TEST DRIVE: BENTLEY MULSANNE:BACK IN 2006, Bentley's sales were about to break five figures for the first time, having exploded since the Continental GT was launched in 2003. "People could still buy a car even if there was a downturn," Bentley's chairman Dr Franz-Josef Paefgen told us back then, writes BEN OLIVER
“The only problem would be something like another 9/11, where the overall atmosphere is just not right to spend so much money on a car.”
Economically, that’s exactly what he got.
Bentley’s sales have more than halved Since the banking crisis struck. While there is growth in some markets – China now accounts for a fifth of Bentley’s output, and it has opened dealerships in places that were previously off its radar, such as Baku and Almaty– the vital American market remains flat.
Bentley’s figures show while few customers are forced to sell their cars, most are driving their luxury status symbols less: they don’t want to attract that sort of attention.
“There is a very limited number of people with more or less unlimited wealth who are crazy enough to buy one of these very luxurious cars,” Paefgen said in 2006 of the replacement he was planning for the Arnage limo. “It’s a statement, and there aren’t so many people who want to show up in this big a statement,” he said.
What hope does he have of selling a car like that in 2010? Even in the worst market for luxury cars in living memory, you can’t give up and go home. If you stop new products coming down the pipeline, the brand will die and luxury brands like Bentley, making near-unaffordable cars, still need a hero to top of the range.
That’s exactly what the new Bentley Mulsanne is intended to be. (Its new steel platform and effectively new 6.75-litre twin-turbo V8 will also underpin replacements for the equally astronomically priced Azure convertible and Brooklands coupé.)
Irish prices have yet to be confirmed and Bentley will not speculate, but our best estimates would put it in the region of €360,000 to €400,000. That would position it closer to a Rolls-Royce Ghost than the Phantom. At 5.5m long, it’s also closer in size to the 5.4m Ghost (the Phantom is 5.8m) but at 2,585kg it’s around the same weight as the aluminium Phantom and 150kg heavier than the steel Ghost. Those numbers are useful because it’s difficult to gauge the Mulsanne’s scale from photographs. It’s a colossal car. But its styling doesn’t give it the presence of either Rolls-Royce; its proportions are more conventional and it lacks their modernity, originality and mild shock on first acquaintance.
The Mulsanne is best from the rear three-quarters, where it echoes the full, confident, blocky yet elegant lines first seen on the Brooklands coupé. The front end, with its low-set lamps, looks doleful and apologetic; even in a recession, the two-and-a-half tonnes of hand-tooled magnificence that follows deserves to be announced with more pomp and pride.
The Mulsanne is just as much a car in which to be driven: herein lies the reason to choose one over a Flying Spur. The lesser Bentley four-door offers comparable lounging room; the rear of the Mulsanne feels like a country-house library on wheels, with inlaid wood and overstuffed upholstery of a heft and quality that is mildly out of place but nonetheless welcome in an object designed to move.
The front cabin is less successful. It has the same expanse of veneer and leather, great seat comfort and a sensational view down the long central crease of the bonnet to the winged B. But the layout is staid compared to the Ghost’s; the central console is a messy profusion of black plastic switchgear and the instrument binnacle is busy and tightly packed.
None of this bothers you much when you first get the keys; you’re more interested in finding out what one of the few cars with a four-figure output feels like to drive.
In this case it’s torque of 1020Nm delivered at 1,750rpm, with the peak 505bhp coming at 4,200rpm. This new engine shares all its fundamental dimensions with Bentley’s ancient “six-and-three-quarter”; they wanted the same overwhelming torque that configuration has provided for 50 years but had to redesign the block to add lighter internals, variable cam-phasing and cylinder deactivation for better economy and emissions. So the numbers are the same but the engine is new, and it drives the rear wheels through an equally modern ZF 8-speed automatic gearbox.
On start-up and trickling around town the Mulsanne’s drivetrain doesn’t quite match the Ghost’s peerless refinement, but it’s a Bentley, so a little more connection with the mechanicals is appropriate to the marque. On small throttle openings, all that torque is easy to manage and the box slips seamlessly between ratios.
When you find the space to hold it all the way in, the Mulsanne takes off like a 747; a rousing but distant noise, the sensation of immense power overcoming colossal weight and acceleration that always achieves its purpose but never really thrills you.
Driven quickly, as it seldom will be, the Mulsanne handles amazingly for a car of such girth. The response, weighting and gearing of the steering are all excellent; if you can push a two-and-a-half-tonne car hard down a twisty road without getting frustrated with the helm, someone’s done their job well, though the target market might prefer less effort at low speed.
Roll, heave and pitch are all well-managed by the adaptive air springs; a car this big will never feel agile, but the Mulsanne always feels composed, and occasionally fun. But at the end of the dynamic spectrum most important to buyers – low-speed ride and refinement – the Mulsanne can’t match the peerless, silken Ghost. It rides softly, but you feel and hear too much of pot holes and cat’s eyes, and they set off a gentle, uncontained wobble in the body.
The folks at Bentley HQ in Crewe quietly makes the point this is the first entirely bespoke Bentley in 80 years, owing nothing to a Rolls-Royce sibling or a VW group engine. It’s a bold, admirable and necessary statement of intent in difficult times.
It didn’t charm us the way the flawed but charismatic old Arnage could. Nor, objectively, is it as impressive a car as the new Rolls-Royce Ghost. But it’s sufficiently different in concept and execution – and sufficiently true to Bentley’s core values – to give you reason to choose it. Or to buy one of each, if there’s anyone left who can still afford to.
Factfile
Engine:6,750cc twin-turbocharged V8 505bhp @ 4,200rpm 1020Nm @ 1,750rpm;
0-100km/h:5.1 sec; Top speed:297km/h; Boot:443l; CO2:393g/km (Band G – €2,100 annual motor tax); L/100km(mpg):16.9 (16.7); Price:£220,000 in UK (no official Irish prices yet – est. €360k-€400k) On sale:Sept/Oct