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Bentley Continental GT3 Pikes Peak car's wheel can be used for games

As video games become ever more realistic, the lines between driving real cars and their virtual counterparts gets blurrier. And that line is at its blurriest with the steering wheel used in the Bentley Continental GT3 Pikes Peak race car. Not only is it a wheel for the race car, but it can be used for playing racing simulators, too. Bentley collaborated with video game steering wheel manufacturer Fanatec to make the unit for the Pikes Peak racer. It's impressive simply as a car wheel, as it's made from magnesium and carbon fiber. The grips are covered in Alcantara, including the removable lower section designed to give the driver more leverage around hairpins. The rotary switches are CNC-machined aluminum with Bentley's knurling design. In the middle of it all are LED rpm indicators and a 3.4-inch circular display that shows current gear selection and driver settings. But a quick disconnect from the Bentley's steering column, and wheel can be carried over to a Fanatec steering wheel base and reconnected for virtual fun. In this setup, the screen can show various in-game telemetry and information, and the buttons can be programmed for various functions. Though availability and pricing haven't been announced, you'll be able to purchase your own example of this wheel. Considering the materials and functionality, it will probably be quite pricey, but certainly one of the more unique and usable automotive collectibles ever created. Even if you don't want to use it for video games, it comes with a stand that turns it into a display piece, and the center screen can act as a watch or show map and telemetry from laps of race tracks. We suspect you could also use it as an actual steering wheel in a car, assuming you have a compatible quick release. Though, depending on the car, you might not be able to use all the switches, paddles or even the screen. Still, it would be cool and probably a quality piece. Related Video:

VW, Mobileye to bring new automated tech to series production

Volkswagen will bring new automated driving technologies to series production as it deepens its partnership with Mobileye in automotive driving technologies, Europe's biggest carmaker said on Wednesday. Israeli automotive tech company Mobileye will provide driving assistance software based on its SuperVision and Chauffeur platforms to VW's luxury brands such as Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini and Porsche. The technologies, which later will be integrated by VW's software unit Cariad, include assistance systems for highway and urban driving, such as automated overtaking on multilane highways, automatic stopping at red lights and stop signs, and support in intersections and roundabouts. "New automated driving functions will significantly boost convenience and safety," VW Chief Executive Oliver Blume said. Mobileye is also set to supply further automated driving software to Volkswagen's commercial vehicles unit. In future, the German carmaker aims to rely on its own complete in-house software system. (Reporting by Christoph Steitz, writing by Andrey Sychev, Editing by Miranda Murray and Madeline Chambers)

Bentley producing Grand Convertible in grandiose exclusivity

The Googology wiki that celebrates numbers has entries for 42, 151, SpongeBob's Number, and Three Hundred Billion Gazillion. The wiki has no entry for the number 19, which means it doesn't commemorate Steely Dan's "Hey Nineteen," Paul Hardcastle's song "19," or the official production run of the Bentley Grand Convertible. That's right, the abundant and abundantly luxurious Mulsanne-based Grand Convertible will arrive on public roads in 2019. However, Bentley plans just 19 examples of the droptops, and none of them will come to America; only Europe, the Middle East, and Russia have deemed the Grand Convertible roadworthy. Retail price for the Grand Convertible, as if you could buy one in the store, is said to start at $3.5 million - roughly ten times more than the recently-facelifted Mulsanne Speed donor vehicle. ( YouTube gearhead Shmee150 captured the new production look in video taken this month at the Bentley showroom in Dubai.) Actual prices will surely run much higher since Bentley's Mulliner division will oversee the builds. That means custom two-tone colors, shape-shifting diamond quilting inside, Beluga leather, color-matched contrast stitching, and a Burr Walnut tonneau that's the largest veneer ever used on a Bentley. All of that comes before appending every fanciful option an owner consents to fund. Why the wee production run, when Bentley could certainly sell more than 19 specimens? Walter Owen Bentley founded his car company in August, 1919. Even though Walter's first Bentley 3-Litre didn't arrive until 1921, the 19 Grand Convertibles honor the centenary of the company's official founding. Bentley foreshadowed the minuscule production last year, though in a different guise: in March 2016, when Bentley CEO Wolfgang Duerheimer suggested the return of the Azure convertible, the boss said a potential Azure "would be built in [a batch of] 20 units and sold to absolute connoisseurs at a very high price." Give or take a digit, sounds like promises kept. Related Video: