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Bentley forging ahead with SUV development

Bentley has a whole mess of new models in the pipeline, including a completely new coupe, two-door and high-performance versions of the Mulsanne and an even more hard-core version of the Continental GT3-R. But the most vital product under development at Crewe is its upcoming new SUV, and that's what our spy photographers have caught undergoing testing.
This prototype appears to be the same one we spotted a couple of months ago, although this time the NewBentley.com stickers appear to have been taped over (presumably to call less attention to itself) and the whole thing is riding lower to the ground to better test its brakes and cooling systems.
While the form clearly shares much with the EXP 9 F concept that previewed its development at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show, the design has clearly been worked over with a front end and tailgate that are easier on the eyes and more in keeping with the company's styling language.

Baby Bentley studied for 2020, but it might not be cheaper

Bentley may step down a segment with a new, smaller luxury car that it hopes to have ready by 2019. The British luxury marque's fifth model line, assuming that its SUV ever makes it to market, though, is still in the earliest planning stages.
Kevin Rose, Bentley's head of sales and marketing, spoke with Autocar at the Geneva Motor Show about the proposed new vehicle. "At the moment, our line of thinking is for a smaller car. But smaller doesn't necessarily mean cheaper," he said. The brand believes the price floor of its models should be 100,000 pounds ($167,240).
The smaller Flying B isn't the only project being worked on. Rose hinted that it is considering an even more expensive model above the Mulsanne priced at around 300,000 pounds ($501,735) that would compete with the Rolls-Royce Phantom. "The twin pillars of the Bentley brand are performance and luxuriousness. Any car that offers something unique, with both of those bases well covered, is on the table," he said.

2014 Bentley Continental GT V8 S

Bentley still appeals to those with an appreciation for strong, Old World traditionalism. Cars wearing the storied Flying B have been discussed in wood-paneled drawing rooms by men wearing earthy tweeds and corduroy through clouds of fragrant cigar and pipe smoke, for decades. It is a company that has spent nearly 100 years building cost-no-object autombiles, for rich drivers who require a tremendous way to waft above the Sturm und Drang of mortal motoring.
The Bentley Continental GT, while unmistakably a party to that legacy of wooly privilege, has always seemed better suited to the nouveau riche than the landed gentry. The Mulsanne and the Continental Flying Spur still carry forward the brand's heritage of unfathomably fast, gargantuan sedans, while the GT has been busy inveigling an entirely new class of buyer with its lottery-win good looks.
A microsecond version of that analysis was all I had time for as I careened around another heroic left-hand sweeper in this Ice (white) 2014 Bentley Continental GT V8 S. For a car with roots in rainy England and German-engineering genes, the V8 S felt remarkably at home while crushing the desert-strewn distance between San Diego and Palm Springs - almost the epicenter of the New World's Golden West.