Werner Tietz on Bentley’s new-found magic touch

Werner Tietz loves engineering and cars – just as well, since he doesn’t have time for much else

Fittingly, given the marque’s Flying B mascot, Bentley engineering boss Werner Tietz’s first love was aviation. His father flew, and as a teenager Tietz joined a gliding club so that he might do the same. More usefully, given the direction his life would take, the gliding club also taught Tietz to drive.

‘The gliders were launched by cable, which we pulled using a truck. This is how I learned to drive, aged 14. You had to be very smooth with the clutch as you took up the tension or you’d screw up the cables. This was the first time I was in touch with driving and it was fantastic, something different.’

His passion for engineering also came from his father and, at 19, Tietz was heading back and forth to university at Aachen in a 2CV he rebuilt himself. After lecturing for a couple of years, a job at Audi beckoned and, right away, the young engineer knew he was in the right place. Solving problems through theory, creativity and testing was every bit as satisfying as he’d hoped.

‘I started in pre-development at Audi, working on a polyamide sump that was lighter and cheaper than aluminium. We used to do night tests on a railway crossing at 40km/h, smashing the engine on the road to make sure it could cope!’

Tietz moved from Audi to Porsche, arriving just as the 991-generation 911 project was wrapping up. He would work on the Panamera, with its mixed-material structure, and subsequently the Macan, the 992-generation 911 (mainly aluminium, where the previous car had been 63 per cent steel) and the 911 Speedster, an idea born within Tietz’s passionate team. He also worked on the Taycan in the project’s very earliest phases, and owns a 911 GT3 (991.2).

‘How do I relax? I love hiking, skiing and sailing, and I’ve just taken up painting. I still love driving as well, though I get very little spare time.’

For his paucity of spare time, Tietz can thank the day job he held until 1 July 2020: the Bentley head of engineering role in which he succeeded Rolf Frech in 2018. His arrival coincided with the retirement of former CEO Wolfgang Dürheimer, the installation of Adrian Hallmark as CEO, and a concerted effort to put Crewe’s financials back in the black. Increased sales required new models, and in quick succession Bentley replaced both the Continental GT and the Flying Spur, while heavily reworking the Bentayga SUV.

‘The first job for us was to fix the company,’ says Tietz,

speaking in February. ‘When we started, we had a big loss. But 2019 ended successfully. This helps with conversations around what we do next. It’s not a good situation when someone has to pay for you. The new Bentayga will increase the volume again [Bentley sales hit 11,006 cars in 2019, up from 10,494 in 2018], as will the coupe and convertible Continental GTs and the Flying Spur; the first time we have all new models in all markets.’

The common thread to Bentley’s new range is, according to Tietz, the unique combination of sumptuous luxury with effortless performance. ‘The Flying Spur is a good example, with its four-corner steering system,’ says Tietz. ‘Drive it in Comfort and it’s a luxury limousine. Switch it to Sport and you’re suddenly on a really sporty level, one you don’t expect. It’s the same with the Bentayga’s level of off-road capability.’

Put it to Tietz that compromise-cheating technologies like Bentley’s 48-volt electronic anti-roll bars and four-wheel steering are key to its cars’ impressive bandwidth and he concurs. ‘Absolutely. The electronic anti-roll bar helps a lot. We are looking at a four-corner system like the Mercedes [GLE] but, for now, we are still competitive with the solution we have.’

As he departs for Seat, projects he’s set in motion at Crewe include cleaner cars (‘through plug-in hybrids, and potentially the combination of electric drive and engines running on synthetic fuels’), Bentley’s first battery-electric vehicle (‘battery capacity will increase by 30 per cent in the next four or five years, with a change of chemistry, to make possible a battery good enough to run a big Bentley electric car’), the possibility of an SUV bigger than the Bentayga (‘customers are asking for this’), and the potential in low-volume, big-money specials.

‘We tested this [with the Bacalar] and it sold out,’ says Tietz. ‘Bentley should do this route again. At this end of the luxury segment the customer wants something special, and Bentley is in a good position to take advantage of this. It has the Group’s engineering resources, the power of its brand and the unique skills up in Crewe – there is not this capability anywhere else.’ BEN MILLER