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2023 Bentley Bentayga Road Test: 'Airline' spec is the way to travel

After nearly a week rolling around town in the 2023 Bentley Bentayga, enjoying its power, comfort and the ability to make a grand entrance basically anywhere, it dawns on me that I’m doing this wrong. Yes, the V8 is great, but of course it is. The story is in the back seat. IÂ’m testing an extended wheelbase Bentayga Azure First Edition outfitted with the Airline Seat Specification. ItÂ’s business class, plain and simple. As darkness falls, I make up a cheese plate and head to the backseat, placing my charcuterie on the veneered picnic trays below the 10.1-inch screens. Leaning back on the pillowy headrest, I feel like IÂ’m about to settle in for a cushy trans-Atlantic flight. ThereÂ’s so much room. The wheelbase extends 7 inches beyond the standard Bentayga and thereÂ’s enough space to do calf stretches. The First Edition offers Diamond Illumination on the door panels and the purple ambient lighting casts a royal glow. ItÂ’s not as dramatic as the Starry Night Sky in the Rolls-Royce Cullinan, but with 22 LEDs shimmering through leather perforations, it is rather cosmic.  The Airline spec seats are the other part of the BentaygaÂ’s charm, with 22 possible ways to calibrate positions. Sure, you can cue up any number of massages, but you can do that in many Jeeps. BentleyÂ’s seats also offer a Postural Adjustment System that is said to apply up to 177 pressure changes over a three-hour period to keep you comfy. Dialing into work meetings with my feet up, I enjoyed it, mostly. I didnÂ’t stay there for three hours, but for my roughly one-hour stint, the adjustments were generally appreciated (I could have updated my Google calendar location to ‘BentleyÂ’, but that seemed pretentious). The cupholders are solid, too. Bentley moved the sunroof back about 5 inches to further focus on the rear passengers, and itÂ’s an airy setting, especially when reclined. ThereÂ’s also an auto climate function that adjusts the surface temperature. After playing around with the many settings, I eventually found the one that pushed the front passengerÂ’s seat all the way forward, a footstool extended down and I leaned back for a brief rest.  Different Bentayga EWB pictured So I did actually drive a Bentley for a week, and it offers a certain gravitas both in motion and at rest. The 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 supplies plenty of power to the tune of 542 hp and 568 lb-ft of torque, and it will get you and your passengers to 60 mph in 4.5 seconds, should the need arise.

Bentley celebrates its founder with the Mulsanne W.O. Edition by Mulliner

July 10, 2018, marked the beginning of Bentley's centenary celebration. We can look forward to a year of commemorations, starting with the Mulsanne W.O. Edition by Mulliner, limited to 100 units. The sedan, available in standard, long-wheelbase, and Speed versions, celebrates founder Walter Owen Bentley and his 1930 8 Litre. The founder's personal car, the last vehicle he designed for his company and the second example off the production line, wore a coachbuilt body from Henry Jervis Mulliner & Co. That's the same Mulliner firm that personalizes Bentleys to this day. Walter Owen didn't get to enjoy his "ultimate expression of automotive engineering" for long; financial troubles forced him to sell it in 1931. Bentley bought the 8-Litre in 2006, and part of the "sympathetic" restoration meant replacing the crankshaft. That crank is the central feature of the W.O. Edition Mulsanne: Bentley cut the crankshaft into 100 pieces, and will place each piece inside a custom, illuminated cocktail cabinet in the rear quarters of the 100 special Mulsannes. Four different woods and aluminum create a marquetry scene that frames a glass display with the emblematic crankshaft. Around that, the show vehicle gets Heritage Hides in Fireglow, with Beluga details and stitching, Dark Stain Burr Walnute veneers, and Fireglow lambswool carpets. The exterior's drenched in Onyx, with Beluga Black wheels, accessorized by a chrome hood strip, optional chrome grille and surround, and discrete special edition badging. Customers can, naturally, option their own W.O. Edition Mulsannes any way they wish. Bentley's chosen to skip Goodwood as the reveal of this particular treat. The public unveiling comes on our shores, at next month's Monterey Car Week, on Aug. 24. Related Video:

Bentley confirms SUV for 2016

It looks like the addition of a Royal Baby isn't the only big news coming out of the UK this week. Bentley has ended all of the will they/won't they speculation by confirming today that it will produce an SUV. Earmarked to go on sale in 2016, the as-yet unnamed Bentley SUV will help create an extra 1,000 jobs in the UK.
While no concrete details have been released, Bentley says that it will be the "most luxurious and most powerful SUV" on the market. Past rumors have indicated that the SUV could look completely different from the 2012 EXP 9 F Concept shown above, be renamed the Falcon and offer options like a plug-in hybrid version and three-row seating. To prepare for a fourth model in its lineup, Bentley will be investing 800 million British pounds (around $1.2 billion USD) into its Crewe headquarters and production lines over the next three years. Scroll down for Bentley's press release officially confirming the new SUV.