Bentley Factory visit – Power & Passion – 228

NZ Classic Car takes an exclusive tour around the Bentley factory

However, by sheer luck that’s what happened when I visited Bentley’s UK factory at Crewe, straight after the Mulsanne’s debut at California’s Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance.
The reveal in California had been strictly controlled, with the cabin and engine detail under wraps until the Frankfurt Motor Show, smack on NZCC’s deadline.

But it was the car’s skin that was the main event at Crewe, for my lunch date was with Raul Pires, Bentley’s head of exterior design.

Classic Profile

Barely 40, the Brazilian-born designer is already responsible for the successful Continental GT — but that was a clean-sheet design. Replacing the Arnage was a whole new ballgame, with references to history as necessary as modern touches.

“We tried to capture the best of the high-tech world along with the coach-built and bespoke aura,” Pires says, explaining that Bentley customers now expect all the gadgets and the history, too. They also expect a massive car that oozes gravitas.

Pires began with an all-new platform featuring a wheelbase extended 150mm, penning the classic profile atop it with its short front, long wheelbase and extended rear overhang.

The car before me is clearly a Bentley flagship, albeit one crafted in fibreglass. For this is a final design model, not the finished car, and I’m forbidden to photograph it though it’s virtually identical to the production version.

Read the rest of this entry »

Design students pen future Bentley

Seems like kids these days all want a job designing cars. But even with the correct training, it’s still a big ask for an aspiring auto stylist to break into the field. Bentley, however, has given a handful of transportation design students a crack at working in its design department.

The program is being held in conjunction with the graduate Vehicle Design Course at the Royal College of Art in London. Eighteen students spent the last few months being shown the ropes by lead exterior designer Raul Pires, with the four top candidates — Marten Wallgren (Sweden), Mikka Heikkinen (Finland), David Seesing (Germany) and Bora Kim (South Korea) — shortlisted for further collaboration.

Each student created a novel, futuristic take on the Bentley design ethos, and from among them one will be chosen for a full-time position in Bentley’s design studio.