2014 Bentley Flying Spur For $1566 A Month With $38,000 Dollars Down on 2040-cars

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Pre-Race notes from the 2015 Nurburgring 24-Hours

Autoblog has come to the German countryside to watch the Nurburgring 24-Hour race, and just one day in, we have to say it's outstanding. Le Mans has been the highlight of our summer racing schedule for the past few years, the 'Ring 24-Hour event being the appetizer we always skipped. Earlier this year, however, while visiting Miami to check out the Cigarette Racing 50 Marauder GT S, we met Scott Preacher. He oversees digital marketing for both Cigarette and AMG during the week, then comes to Germany to compete in the VLN race series on the weekends, driving an Aston Martin Vantage GT4 for Team Mathol. If Le Mans is the Oscars of endurance racing, the Nurburgring 24-Hour race is the Screen Actors Guild award – the one voted on by the actors, for the actors. In this case it's the race by the teams and fans, for the teams and fans, even though the increasing manufacturer presence has altered the team equation. We were told that it wasn't so long ago that true privateers could win the overall, but that's not really the case anymore. Front-running teams have heavy factory involvement – Audi Sport Team Phoenix, for instance, which finished in first and third last year, has its own 'Ring race center and is running the 2016 R8; Aston Martin is represented by Aston Martin Racing and Aston Martin Test Center, and Bentley has a Bentley Motors team and uses HPT to run another team. The fan component hasn't changed, though, and you can't talk about the race for more than 60 seconds before someone brings up the battalions of spectators. Every driver we spoke to cited them as the most incredible part of this race after the track itself. It feels to us like a giant German Sebring, with thousands of people camped out in the ginormous, forested infield, many of whom have been here since Monday erecting their ornate camping compounds. There will be parties everywhere Saturday night, and so much bratwurst on the grill that the drivers can smell it when as they're blasting full speed through Wehrseifen. Even when we drove a Mercedes S63 AMG Coupe on a lap before the race, the fans waved like it was a competition. Scott Preacher's Australian co-driver Robert Thompson said, "You come around a corner and it's like you're driving full speed through the middle of a carnival." The race field itself could also be called a carnival, with an officially invited field of more than 170 cars. Even on a track that's 24.4-km long, that's like racing on the 405 at midday.

New Bentley interior veneer sourced from American Red Gum trees

Bentley is turning stateside for its newest exclusive wood interior finish, sourcing its first new veneer in five years from American Red Gum trees found in Mississippi wetlands. Bentley calls the new veneer Liquid Amber, a reference to the wood's perfumed scent. The red-hued wood undergoes a weeks-long natural smoking process to deepen its brown luster. Afterward, the veneer is then transported to Bentley's wood shop in Crewe, England, where it's examined alongside the six other types of veneers harvested from China to Canada to determine suitability, based on a high-burr density, minimal sapwood and a lack of bark growth or structural defects. Bentley says it rejects between 30 percent and 70 percent of all veneers offered. Raw veneer is then cut to a precise 0.6-millimeter and tested for stability in UV light and consistency from tree to tree. The whole process takes at least 18 months before the veneer is installed in one of Bentley's vehicles, which start at $189,000 for the Flying Spur sedan. Also known as the Sweetgum tree, the American Red Gum is native to lowland areas of the southeastern United States. It was once used commercially for soaps, adhesives and pharmaceuticals but is valued today primarily for use in furniture, cabinetry and interior finishing. Bentley says it harvests the trees only twice a year due to restricted access to the wetlands where it sources the wood. Bentley also announced it has begun using slate and quartzite stone veneers sourced from select quarries in India. They're split from a larger stone piece, cured using fiberglass and a bespoke resin, and shaped and finished by hand by the Mulliner coach building team in Crewe.Related Video: Featured Gallery Bentley wood finish Image Credit: Bentley Bentley Luxury bentley flying spur

Bentley Continental GT V8 S is just a little bit more excess [w/video]

Bentley has given its new, uprated Continental GT and GTC a live debut in Frankfurt, after a world debut on the interwebs, last week. The new models, which now wear the "V8 S" moniker, share their 4.0-liter, twin-turbocharged V8 with the standard GT/GTC V8, but pack an extra 21 horsepower and 15 pound-feet of torque.
There's also a few suspension and aesthetic tweaks to improve the Continental driving experience. Otherwise, this is just a slightly improved version of an already solid, entertaining and luxurious grand tourer. Scroll down for the official images and a video from Bentley, or hop up top to view our live images from the 2013 Frankfurt Motor Show. You can also click over for the full story on the newest members of the Bentley family.