1989 Bentley Turbo R Base Sedan 4-door 6.7l on 2040-cars

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Bentley resumes restoration of the first T-Series sedan

Bentley has shifted one of its on-going restoration projects into high gear. Found after spending decades undriven, the first T-Series sedan built is being brought back to life by the British company's apprentices and specialists and it should be back on the road by the end of 2023. Manufactured on September 28, 1965, about a week before the model's official unveiling at that year's Paris auto show, the oldest T-Series was finished in Shell Gray with a blue interior. Bentley initially kept the car and used it as a test mule around the world. The big sedan later ended up in private hands with a blue California plate and a "Beverly Hills Motor Cars" plate frame attached to its rear end. It was last registered in 2015, according to the sticker on the plate, though Bentley notes that it has spent decades off the road and in storage. Bentley bought the car and shipped it back to its headquarters in England. It started tearing down the sedan in October 2016: A group of apprentices removed the exterior trim and began preparing the body for new paint, but the project stalled. See, this happens even to luxury carmakers — don't feel bad about the Fox-generation Mustang lingering in the back of your garage. For collectors, projects tend to get delayed when, for better or worse, life happens. Bentley ran into different hurdles: It put the T-Series on the backburner to launch its current range of models, including the Flying Spur and the Continental GT. Nearly six year later, the firm is returning to the garage to wrap things up. It sounds like the T-Series was stored indoors, and being out of the elements might be its saving grace. Mechanics managed to fire up the 6.2-liter, 225-horsepower V8 engine, and they gave it a clean bill of health; the automatic transmission is in good condition as well. There is still some body work that needs to be completed and the interior is almost completely taken apart. Bentley estimates that the project will take approximately 18 months, so it should be finished by late 2023, and it plans to add the car to its Heritage Collection when it's done.  While it's a relatively obscure classic in 2022, the T-Series remains a hugely important part of Bentley's heritage.

The mood at this year’s Paris Motor Show: Quiet

The Paris Motor Show, held every other year in the early fall, typically kicks off the annual cavalcade of automotive conclaves, one that traverses the globe between autumn and spring, introducing projective, conceptual and production-ready vehicle models to the international automotive press, automotive aficionados and a public hungry for news of our increasingly futuristic mobility enterprise. But this year, at the press preview days for the show, the grounds of the Porte de Versailles convention center felt a bit more sparsely populated than usual. This was not simply a subjective sensation, or one influenced by the center's atypically dispersed assemblage of seven discrete buildings, which tends to spread out the cars and the crowds. There were not only fewer new vehicles being premiered in Paris this year, there were fewer manufacturers there to display them. Major mainstream European OEM stalwarts such as Alfa Romeo, Fiat, Nissan and Volkswagen chose to sit out Paris this year, as did boutique manufacturers like Bentley, Aston Martin and Lamborghini. This is not simply based in some antipathy on the part of the German, British and Italian manufacturers toward the French market — though for a variety of historical and societal reasons that market may be more dominated by vehicles produced domestically than others. Rather, it is part of a larger trend in the industry. Last year, Mercedes-Benz announced that it would not be participating in the flagship North American International Auto Show in 2019 — and that it might not return. Other brands including Jaguar/Land Rover, Audi, Porsche, Mazda and nearly every exotic carmaker have also departed the Detroit show. Some of these brands will still appear in the city in which the show is taking place, and host an event offsite, to capitalize on the presence of a large number of reporters in attendance. And even brands that do have a presence at the show have shifted their vehicle introductions to the days before the official press opening in an attempt to stand out from the crowd. In many ways, this makes sense. With an expanding number of automakers, with diversification and niche-ification of models and with wholesale shifts that necessitate the introduction of EV or autonomous sub-brands, there is a growing sense that, with everyone shouting at the same time, no one can be heard.

2019 Bentley Continental GT gets stunning new looks but keeps its W12 engine

The Continental GT is an incredibly important model for Bentley, having kicked off the British luxury brand's current resurgence. To wit, in 2003, the year the Continental GT was introduced, Bentley sold around a thousand vehicles. Just a decade later, Bentley was selling 10 times that many cars. You can be sure that the automaker doesn't want that explosive growth to slow down, and the new 2019 Continental GT you see here looks certain to keep customers flowing into Bentley dealerships for the foreseeable future. If you were expecting lots of technology in this new Continental, you'll find it front and center in the cockpit. There's a fully digital dash that mimics conventional gauges on either side of a configurable screen, but the real showstopper is the 12.3-inch Rotating Display. When the car is turned off, the infotainment screen spins to hide behind a wooden veneer – just a small part of the 107 square feet of wood inside – but that's not its only trick. In addition to the LCD screen, there's a third mode festooned with a temperature gauge, compass, and chronometer. The rest of the cabin is suitably opulent. There's diamond-stitched leather, a watch-like machined finish called Cotes de Geneve, diamond knurling, and bronze inserts in between the primary controls. 20-way power adjustable seats are heated, cooled, and massaging, and in-seat Active Bass Transducers are optional. A 6.0-liter W12 engine sends 626 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque to all four wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission. The run to 60 takes just 3.6 seconds, and the top speed is listed at 207 miles per hour. If you were expecting some sort of electrification, you'll have to look elsewhere. A 48-volt electronics system with actuators to help keep the big coupe planted during corners is borrowed from corporate cousins Audi, as do LED Matrix headlights. We'll see the 2019 Continental GT in person at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Pricing has yet to be announced, but we'd expect it to be slightly higher than the $200,000 asking price of the current model. Featured Gallery 2019 Bentley Continental GT View 28 Photos Frankfurt Motor Show Bentley Coupe Luxury Performance