PRIVATE JET ON WHEELS!
Bentley Mulsanne Extended Wheelbase
Price: £275,000 GOOD
THE Mulsanne lives up to the Bentley bosses’ aim of delivering ‘first-class air travel on the road’. As an added bonus there’s no queuing, no check-in, no security scanners and no delays. And it’s built in Britain at Bentley’s rapidly expanding factory in Crewe, which now employs 4,000 people.
SIZE matters, and the extra 250 mm (around 10in) of length is all given over to more legroom for passengers in the back seat. Sumptuous leather and wood with two rear-cosseting airlinestyle seats (in a choice of fluted or quilted styling and 24 hide colours). There’s built-in wi-fi, too.
WHILE being driven, I transformed my seat almost into an airline-style flat-bed as leg-rests at the base of the seat flipped up and extended forwards to create first a relaxed and then a fully reclined position.
THIS is an exceptionally tactile car with every hand-crafted surface you touch — from wood and leather to stainless steel and glass — making you feel like a million dollars. Each car takes 400 hours to build.
THE rich solid walnut, cherry or oak interior is inlaid with one of 13 hand-crafted 40-piece highgloss and finely sliced 0.6mm thin lacquered hand-polished wood veneers which are a nod to the gentlemen’s club ambience.
EXTERIOR paintwork from a palette of more than 100 shades is fine-sanded and polished with lambswool for 12 hours to achieve a reflective ‘mirror finish’.
THE intricate airline style pop-up tables are a feat of engineering excellence and show real attention to detail.
A REFRIGERATOR built into the rear console space between the seat backs has space for two chilled champagne bottles and three specially created glasses, the bottoms of which are designed to echo the spokes of the wheel trim.
PRIVACY is paramount with automated electric curtains that slide across to shield you from a prying world.
LIGHT floods in from a generous sunroof that can also be blocked off with a sunblind.
YOU will never get bored. The upgraded ‘infotainment’ system includes two hidden 10.2 in tablets which rise theatrically from the rear of the seats in front and can be detached. Connect to the internet and surf the web, do your emails or relax with an in-flight movie or watch your journey progress on satnav. The car is wi-fi, 4G and Bluetooth enabled.
MOVING up front behind the steering wheel, when I pushed my foot to the floor, this near three-tonne leviathan ate up the road with a level of power, performance and sure-footed agility that made me smile. The mighty 6.75-litre (6752cc) twinturbo V8 engine develops 512hp (505bhp) and is linked to an eightspeed automatic gearbox with manual override that accelerates from rest to 60mph in just 5.5 seconds. Top speed is 184 mph.
BAD
SHORT of a Lottery win, making millions as a captain of industry, or mounting a coup in a developing country, most of us will never own one of these fine British cars. But we can dream.
IT’S a gas guzzler — 12mpg around town and 28 mpg when cruising — with hefty CO2 emissions of 342g/km.
THE near £300,000 price tag will swiftly soar thanks to the huge palette of bespoke, ‘must have’ extras.
BENTLEY boss Wolfgang Duerheimer has also suggested a limited run of about 20 soft-top Mulliner trim soft-top Mulsannes, priced at about £1 million each.
NO ATTENTIVE cabin crew on hand to provide a hot towel or refill my empty glass on the move. Can’t have everything. Cabin doors to manual — we’re coming in to land.