I know you can say one or two things about the Rolls-Royce brand, Ford, Mercedes Benz, Mercedes Maybach ,Peugeot ,Audi and our own indigenous automaker, Innoson Motors. But what about the ultra-luxurious Bentley brand that makes cars we all yearn to drive in our lifetime.
Autmilas.com presents 11 Interesting Facts you should know about the automaker, BENTLEY
1) Bentley Motors was founded in 1919 by famous British constructor and an engineer ,Walter Owen Bentley. His mission statement is as true today as it was then “To build a good car, a fast car, the best in its class”
2) The 1920 Bentley EXP 1 was the first Bentley car ever made while the 1920 Bentley EXP 2 is the oldest surviving Bentley, the second ever made and the first to win a race.
3) Volkswagen Group acquired the Bentley brand in 1998. VW also controls Audi ,Bugatti ,Lamborghini, Porsche ,SEAT,Skoda ,MAN,Scania to mention a few.
4) In 1994, six Dominators SUV with different colors were specially built for Sultan of Brunei (the former world’s richest man ,who also boasts of over hundreds of Rolls Royces cars) at cost ₦1.4b ( £3m) per car .The 4-wheel drive luxury Sport Utility Vehicle was built on a Range Rover chassis.
5) The Bentley Bentayga is Bentley’s first mass-production SUV. The all-wheel drive, 5-door ultra-luxury SUV starts at ₦71m ($195k), if you love to get one for yourself .
It is powered by a 600 horsepower W12 engine,has a top speed of 187 mph and will move from standstill to 60 mph in 4.0 seconds .
6) The Bentley’s flying “B” ornaments was first used on 6½ Litre Bentleys in the late 1920’s.The modern types are designed to enter the bonnet in the event of an accident. The letter “B” stands for Bentley while the silver wings around it signifies speed.
7) The armored Bentley State Limousine is the official statecar created by Bentley for Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of her Golden Jubilee in 2002.
She has two of it that are valued at ₦4.6billion ( 10m GBP) each. They are powered by a Rolls-Royce – Bentley twin-turbocharged, 6.75-litre V8 engine .
8) Bentley current model line-up includes the Mulsanne, the Flying Spur sedan,Bentayga SUV and the New Continental GT. Past models includes the Continental (2003-2018),Arnage and Azure . All 2019 Bentley models will come with Special Centenary Badges to celebrate Its 100 Years
9) It takes around 110 hours to build a Continental GT, 130 to build a Continental Flying Spur sedan, 130 to build a Bentayga and around 400 to build a Mulsanne from start to finish
10) On average, 26 Continentals and Continental Flying Spurs, 5 Mulsannes and 31 Bentaygas are built in a day.
11) It takes 30 engineers about 13 and a half hours to build one W12 engine and about 136 hours or over 5 days to complete the interior trim on a Mulsanne.
Feel free to add to these facts…
CDT: AJ