2000 Bentley Arnage Red Label on 2040-cars

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2021 Bentley Bentayga V8 First Drive | Not messing with success

The 2021 Bentley Bentayga V8 marks the first refresh for Bentley’s first and rather successful SUV. The company has sold more than 20,000 of them worldwide since its introduction just a few years ago. As such, Bentley didnÂ’t need to do much to keep it updated, nor did it. The refresh boils down to exterior and interior updates, and after spending some time with the updated Bentayga, it continues to be a brilliantly luxurious machine with impressive capability. The most obvious and significant changes are to the exterior styling, which has hardly been the Bentayga's strong point. There are new round headlights with a cut crystal design like on other recent Bentleys. The grille has been enlarged, and the front bumper has a sportier design with an integrated spoiler. On the side, the fender vent has been lengthened and mounted higher, while the rear now has slim oval taillights and oval exhaust outlets. Those taillights have the same kind of cut crystal design as the headlights. The changes are subtle but effective at sprucing up the Bentayga, but they also donÂ’t make existing Bentaygas look out of date. ItÂ’s a similar situation inside. The biggest changes are in the center of the dashboard. The upper air vents are thin and horizontal instead of circles, and they've been relocated with the dash clock to sit mostly on top of the dash instead of nestled into it. Below them is a larger, 10.9-inch infotainment system that spans the whole width of the center stack and looks better integrated than the old version. The back seats can be configured to have nearly 4 inches more legroom, and thereÂ’s a larger touchscreen remote and available rear air vents for the bench seat configuration. Beyond that, the interior is mostly the same, which is hardly a complaint. This is a Bentley, after all. Essentially every surface is wrapped in soft leather, adorned with rich wood trim or made of weighty knurled metal. And customers have access to a vast variety of colors and combinations to create a genuinely custom cabin. There are a few low-ish points. The infotainment system isnÂ’t the most responsive, and it can be a little tricky to find the menu you want. Also, and this is a bit of a car journalist nitpick, you can spot some bits pilfered from the Audi parts bin: the turn signal and washer stalks, the headlight knob, and the underlying menus and layout of the instrument panel.

Bentley plotting rear-drive Continental GT3-R?

Coupe, convertible or Flying Spur sedan: no matter what body-style you get, or what engine you specify, the Bentley Continental comes with all-wheel drive. It's been that way since the model line was first introduced a dozen years ago. But that looks poised to change... at least for one notable exception. According to Autocar, Bentley is all but certain to launch a rear-drive version of the Continental GT3-R sometime next year, ditching the front half of the drivetrain to cut a good 440 pounds off the curb weight to make it the lightest Conti yet. The Continental GT3-R launched last year with less weight and more power, along with a stiffer suspension, upgraded brakes and a titanium exhaust. It drew its inspiration from the Continental GT3 racer, but unlike the competition version, kept the AWD drivetrain in place. "A lot of people expected the GT3-R to be a proper rear-wheel-drive sports car," Bentley's chief engineer Rolf Frech said to Autocar, "but the problem was timing. We needed the car at the end of the first season of our GT3 racing car, and to do a proper change of the complete powertrain needed longer than we had. But we have the concept in our mind, so why not?" Denuded of its all-wheel drive, the Conti GT3-RS – assuming Porsche doesn't mind lending the name to its sister company – would be the most hardcore version of the go-to luxury coupe, and would promise to cut its already blitzkreig 3.6-second 0-60 time down even further. Especially if the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 were tuned to deliver even more than the 572 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque it already kicks out in the existing GT3-R. Chances are it'd be even less accessible, though: the 99 examples of the Conti GT3-R that are coming to the States out of the 300 total to be made already carry a $337k sticker price, and the rear-drive model would likely push the production:price see-saw even higher to the right.

The next-gen Bentley Continental GT takes a page from Porsche

The way things look to be shaping up, changes to the Bentley Continental GT's styling are going to be like changes to the Porsche 911: minor modifications to a firmly established formula. It seems Bentley customers like a certain style, and, as shown by the Bentayga SUV, Bentley is willing to twist that design into any shape. German influence from the parent company has apparently taken hold in Crewe. The new model takes a lot of influence from the EXP10 Speed 6 concept that debuted nearly two years ago. The profile looks the same, but the new car appears more muscular than the current model, with sharp lines that carry from the fender through the doors. All of the requisite curves are present, just tightened up a little. Despite the camouflage, we can tell that the Continental GT will retain its four round lights up front, similar to the EXP10 Speed 6. The LED ring can be seen through the covering on the coupe, while the convertible has even less camo. Out back, little has changed. The oval tail lights still match the exhaust tips, and the coupe's fastback roofline still ends at the rear bumper. The trunk lid now sits flush with the rest of the bodywork, but other than that, there will be no mistaking this for anything other than a Bentley Continental GT. Likewise, changes to the Continental GTC convertible have been minor. We don't yet know when the car will debut or what will rest under the hood, but expect turbocharged eight- and twelve-cylinder power once again. Don't rule out some form of electrification, given the new Bentley shares a platform with the Porsche Panamera 4 E-Hybrid. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2018 Bentley Continental GT and GTC spy shots View 27 Photos Image Credit: CarPix Design/Style Spy Photos Bentley Coupe Luxury Performance