Men Free Blog

When is a 1996 Lincoln Town Car with 114,000 miles on the clock worth $15,098? The correct answer should be never. In this case, however, the answer is when someone supposedly drops $45,000 worth of work into one to make a fake Bentley Arnage. The result is what you see above; add a couple of fender-mounted chandeliers and it could score a role as The Duke’s car in Escape From New York. That giant C-pillar is more Rolls than Bentley and those chrome dubs are more bad than good. The biggest disaster comes into view when you open the door and look inside. That interior reportedly cost $10,000. You’d think that amount would buy more than quilted leather, a passel of winged-B emblems that aren’t fooling anybody, and that stock instrument panel, but apparently… no. Anyway, somebody liked it enough to buy it, so what do we know. We’re sure it’ll look great in their garage. You know – right next to the Fierarri.

The latest Bentley Arnage is doing the rounds in Spain, but it isn’t the sedan’s appearance that’s news, it’s how it might be powered. As far as cosmetic bodywork, the changes appear minimal, including new fog light placement, rear apron and exhaust exit. A little more substantially, the car is widened at the B-pillar, which should finally give back bench passengers the kind of room that befits a Bentley sedan.

Exterior and interior tweaks aside, what’s under the hood is where things are supposedly cracking. Rumors that we can only guess are highly speculative suggest that the coming Arnage will get a diesel engine. We’re not sure if those rumor-mongers got the memo a month ago in which Bentley CEO Josef Paefgen stated there will be no diesel Bentleys. But supposing one of Rudolph’s children was dropped in that massive engine bay, suspects are Audi’s V12 TDI for the standard model, and the Veyron’s W16 to create a thermonuclear Arnage T. Sign us up.

Speaking as someone who has driven more than his fair share of Bentleys, I can say that although the brand’s Continental series is the way of the future, the more expensive and stately Arnage is still a benchmark to be respected. Bentley has announced that it will debut the Arnage Final Series at next month’s Paris Motor Show, thereby confirming for the first time that the current model’s ten-year run is about to end. Only 150 of these special Arnage models will be built, and all are powered by Bentley’s legendary twin-turbo 6.75-liter V8 producing 500 bhp and 738 lb-ft of torque, which also happens to be celebrating its 50-year anniversary in 2008. Bentley says the Final Series combines the performance of the Arnage T with the refinement of the R, and a few odd features are thrown in like a rear cocktail cabinet with a Final Series stainless steel flask and two shot glasses and four Bentley umbrellas mounted in the trunk. Like any special edition, there are also Final Series badges on the exterior and interior, as well.

So if the Final Series marks the end of the Arnage, what’s next? We asked Bentley outright, and they of course couldn’t comment on future product, but say that work is well underway on the brand’s next flagship model and hinted that it may move even further upmarket. We take that to mean the Rolls-Royce Phantom should consider itself put on notice. We also asked if Bentley’s iconic V8 would be retired in these times of strict emissions regulations and maybe replaced with something from the VAG parts bin. Again, while they could neither confirm nor deny anything, we got the impression that there’s life left in this 50-year motor.

An outside perspective can do wonders for an automaker. In this case, we’re not sure ourselves what to make of this concept, let alone what Bentley would do with it. The British luxury marque actually commissioned Arturo Peralta, a Spanish automotive designer, to come up with this concept that he calls the SenseS.

While pursuing his second MA in vehicle design, Peralta interned at Pininfarina, where, judging from the striking similarities, he either had an integral part in designing the Sintesi concept or else made off with the blueprints in his briefcase. Peralta waxes poetic about the relationship he envisions that the Bentley SenseS would share with its driver and the environment around it, thanks in part to – wait for it – Genetic Engineering, but offers little in the way of actual details aside from the translucent body panels and suggesting that the vehicle would be powered by the wind. In the end, don’t expect to see this design shaping the direction of the next Continental… somehow we don’t think the twin-turbo W12 would quite fit in there.

Devil May Care, the new James Bond novel set back during the Cold War in 1967, arrives on bookstore shelves May 28th. The book’s author, Sebastian Faulkes, has written the story in the style of the late Ian Fleming to celebrate the 007 creator’s centenary. As we first reported last September, MI6’s greatest secret agent also returns to his Bentley-driving roots in Devil May Care. The car is the same one he drives in Fleming’s Thunderball and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service: a custom 2-seat Bentley R type Continental convertible with the 4½-liter engine from a Mk VI stuffed underhood. To celebrate Bond’s return to Bentley, Penguin Books asked the automaker to design a very limited Special Series Edition — just 300 copies will be made. (Anyone want to place bets on the aftermarket value of book #007?)

Under the supervision of chief designer Dirk Van Braeckel (the man responsible for the current Continental GT’s lines), Bentley has delivered a leather-bound, heirloom-quality piece. The ‘Flying B’ hood ornament is featured on the cover and spine, and the outer leather is stitched in the same diamond pattern you’ll find on the seating surfaces of a modern Bentley road car. The inside cover is also finished off in leather, but is styled in tune with cars of the era in which the story is set. The typeface used is the same one you’ll find in a Bentley owner’s manual, and each individually-numbered book comes with a matching-number pewter die-cast R type model and a similarly-snazzy book block. The numbering on each book, by the way, is featured on a metal plate supplied by the same firm who does the engine plates for the cars. Finally, all books come with a plexiglass slipcase.

As you might expect, this mega-exclusive book is also mega-expensive. £750 will put one on the bookshelf, where it would surely look nice next to the divorce papers you’ll be handed shortly after its arrival. If you’re a Bond completist, recent lottery winner, or a Bentley fanatic, you can order the super special edition via Penguin007.com, where they’ve got all manner of Bond info, a countdown clock ticking off the seconds to the book’s release and a link to the Special Series Edition minisite. You regular folk (we know you’re out there) can meet us at Amazon, where the pricing’s a bit more in tune with blogger pay.

[Sources: Bentley, Penguin Books]

We can’t imagine being an apprentice at Bentley leaves you a lot of spare time, what with your full class load on how to stitch the perfect steering wheel, match wood grains and build twin-turbo V8s with your bare hands. A team of nine apprentices comprising the Bentley Greenpower Team, however, have found the time over the past ten months to build an exceptional little electrical vehicle for the Greenpower Corporate Challenge that kicked off at the Goodwood race circuit yesterday.

Their car, dubbed the Continental DC, was developed using the same CAD software that Bentley uses for its own cars, and is powered by two 12-volt batteries and a 24-volt motor that’s required by competition rules. The body is also based on Bentley’s 2004 Goodwood soap box racer and is basically invisible to wind resistance. The use of carbon fiber to keep weight down is extensive, to say the least. The body, chassis, wheels and even a specially designed suspension with carbon fiber beams under tension are all made from the exotic weave. Despite being green as can be, the Continental DC still sports some flare from Crewe thanks to a single leather Bentley seat with a four-point harness, a custom Bentley-inspired steering wheel and Bentley “dashboard”.
[Source: Bentley]