SCULPTING THE NEW CONTINENTAL GT

Glen Waddington speaks to Bentley design director Stefan Sielaff

‘The Continental GT is at the heart of our portfolio. Elegance is very, very important,’ says Sielaff about his latest work. New technology is responsible for the taut sculpting of the new Continental GT’s flanks: this is the first car to have an entire bodyside made using the ‘Super Formed’ process, in which aluminium is heated to 500ºC and then coaxed into shape under high-pressure air. The method allows designers to pen more sharply defined body lines, such as in the new car’s haunches. And this technology is largely responsible for a near-80kg weight-saving over the previous generation – though the car still weighs well over two tonnes…

Sielaff speaks of ‘a different pace of luxury, not soulless and futuristic but heartwarming’. He also talks about a traditional method of achieving the correct look: ‘It is important that we work with our hands. We still use clay models. Yes, we have all the most modern computer-modelling techniques, but sooner or later we always work in clay. With our hands. The human touch is important. We could move away from that, deliberately, but that leads to a lack of sensation. We need to feel the way the design works.’

Perhaps less surprisingly, the human eye is important too – though the lengths the design department goes to in order to achieve the perfect light for viewing is remarkable. ‘We paint the clay in silver,’ says Sielaff, ‘and we put it in daylight, the warmest light, not under electric light. In fact, we take the clay to our colleagues at Seat, in Barcelona, where the light is so much nicer than in Crewe! You see the reflections in the sculpture? We control the light and shadow. It’s almost like the human body, yet also abstract. With a sculpture you just see the beauty. Like a great photograph.’

Sielaff isn’t only Bentley’s director of design, he’s also responsible for overseeing interior design across the entire VW group. And a car as luxurious as the latest Bentley needs to differentiate itself from, say, a top-of-therange Audi. So, yes, there’s tech inside the Continental GT, such as the TFT-screen instrument panel, and the nav-screen that rotates through 120º at a time to present alternative faces of wood veneer or a panel of three gauges – yet there are over 10m2 of wood veneer in each car. And the hides that cover the seats are finished with a new embroidered diamond quilting that employs 712 stitches in every single diamond-shaped panel.

Laminated acoustic glass excludes unwanted noise, while a bespoke Naim audio system keeps audiophiles happy. And while 626bhp and 2244kg aren’t exactly an environmentally friendly combination, Bentley’s Crewe factory roof was fitted with 20,815 solar panels – making for a reduction in CO2 output of 2,500,000kg per year.