Car Throttle

The global economy might just be recovering from financial turmoil, but Bentley doesn't look to be faring too badly. In fact, right now production has begun on the Arnage's successor (not replacement, says Bentley) that was introduced last year. The company had said a lot of interest was gotten on the Mulsanne, and it looks like they were right. Bentley had planned for a production run of about 200 units per year, and over 800 orders were received, putting the car's sold out date into 2012. This is an impressive feat by any measure, especially considering the Mulsanne is more of a Phantom competitor than the Arnage. To keep up with demand, Bentley announced that they will be increasing capacity in order to keep up with the

Bentley (and Rolls-Royce, which is now owned by BMW) are known the world over for their craftsmanship and hand-built attention to detail. The new Mulsanne, introduced at Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance last August, is no different. At a U.S price of $285,000, there is a dizzying array of personalization options: 114 paint colors (or you can create your own), 21 carpet colors, nine wood trim types and 24 different interior leather colors. The Mulsanne takes 400 hours (or around 16 days) to build, 200 of which are for hand-built parts – and out of that 160 for the interior alone. The process works out to be 15% longer than the Arnage overall. Bentley gives us a glimpse into that process with a new video documenting the body of the

Bentley Grand, New Grand Bentley - it finally has a name, Mulsanne. And no, according to Bentley it is not a replacement for the Arnage. Perish the thought! It's an entirely new vehicle, at the "pinnacle of the ultra luxury segment." It's here and it's beautiful, everything I expected and more. The Mulsanne subtly evokes Bentley's of the past with it's flowing body-line and dramatic rear end. The Mulsanne also shows a new take on the styling cues that are on display with the Continental GT/Flying Spur. For instance the headlights, while still a dual setup, feature one main lamp. With Bentley, while there needs to be a familial look, there also needs to be significant differentiation between the lower and higher end entries. That has been

The replacement for the Arnage has been endlessly teased and speculated about, given it's importance for the Bentley brand. Rolls-Royce currently has it's entire business built off the back of it's most expensive sedan, the Phantom. Volume is on the way with the Rolls-Royce Ghost, but it clearly shows there is a lot of money to be made in the segment. In addition to being captured by CAR Magazine, Bentley has released various teasers on the car that have given us a few certain clues. So far in terms of design, the pictures taken by CAR have given us the best look yet, showing off a new headlight design. But today, Auto Express has captured the car testing with it's pre-production bodywork. The images give us a good

Now this is a real scoop. All we've seen yet of the Arnage's replacement have been "Bentley Grand" teasers released directly from the company that don't offer us much. CAR Magazine has gotten some revealing images of the car caught inside Bentley's Crewe factory. What's more, they promise a second batch of pictures to be released on Monday. Spyshots of a car testing? Doesn't compare. This is really bringing to you what no one else has. There will be a definite visual change going from the current Bentley flagship to the new one. The classic Bentley twin headlight design remains, but is reworked. Previously both headlights were of similar size; this time the one closest to the grille clearly takes center stage. Sources at CAR say that the Arnage replacement also adds