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The Bentley Mulsanne exits the stage as production ends

Bentley is done with the Mulsanne. The one you’re looking at here is the penultimate car to come out of the factory in Crewe, Cheshire, England. Apparently, the owner of the last one is rather secretive and wants to keep their car under wraps. That being the case, Bentley has surrounded this Tungsten and Rose Gold Mulsanne with all the pomp and circumstance one would expect from the end of an era at Bentley. At least, as much as the pandemic will allow. Bentley employees are pictured here next to the car, standing apart with masks on. ItÂ’s one of the Mulsanne 6.75 Edition cars Bentley previously announced, which the company limited to just 30 units. The end of the Mulsanne also means the end of the 6.75-liter V8 at Bentley. We gave that engine its own sendoff post, but needless to say, the engine series is an old one and can be traced back to 1959. BentleyÂ’s Mulsanne is much less old. This flagship sedan was introduced at Pebble Beach in 2009, and has been in production ever since. Bentley has given it a couple rounds of updates, with the addition of the faster Mulsanne Speed in 2015, along with a design and tech refresh in 2016. Bentley built just over 7,300 total Mulsannes, and itÂ’s released a few eye-popping production stats. In the end, about 700 people were part of the production process to build the Mulsanne, putting in nearly 3 million total hours. Over a million total hours have been spent creating the interiors, and nearly 90,000 hours have been spent polishing the cars.  “I am immensely proud of the hundreds of designers, engineers and craftspeople that brought the Mulsanne to life over the last 10 years,” said Adrian Hallmark, Bentley CEO. “Now, as we begin BentleyÂ’s journey to define the future of sustainable luxury mobility through our Beyond100 strategy, the role of Bentley flagship is passed to the new Flying Spur.” ThatÂ’s right, the Flying Spur is the new flagship for the time being. Though, the latest rumors point to Bentley making a gigantic SUV as its future flagship vehicle to properly replace the Mulsanne. Is anybody surprised? Related video:

Weekly Recap: Geneva's splendor reflects growing demand for ultra-luxury cars

Geneva is one of the most glittering auto shows in the world, but the list of high-powered and bespoke luxury cars was decadent this year even by the rich standards of the Swiss exhibition. It's great for enthusiasts to revel in the flame-throwing Aston Martin Vulcan, the racing-inspired elegance of the Bentley EXP 10 Speed 6 concept and the insane performance of the Lamborghini Aventador LP 750-4 Superveloce, but there's a reason for all of this opulence: the luxury market is big business. And it's growing. IHS Automotive forecasts that so-called ultra-premium sales will nearly triple this decade from 123,000 to 353,000 units around the world. The estimate includes brands like Aston Martin, Bentley, Ferrari and Rolls-Royce, but doesn't count BMW, Mercedes and Audi, which offer less expensive models in addition to their high-end flagships. Though IHS includes Porsche and its relatively large volume in the study, the ultra-premium segment is still set grow at about the same rate, even without the German automaker's figures. So what is propelling all of this growth in the most expensive segment of the auto industry? Put simply, there's more rich people. IHS Automotive principal analyst Tim Urquhart pointed to economic expansion in China, market recovery in the United States and a surge in the lucrative technology sector as contributing factors. This dovetails with a research report by UK-based Oxfam, an international relief organization, which found the world's richest one-percent owned 48 percent of global wealth in 2014, and it's expected to increase to more than 50 percent by 2016. View 17 Photos Carmakers are moving quickly to capitalize with new products, expanding their portfolios with low-volume speedsters like the 800-hp V12 Vulcan at Geneva, and plans to enter new segments, like Rolls-Royce's strategy to make an SUV. "Ultra-premium carmakers are looking to explore ways of growing their product offerings, and thus their bottom lines, in this most potentially profitable of segments," Urquhart wrote in a report on the Geneva show. In a nutshell, there are more choices for people with more money. It's a good time to have expensive taste. Other News & Notes 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata production launches It won't be long now. The 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata arrives later this year, and it's officially in production. Mazda announced this week that the roadster began rolling off the assembly line at its Ujina factory in Hiroshima, Japan.

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.