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Now you can order a Bentley with real stone trim

Order up a new Bentley and you'll have some choices to make. After choosing which model, you'll need to select from over a hundred standard exterior paint colors and a staggering array of trim options – and now, interior stone veneers. Mulliner will now outfit your Bentley with actual stone trim. Now we know what you're probably thinking: stone adds weight. But here's the kicker: Bentley's new stone veneers measure just 0.004 inches thick. That's less than the breadth of a human hair, and (according to the automaker) makes these trim pieces not only very lightweight, but also translucent. The rocks are sourced from quaries in India, cured using fiberglass and resin, and finished by the Mulliner coachbuilding team back at the factory in Crewe, England. Customers will be able to select between a natural finish or in four tints to install on a new Continental or Flying Spur. So if you were hoping for a little extra ballast in your 5,300-lb Bentayga or 6,000-lbs Mulsanne, we're afraid you'll just have to choose a different interior accent. STONE VENEERS BY MULLINER – THE NEXT LEVEL OF MODERN BRITISH LUXURY - Bentley pushes boundaries of cabin luxury with new and rare materials - Lightweight and contemporary feature developed by Mulliner - Four exclusive colours: Galaxy, Autumn White, Terra Red and Copper (Crewe, 04 January, 2016) Bentley Motors' bespoke coach-building division, Mulliner, is introducing the next level of modern British automotive luxury – stone veneers. This innovative interior finish utilises state-of-the-art stone veneer technology to make a luxurious, contemporary feature of a natural product formed over 200 million years. The slate and quartzite stone is sustainably sourced from hand-selected quarries in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, India – a nation with an ancient and rich culture of stone masonry. The sections of stone are split from larger pieces and cured using glass fibre and a bespoke resin. Finally, they are shaped and hand finished by Bentley's world-renowned Mulliner coachbuilding team at the company's headquarters in Crewe, England. The stone surfaces of the veneers are just 0.1 mm thick, meaning that they are both extremely light and translucent, allowing the elegant grain and pattern in the stone to be visible to the interior occupants.

Bentley's idea of future luxury includes holographic butler

Anybody can daydream, and British carmaker Bentley is no exception. Their vision of an autonomous luxury car is taken so far into the future that it will come with a hologram of a butler. This isn't just a fan-made, Photoshopped image designed to stir a little fantasy, but an official image released by Bentley depicting what their cars might look twenty years from now. The "Future of Luxury" concept image is the work of Bentley's design team, headed by German Stefan Sielaff. Sielaff has worked with Audi and Volkswagen interior design for decades, with a short interim over at Mercedes-Benz's Interior Competence Center. Sielaff has been at Bentley since 2015, and his team is hard at work conceiving the direction of luxury cars in the semi-distant future. Even if Bentley is traditionally closer to Alec Guinness than Princess Leia, a holographic interface is an interesting glimpse into the science fiction thought process of today's car design. Other touches seen in the interior concept image have to do with mood lighting, screensaver-style images displayed on the side panels, and a touchscreen music interface that appears to display Beck's 2005 album Guero. Still, 2036 isn't that far in the future that a Bentley passenger wouldn't take the time to write a few letters by hand. Related Video: Featured Gallery Bentley Future of Luxury Concept Auto News Design/Style Bentley Technology Emerging Technologies Gadgets Infotainment Concept Cars Future Vehicles Luxury

Bentley will now sell you a model Continental GT for over $9,000

Bentley just announced a 1:8 scale Continental GT model car that costs GBP6,995. That’s $9,123 for a toy. But really, is the cost all that bad? A 1:1 scale Bentley Continental GT V8 (you know, the real thing) has a base price of about $220,000. One-eighth of that is a whopping $27,500. Bentley is surely leaving some money on the table here. OK, sure, you could buy a couple of old Miatas for the same price as this model car. But thatÂ’s not the gift that the one percenters want to give to their children at Christmas. No, an exact replica of the Bentley Continental GT in the garage is a much more applicable gift in that situation. Bentley will reproduce your Bentley or make anything else you can imagine with these 1:8 scale models, too. Customers will need to commission their own car, just like theyÂ’re buying a full-size Bentley.  You choose the colors of the paint, exterior trim, seats, interior stitching, trim veneers, wheels, leather and a number of other materials going into the car. Every last option is matched to an option available on the actual car, so there will be zero differences between the model and full scale car. The Bentley Design Studio oversees the creation of every car to ensure complete accuracy. Over 1,000 pieces are put together by hand to build it. Bentley says each car takes about 300 hours to complete. (Rolls-Royce offers a similar model of the Cullinan that takes 450 hours to build.) Each Bentley will sit on a “majestic varnished plinth.” The car itself measures 30.7 inches in length, 15.7 inches in width and 9.6 inches in height. Smaller, pre-made models are available for far less cash, too. You can pick up a 1:43 model for $110 and a 1:64 model goes for just $15. If uh, you want the $9,123 model, the link to place an order is right here. Bentley recommends using the actual Continental GT configurator to personalize the model. Regardless of price, that is extremely cool. Related Video: