By Mark Elias
Thursday, Aug 12th, 2010 @ 2:00 pm

A momentous occasion. That’s how you describe the introduction of a new offering from the company founded by W.O. Bentley in 1919. That the introduction of the 2011 Bentley Mulsanne at the 2009 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance was filled with pomp and circumstance, automotive descendants and bagpipers just added to the spectacle.

A year later we found ourselves running at high speed in W.O.’s new flagship along country roads at the edge of the Scottish Highlands. Driving from the wrong side of the car, on the wrong side of the road, on the wrong side of the pond is a momentous occasion in itself.

Yet the question lingering is just how well this latest Bentley competes against ever more challenging rivals, like the Rolls-Royce Ghost .

The pinnacle
The Mulsanne is the new flagship for the 91-year old firm, which, since 1998, has been a unit of Volkswagen . It is, depending on configuration, a four- or five-passenger saloon as they say on the other side. There is no XL model. Or LTZ RS model, or any other trim level, as each Mulsanne is unique to its owner. In a world of mass-production, the Bentley, and a few others like it, are reminders of the automotive world’s bespoke past because they truly are hand-built limited-edition pieces.

Bentley recently flew us to Crewe, U.K. for a first hand look at the Bentley Motors Works facility about 30 miles outside Manchester. The factory is one of those great prewar brick edifices, which look as though they built aircraft engines for the Allies during World War II. Which, incidentally, is actually quite the case.

Special orders don’t upset us
If we were to find the fast-food equivalent of a motorcar company, it most definitely would not be Bentley. Unlike Burger King, Bentley doesn’t build cars in a rapid and systematic fashion. In fact, they are quite slow, sometimes taking up to 90 days to finish each car, depending on the content as ordered by an individual customer. Want a particular hue of hide for the interior? Check. A shade of paint to match your wife or girlfriend’s nail polish? Ditto. Wi-Fi inside? Done. The point being there is no standard feature list that can be ordered through the company. Each car is an individual order, totally bespoke, built to answer an owner’s every whim. You could duplicate our test vehicle – but why would you?

One of those options is a 2,200-watt Naim audio system with 20 custom-built speakers and a wood-finished drawer that looks like it belongs in a fine piece of furniture to house your iPod or MP3 player in. Now that’s classy.

Take for example, the wood-trimmed waist rail. A ring of wood that wraps around the upper edge of the cabin, including the dashboard, it is available in everything from burled walnut to ash to piano black maple. It takes nearly five weeks of painting, cutting, and hand polishing on the part of Bentley artisans to take the wood trim from a raw root ball to finished and bookmatched dashboard, waistrail and picnic tables in back.

The double-stitched leather steering wheel is a hand sewn piece that truly displays its beauty in the cross stitching on the wheel’s inside. Deep pile wool carpet adds a sumptuous feeling underfoot and numerous hides are available for a customer’s choosing. In fact, Bentley officials sought out the number of combinations available and determined that over a billion possibilities existed, which would allow them to achieve their current build capacity for the next 100,000 years without duplicating a single model.

In the grand scheme of things, the Mulsanne competes against its stable mate, the Bentley Azure (undergoing a redesign), a Maybach 57 and a Rolls-Royce Ghost. Or about 15 Chevrolet Cruze s.

Looking back to look forward
The Bentley Mulsanne has a look as majestic as the mountains in the Scottish Highlands where we started our adventure. The look of the Mulsanne borrows design cues from early in the company’s history to items taken from recent editions as well. For instance, the jewel-like single headlamps are a throwback to cars from the ’50s and ’60s, while small detail-oriented touches like the knurled grips on the door grabs are a tactile sensation pulled from the Continental GT models. And the other thing about Bentleys: If it looks like metal, it is metal. How else can you account for this flagship weighing in at 5,700 lbs.?

With a monocoque frame and body built in Crewe’s Body-in-White facility, the Mulsanne still features much in the way of coachwork by skilled metal workers with up to 40 years experience. Other parts of the line run the gamut from robobuild to superforming, which does to aluminum what your old Mattel Vacuform toy factory would do to thin sheet plastic, that is suck it down over molds to form complex curves that would not be possible with conventional stamping processes.

A sleek version of high-end transport, the Mulsanne is optimized for the owner to be chauffeured or as will be the case more often than not, he will choose to drive it himself. At slightly more than 18-feet long, the Mulsanne is a boat. With rearview mirrors deployed, it is an impediment to oncoming traffic, especially on the smaller secondary routes that we traverse in Northern Scotland. With a mirror-to-mirror width of seven feet, on a road that sometimes dwindles to 12 feet wide…well, you do the math. Luckily there were passing zones for oncoming traffic.

Power on demand
With its 6¾-liter V8 being re-worked from top to bottom, the Mulsanne is a locomotive tour de force. Producing 505 horsepower and 752 lb-ft. of torque, it offers breathless power at 1,750 rpm.

Known already for its low-end torque, the V8 has been revised for improved efficiency. Cam phasing, which controls variable-valve timing, is joined by a new variable displacement function, to close valves of four of the cylinders for improved highway fuel economy.

From just above idle, to the top of the powerband, the Mulsanne’s V8 offers instant gratification to the driver’s right foot. Once at cruising speed on a highway, variable displacement comes into play, which closes down valves for four cylinders to save on fuel consumption. An eight-speed automatic transmission gets the torque to the rear wheels by a shift by wire arrangement, which also comes complete with steering wheel-mounted paddle shifters. That’s clearly a sign that the Chauffeur is not the only one who is supposed to have some fun.

A multi-link suspension transmits all the torque to the pavement, while an air suspension system with Continuous Damping Control monitors the situation. A Drive Dynamics Control function gives the driver several options for three fixed settings (the appropriately named Bentley, Sport, and Comfort) while a fourth option can be user set, offering fixed settings in suspension, steering, and throttle response. Custom Bentley-branded calipers that squeeze the 16-inch rotors to a stop, handle braking issues. These platters are big enough for serving dinner.

While EPA figures are not in yet, the Mulsanne does manage 16.7 mpg on a combined EU cycle. This nearly three-ton vehicle still serves up some impressive numbers. The big V8 is good for naught to 60 mph in 5.1 seconds, and has a maximum speed of 184 mph.

Could there be a Supersports version in the future? We can only imagine the rush.

To Chauffeur or not
We wouldn’t want the guy sitting in front with jodhpurs and captain’s hat to have all the fun. At the end of the day, and despite its size, the Mulsanne is still a driver’s car. Subtly bolstered seats held us in place on long sweepers and tight switchbacks. At speed, we could feel the CDC causing the Mulsanne to hunker down towards the asphalt to aid with downforce. The eight-speed automatic by ZF shifted effortlessly under automatic function and with a definite degree of sportiness when manipulating the paddles. The Cabin was ultra-quiet which surprised us since the car was equipped with 21-inch Dunlop SP Sport Maxx low-profilers and managed to make child’s play of the somewhat splotchy back roads.

You’re a buyer for this Mulsanne if you appreciate finer things. This case of rolling art, as beautiful inside as it is from afar, is one of the finest automobiles in existence today.

Leftlane’s bottom line
Unlike ultra-luxury vehicles from other manufacturers, where components are made throughout Europe and shipped to a central point for final assembly, the Bentley tradition of building bespoke autos for individuals continues today. With monocoque body assembly, hand-assembled engine building, wood and leather trimming and painting all done in house, the company still values the hand work that comes from an individual artist.

Hence the reason why many have been with the company for more than 30 years. Find that at any other factory producing anything, will you?

But don’t be in a hurry. Bespoke builds take time, and Bentley’s build calendar is sold out through 2012.

Bentley Mulsanne base price, $285,000.

Words and photos by Mark Elias.

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