large movement in the ultra-rich to have chauffer cars that can be fun to drive from time to time and Bentley may be trying to jump into the market early. I do still think it is a pointless car, but it is all-powerful and I am glad to live in a world where it can exist.
