Gtc Extended Veneer Contrast Stitching Bluetooth Satellite 4-spoke Wheel Chrome on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Bentley shifting W12 engine production to UK

Who would you think would be the largest producer of 12-cylinder engines in the world? Mercedes? BMW? Ferrari? Think again: as you might have guessed from the headline, it's Bentley. The thing is that, while all Bentley automobiles are manufactured in the UK, its engines aren't: while the 6.75-liter V8 in the Mulsanne is made at home, the innovative 6.0-liter twin-turbo W12 engine in Continental models so equipped (like the newer 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8) is shipped in from Germany. But that won't be the case any longer.
Bentley has just announced that production of the W12 engine is moving to its home base in Crewe by the end of this year. The shift in production (which follows the migration of the Flying Spur from Dresden to Crewe in 2007) will create 100 jobs in the UK - a country which employs some 142,000 workers in the automotive sector - and produce as many as 9,000 engines per year. That in and of itself would account for the vast majority of the 10,000-plus cars Bentley made last year, but will also make Bentley an exporter of engines for the first time in its history.
Right there at the factory, Bentley will fit the engines into twelve-cylinder versions of the Continental GT, GTC and Flying Spur, and send some back to Germany for use in the Audi A8. Applications within the Volkswagen brand itself like the Phaeton and Touareg no longer use the W12 engine, but could conceivably use it again in the future - they'll just have to bring them in from England is all.

Bentley SUV sheds some camo

Bentley keeps itself busy and on our minds with ever-faster versions of the Continental family and even, most recently, of the Mulsanne. While a new coupe is said to be around the corner, the biggest project Crewe has going on at the moment is its new SUV. And this is our clearest look at it yet.
Spied with less camouflage than ever before while undergoing testing near the Nürburgring, Bentley's as-yet unnamed sport-ute is being based on the same new platform that will underpins the next Volkswagen Touareg, Audi Q7, Porsche Cayenne and - if finally approved - the production version of the Lamborghini Urus concept.
Bentley's is sure to be one of the higher-end models to be based on that platform, opening up a new segment soon to be populated as well by the upcoming Maserati Levante, Range Rover Sport SVR and other potential ultra-high-end SUVs and crossovers from the likes of Land Rover, Aston Martin Lagonda and Daimler's restrategized Maybach.

Bentley's Ultra Performance Hybrid succeeds the 6.0-liter W12

The twin-turbo 6.0-liter W12 engine composed the soundtrack to dreams around the world once it found a home in the Bentley Continental GT, which entered a production in 2003. That engine will sing its final encore in the Bentley Batur Convertible before the curtain comes down, tuned to its highest-ever output of 739 horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque. The Englanders in Crewe have lifted the hood on the successor, without providing all the details. What we know for now is that the powerplant debuting this summer is called the Ultra Performance Hybrid, a V8 PHEV with "more than 750 PS combined output" and an all-electric range of 50 miles on the WLTP cycle.   We haven't been given a displacement figure, nor did Bentley use the word "turbo" in its release. However, looking around the Volkswagen Group, the twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 PHEV in the Porsche Panamera Turbo E-Hybrid and Lamborghini Urus SE seems a solid fit for this application. We're told to expect "the highest output ever offered in a Bentley," Since the 740 hp in the droptop Batur equals 750 PS — achieved without electrical assistance — there's reason to hope for something closer to 800 hp than 750. The Panamera Turbo E-Hybrid makes a combined 670 hp and 680 lb-ft, the Urus SE a combined 800 hp and 699 lb-ft. Both of them also hide a 25.9-kWh battery. [video width="2000" height="720" mp4="https://s.aolcdn.com/os/ab/_cms/2024/05/09084632/bentley-hybrid-sound.mp4"][/video] In the Bentley, the e-motors will also spread torque across a wider swath of the rev band than the non-hybrid W12. The company released a short sound clip, and yep, this things sounds like a Bentley engine, from purr to growl never leaving the basso profondo range. The Ultra Performance Hybrid will take its place at the top of the Bentayga, Continental GT, and Flying Spur ranges before the summer ends. We find out closer to that time what happens to the other engines on the menu, the twin-turbo 4.0-liter non-hybrid V8 and the twin-turbocharged 2.9-liter and 3.0-liter V6 plug-in hybrids for the Flying Spur and Bentayga, respectively.