MONSTER OF A MOTORCAR REPLACES ARNAGE

+ Click to Enlarge TO THE MANOR BORN: A Bentley Mulsanne parked outside one of England's stately homes.

July 29, 2010
By Denis Droppa

The new Mulsanne recently replaced the Arnage as Bentley's flagship and is making a whistle-stop tour around the planet to introduce it to its markets.

We caught up with the R5.2-million luxury barge in Johannesburg before it was shipped off to its next destination.

Mulsanne, as our more petrol-headed readers might know, is the famous turn at the end of the straight at the Le Mans 24 Hour, a race which Bentley has won six times.

The Bentley named after the corner is the pinnacle of all the marque stands for, oozing luxury, power and prestige from every metallic pore. If anybody still considered Bentley the poor cousin of Rolls-Royce, this is the mink-covered mallet to knock that perception on its head.

The enormous Mulsanne has presence and gravitas like little else on the road. Its 5.57m length dwarfs most other cars and its ruthlessly square shape gives it the authority of a block of granite, rolling along on titanic 20" rims.

With their mirrors filled by that chromed, cliff-like honeycomb grille with its flying B mascot perched on top, other drivers are afflicted by an uncontrollable urge to move out of the way.

And so they should, because the Mulsanne wields 6.75 litres of twin-turbocharged get-outta-the-way V8 power. It's a low-revving bludgeon of an engine that redlines at only 4500rpm and, along with 377kW, makes a quite astonishing 1020Nm at only 1800rpm.

An eight-speed automatic channels this brute force to the rear wheels, assisted by the appropriate electronic traction aids.

The only word to describe the power delivery is relentless; it has the inexorable demeanour of Jupiter orbiting the sun or even the All Blacks running for the tryline. It feels as if it would continue accelerating unhindered even if one hitched a yacht to the rear, and maybe a couple of caravans too.

Brutal but dignified, the V8 purrs like a tiger announcing dinnertime. Double-paned glass mutes the aural drama from cabin occupants but stand outside as it drives past and the dual turbos whoosh dramatically.

Nowadays Bentley is about as British as Boris Becker but its German owners must be given credit for "keeping it real", as the beer ad goes.

Real in this instance means luxury craftsmanship such as one might find in Buckingham Palace. The Mulsanne's opulent inner sanctum takes more than 170 hours - almost half the entire build process - to craft. The wood trims aren't the paperthin veneers you find in a garden-variety 7 Series or S-Class but thick chunks of real wood.

The finely-grained leather comes from pampered Scandanavian bulls with hides unblemished by scratches, and the cabin's brightened with dashes of chrome.

VARIABLE DAMPERS

Married to all this sumptuous old-world charm is high-tech such as satnav and a state-of-the-art, 2200W, 20-speaker audio system that dealt very impressively with Guns 'n Roses.

Air suspension with continuously variable dampers gives the Bentley a magic carpet ride to befit a limo but automatically lowers ride height to give train-like directional stability at high speeds.

Being a heavy, supersized sedan, the Mulsanne's dymnamics aren't exactly hard-wired into its driver's DNA but neither is it entirely remote. Gearshift paddles on the steering wheel signify that this is a car to be driven rather than just pointed.

So does a drive dynamics control system that allows you to select from sport, comfort and custom modes to vary the suspension and steering settings.

VERDICT

Jeeves will pobably have to give up his chauffeur's seat from time to time so the boss can enjoy piloting the Mulsanne missile.