We now have more details and shots of the new Bentley Mulsanne, adding on to the exterior shots we’ve already seen when it was unveiled at Pebble Beach. The Mulsanne was previously known as the New Grand Bentley when it was being teased and building one takes nine weeks of extensive work.
There are acres and acres of wood in the interior, bordering on excessive but you can get away with this if you use real wood instead of the fake stuff. The wood surrounds the entire interior as a ‘ring of wood’.
You can’t just throw wood at every possible interior panel and have it look expensive. There’s a certain art to it – material design, smell, colour harmony, they all play a part in whether the human brain perceives something as luxurious.
Those seats look really comfortable and can be wrapped with a virtually unlimited selection of leather shades. There are 24 standard colours, but you can also customise this, so don’t be surprised if someone like Ms Hilton orders a pink Bentley with pink leather. The steering wheel itself takes 15 hours to hand-stitch, and this gets as long as 45 hours if the customer wants cross-stitching.
Every kind of in-car entertainment that you could potentially want is there – a 14 speaker premium audio system (Naim 20-speaker system optional), 6-CD changer, 40 GB drive, 8 inch LCD (stored behind an electrically operated veneered door), etc.
Under the hood is a 6.75 litre V8 engine producing 512 PS and a massive 1020 Nm of torque, which peaks at a very low 1,800rpm. Yes, the car is large and heavy, but imagine 4 digits of torque kicking in at just over idle? The engine is mated to a ZF 8-speed automatic transmission, likely to be similiar to the unit in the Ghost and the 760Li. For the first time in a Bentley, there are steering wheel mounted gearshift controls.
Look after the jump for hi-res photos of the Mulsanne.
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