Autoblog

The current Bentley Arnage family's farewell tour culminates with this. We've already seen the Brooklands coupe and the Arnage Final Series sedan, and now with the L.A. Auto Show, the Azure droptop gets its opportunity to take a curtain call. Say hi to the 2010 Bentley Azure T, which gets the same 500-horsepower, 737 lb-ft 6¾-liter V8 lump found under the substantial bonnets of the aforementioned duo. A 6-speed auto directs all that grunt to the rear wheels. What's it cost? No word yet, but the regular Azure is already a mortgage on wheels, so use your imagination. Then add more.

The T is distinguishable by its "Le Mans" vents, a darker grille finish, and 20" five-spoke wheels, among other things. Based on the photo to the right, it would seem that there are no more cows or trees on Earth, because Bentley is using all of them to trim the Azure T's passenger compartment. Top speed is 179 mph and zero-to sixty takes 5.2 seconds. Not bad for a sled that weighs in at a shade under 5,700 pounds. Stopping power comes from the same massive carbon/silicon carbide brakes fitted to the Brooklands. Is all this excessive? Sure. Does it have the approximate carbon footprint of Indonesia? Quite possibly. Do we want one? Oh, hell yeah.

Bentley's unnecessarily verbose press release follows after the jump. They could have done it in a couple of sentences, like "It comes with everything. Bring money. " See? Done.


[Source: Bentley Motors]

Click above for a hi-res gallery of the Amosu Luxury diamond Bentley key

As if losing the car keys weren't already enough of a nightmare scenario – the keys to your Bentley that much more so – along come the innovative jewelers at Amosu Luxury to make the key itself that much more precious. The company has staked its reputation among the nouveau riche for taking things like cell phones and icing them out in diamonds. Now Amosu has turned its attention to another item commonly found in the hands of the luxo-bling crowd – a Bentley key – and decorated it with 101 little diamonds (no more, no less) for a total of 1.09 carats, focused on detailing the Flying B logo.

Icing out your Bentley keychain will set you back nearly $8,000, so you may want to get a special leather case for it or keep it in your Bentley safe. But if "the world's fastest lorries" aren't your bag, Amosu can do the same for Lamborghini, Ferrari and Mercedes keys as well, which'll go nicely with that platinum Mercedes-Benz keychain. Thanks for the tip, Christian!

[Source: Motor Authority via 4WheelNews]

The world's fastest lorries. That's what Ettore Bugatti once reportedly called Bentleys. Of course, that was long before the two companies fell under common ownership of ze Germans, when Bugatti's own engine was itself used for a locomotive. But Bugatti's derisive summation of his erstwhile arch-rival may be coming full circle.

For its recent Bentley Worldwide Conference, the luxury automaker chartered a first-class Pullman train car to transport its best customers and top dealers in comfort and style from London to its headquarters in Crewe. The two-and-a-half-hour ride was catered with meals by famous chef Anton Mosimann and proved to be a big success. So big, in fact, that Bentley is now considering going full time with the train service to bring customers up to the factory from London to specify their trim and color options. There are several luxury trains available for charter in England, but we think it'd be much cooler if Bentley were to commission its own rail cars and decorate each compartment in different interior trim options available on its road cars. How about a Mulliner-spec Caboose? We'll just have to sit tight to see what Bentley decides to offer its poshest of clientele, but in the meantime you can check out the press release after the jump.

[Source: Train Chartering via Luxist]

When we heard that the Tetsu GTR would be here at SEMA, we knew we'd have to find it and shoot it. Since we didn't have a gun on us, we just shot it with our cameras instead. The Tetsu GTR is actually a perfect SEMA car. Rather than showing what people should do with their tunable treasures, it shows you what you could do (but shouldn't). Starting out with a perfectly capable and tasteful Bentley Continental GT, the ASI crew went berserk. It features a custom carbon fiber wide-body kit that makes the Continental GT look like a DTM art car, and that two-tone matte paint scheme with leaf graphics on the hood is definitely attention-getting. There's even a custom graphic on the 22-inch black wheels that matches the theme. Fortunately, only 29 Tetsu GTRs will be produced. Well, at least those owners can take solace in knowing their vehicles will be boosted to 800 horsepower. That guarantees at least half of them will end up damaged beyond repair within a week of ownership.


Photos copyright ©2008 Frank Filipponio/Weblogs, Inc.

Click above for gallery of the 1983 Mentley Insanne Turbo

Andy Saunders has been responsible for some off-the-wall creations – like the Aurora, the chopped-down Fiat lowrider and the Hyundai ice cream van – but this one makes us wonder if he didn't take the car's title to heart. Called the Mentley Insanne, the custom rod is based on a 1983 Bentley Mulsanne, a fairly staid but powerful limousine with a 6.75-liter turbo V8 that Saunders evidently felt could use some extra flash. So he chopped the roof, tacked on some Range Rover parts (notice the headlights and side gills), the panoramic glass roof from an old Mercedes SL, dropped the suspension on some 20-inch dubs and crafted some custom aero bits.

The one-off creation was recently sold at the RM Automobiles of London auction for £18,700, several grand under estimates and undoubtedly less than it cost Saunders to make the thing. The buyer must by anonymous, as we wouldn't expect any self earth-respecting celebrity to pull up in this on the red carpet... unless ZZ Top is planning a reunion.

[Source: RM Auctions and PistonHeads.com]

Long known amongst car people around southern California for its fine dining, upscale boutiques and most importantly its twice-monthly collector car breakfast cruises, the Enderle Center in Tustin, California decided to do something a little different to celebrate its 30th Anniversary: host a Classic European Concours. For this inaugural event they even flew in Pininfarina designer Maurizio Corbi who answered questions and sketched dream cars for the crowd. When someone groaned after hearing Corbi was partly responsible for the new Ferrari California's form, he quickly pointed out he did the front, which brought relieved laughter. Local collector Dick Marconi brought several cars from his nearby Marconi Automotive Museum, which supports the Marconi Foundation for Kids. Several of Dick's artworks were also displayed in the center's Chemers Gallery, but the cars were really all the art we needed to see.

Classics from the '30s, '40s, '50s, and '60s, along with sportscars from the '70s, '80s, and '90s were arranged by country of origin and parked through the central parking lot alongside a pedestrian-friendly red carpet. Ferraris were featured and there was an incredible assortment on hand, everything from Cher's Daytona Spyder to an extremely rare 195S, one of two in existence. The F50 wasn't too bad either. Maserati, Alfa Romeo, Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Jaguar, Porsche, BMW, Mercedes-Benz and even Pegaso were also well-represented. It was a great first effort and a fun show, small and manageable with some breathtaking classics, all with great stories behind them.

When our camera started acting up we spotted our pals from Speed and Motion, who graciously agreed to let us use their images for our gallery. Click and enjoy, and be sure to check out the Speed and Motion site for a greater selection of photos and videos from this show, as well as dozens of HD clips from other local events.


Photos copyright ©2008 Speed and Motion

Some new cars are predictable; others catch us by surprise. This one we could see from a mile away, and not just because it's enormous. But after Bentley rolled out Speed versions of the Continental GT coupe (which we've sampled) and Flying Spur sedan, it was only a matter of time before the same treatment would be applied to the GTC convertible variant. And now we're seeing the spy shots to prove it. The Bentley Continental GTC Speed, as it's certain to be called, will feature all of the same upgrades we've seen on the Speed versions of its fixed-head counterparts. That means a power bump for its W12 engine to 602 horsepower and 553 lb-ft of torque, suspension and aero tweaks and bigger wheels. All of it will add up to one fast-moving warm weather front that should hit U.S. shores in the near future as Hurricane Bentley.


[Source: KGP Photography]

The whisperers have it that Bugatti may be borrowing from Bentley for a new sedan. What they can't seem to pinpoint is exactly what kind of sharing the two marques will be doing, and whether or not the resulting super Bug will be a supremely high-powered four-door to compete with the Rolls-Royce Phantom. If the two brands do indeed share something, like the next Arnage's platform, for instance, that might make sense. But just a few months ago, Bugatti said that its next product would be even more expensive than the Veyron, and lead man Josef Paefgen has also said that there will be no inexpensive Bugatti.

A $400,000 sedan wouldn't be inexpensive, true, but compared to $1.6 million for a Veyron, it's a flat-out bargain. Besides, the $242,000 Arnage T, after all the bespoke options, would come perilously close to a $400K Bugatti in price, and the next Bentley Arnage is growing in order to fight the Phantom. So if a Bugatti sedan with Bentley underpinnings were that close in price to a Rolls Phantom... then who's Bentley meant to get in the ring with?

[Source: TopSpeed via German Car Blog]

When is a 1996 Lincoln Town Car with 114,000 miles on the clock worth $15,098? The correct answer should be never. In this case, however, the answer is when someone supposedly drops $45,000 worth of work into one to make a fake Bentley Arnage. The result is what you see above; add a couple of fender-mounted chandeliers and it could score a role as The Duke's car in Escape From New York. That giant C-pillar is more Rolls than Bentley and those chrome dubs are more bad than good. The biggest disaster comes into view when you open the door and look inside. That interior reportedly cost $10,000. You'd think that amount would buy more than quilted leather, a passel of winged-B emblems that aren't fooling anybody, and that stock instrument panel, but apparently... no. Anyway, somebody liked it enough to buy it, so what do we know. We're sure it'll look great in their garage. You know – right next to the Fierarri.


[Source: eBay via AutoFiends].

Toyo has tapped a handful of tuners to produce six SEMA creations to highlight its range of track-ready and dirt-friendly tires. Unfortunately, we've already seen the 800 hp, Bentley Continental-based Tetsu GTR, but joining that rolling abomination to tasteless consumption are a handful of rides that better represent what SEMA is all about.

To begin with, Bulletproof Automotive is trotting out a customer-owned Nissan GT-R, wearing limited edition (and GT-R specific) BBS LM-DBK-P wheels wrapped in Toyo's 20-inch Proxes R888 tires. An Amuse Super Tough Titanium exhaust, Endless monoblock six-piston front and rear brakes and a smattering of carbon fiber aerodynamic parts round out this track- and show-friendly package.

Vivid Racing will be joined by several other firms bringing tuned Mitsubishi Evolution Xs to the show, but Vivid should stand out with its Porsche GT3 RS paint job, 18x10-inch AME Tracer 02 wheels and 650 hp on tap. We'll be on hand in a few weeks to find out how Vivid went about freeing those extra 350 ponies.

Additionally, an unnamed sixth vehicle will be accompanied by a 2009 Toyota Tundra CrewMax SR5 built by Two Brothers Custom Trucks, along with Choppin' Block Custom Fab's four-door 1931 Studebaker Model 54, riding on a custom air suspension, Centerline Smoothie wheels and powered by a Chevy 350 fed by a trio of two-barrel carburetors.

Hit the jump for all the details and stay tuned for our SEMA coverage beginning the first week of November.