A Bentley Concept You'll Actually Like: The Mulsanne Vision

The last time Bentley presented a concept car to the world, it was the EXP 9 F Falcon at the Geneva Motor Show earlier this year. And the EXP 9 F's styling was so controversial that potential buyers ordered Bentley to go back to the drawing board. Our Facebook fans even struggled to choose between the EXP 9 F and Susan Boyle. How very awkward.

Now though, fans of ultimate status symbols such as the old Azure can rejoice because the big Bentley droptop is back. It's still a concept car for now but lucky Bentley owners and potential customers got to see the real Mulsanne convertible behind closed doors at Pebble Beach in California last weekend. America is definitely the right place for the British firm to debut the concept as most of the old Azures ended up stateside plus it's always sunny in California. We missed the opportunity to drop in and pretend to be loaded sadly, so we'll have to make do with these drawings.

They show us that besides the missing roof and rear doors, the convertible version is likely to be much more striking than the saloon on which it's based, with more muscular rear haunches and a sleeker profile with a much more pert rear end than the four door's slightly droopy arse. Since it's heavily based on the Mulsanne, we'll be surprised if anything other than the 6.75-litre twin turbocharged 505bhp V8 from the saloon gets fitted under that long bonnet.

If the Mulsanne convertible concept gets the thumbs up from fans (it's got them from us) then expect it to be in production as soon as 2014 with prices being close to that of its fellow Englishman, the Rolls Royce Phantom Drophead.