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Bentley preps 'Centennary Specification' for all models built in 2019

For the entirety of Bentley's 100th year in business, the English carmaker will adorn its products with a Centenary Specification. The package consists of unique badging with specially developed Centenary Gold badge highlights, available Centenary Gold thread for the headrest logos, contrast stitching and cross stitching, and a "centenary welcome light" outside the vehicle. The in-house craftsmen have also developed unique embroidery. Bentley says the gold hue was inspired by metalwork on vintage models like the 1919 EXP 2 (pictured, red and silver) and 1929 Birkin Blower (pictured, green), the latter one of the company's Le Mans winners driven by Sir Henry "Tim" Birkin. The hue possesses an "elegant warm tone and a deep fluid shadow." The steering wheel badge, key fob, shift knob, and wheel center caps feature the tinted ring. The "B" badge on the radiator surround also features "1919-2019" script, and that script is found on the tread plates, too. For those who don't know, eponymous founder Walter Owen Bentley's engineering career began with locomotives — which he loved more than cars at one point — and motorcycles, before settling on automobiles. He bought his first car in 1910, a French DFP, and after improving it himself, set a 10-lap record at the Brooklands circuit. In 1912 he opened a DFP franchise with his brother Horace Milner as Bentley & Bentley, and further upgraded the car with a new piston design that was 88 percent aluminum and 12 percent copper. The Royal Naval Air Service adopted Bentley's piston design and Bentley's re-designed Clerget airplane engines, dubbed the Bentley Rotary. After the war, Bentley refocused on cars, and in 1919 released the 3-Litre, which boasted features like a cross-flow head, overhead cams working four valves per cylinder, and twin plugs in each cylinder. The company delivered the first production model in 1921, then went racing and won the second edition of Le Mans in 1924. That is how Bentley began to become "Bentley, ahem ...", and here we are. Next year, on July 10, the company plans to celebrate the feat appropriately. Related Video:

Bavaria-themed Bentley Continental GT Convertible has a blue top and blue interior

The online configurator for the Bentley Continental GT Convertible offers seven different roof colors, but Imperial Blue is not one of them. It's a specialty product only Mulliner could provide, and it's one of the key features of the new Continental GT Convertible Bavaria Edition. Only one example will be built, making it an instant collector item. Envisioned by Bentley Director of Design Stefan Sielaff, the theme for the Bavaria edition is appropriately white and blue in honor of the German region's flag. Officially, the car wears Glacier White paint, an Imperial Blue top, and 22-inch Mulliner Driving Specification wheels. It also has a bright chrome lower bumper grille, and a chrome-bordered Bavarian flag emblem with Mulliner Bespoke White and Light Blue Sport enamel on the front fender. The interior is just as elegantly pretty. Reverse of the exterior, it predominately features Imperial Blue leather with Linen contrast piping and stitching, and a pearly Mulliner Glacier White veneer dashboard. A branded treadplate plaque and flag headrest stitching add extra special touches. Hand-built by Mulliner, the special-edition car will be shown at an exclusive event at the Munich Bentley dealership. There is no mention of a price or which customer will take ownership of the Bavaria Edition.

Bentley's first EV will be an SUV arriving in 2025 on Audi Project Artemis platform

The first electric Bentley is going to be an SUV, and it will arrive in 2025, according to a report recently published by Car Magazine. It will also be an Audi collaboration, but this second bit of news comes as very little surprise given the companies live under the same roof in the VW Group. When Car questioned Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark concerning the body style the first EV would take, Hallmark replied, “If you're not in SUVs, you're nowhere.” ThatÂ’s a pretty telling suggestion, and considering the BentaygaÂ’s success, Bentley is smart for heading down the crossover/SUV path first. The next question we have concerns the vitals of the car. What will underpin BentleyÂ’s first big, electric effort? It appears as though Project Artemis is the answer. WeÂ’ve seen rumors and reports flying around about this Audi-led project previously. ItÂ’s been suggested that both Bentley and Porsche would be taking a bite, and these previous reports are ringing true. “With our current cars, we had to get into the engineering largely after they [the platforms] had been done,” Hallmark told Car. “The difference now is that with Artemis we're right in there at the beginning, helping define it. We're not leading it, but we're going to be a beneficiary of it” Audi has previously said the Artemis project/platform would be ready for prime time by 2024, so Bentley clearly already has its foot in the door if it intends to release a car in 2025 on the same chassis.  “Looking forward to electrification, we're going to have closer synergies with Audi,” Hallmark said. “But we will continue to have strong relationships with both brands [Audi and Porsche], and we see this as an opportunity, not a risk. No question – we are electrifying. And we need to find the best way to fast-track that, and to lead the technology charge.” Advanced Level 2 autonomous tech is expected to land with this platform, and we suspect there will be many other enhancements made even above and beyond what is currently possible with the PPE platform (underpinning both the Taycan and E-Tron GT). Artemis is also a project designed to yield much larger electric vehicles than what the VW Group currently has to offer. That fits BentleyÂ’s vision of a flagship SUV, and itÂ’ll also work nicely with a giant Audi offering.