[AyAn!]

Bentley's 2010 Arnage successor scooped on road | Secret New Cars | Car Magazine Online
We've just landed these new photographs of Bentley's new Arange replacement. Dubbed the Grand New Bentley – or Project Kimberley internally, the new limousine is a landmark car for Bentley and the most important newcomer since the Continental family took Crewe from a niche player to a serious luxury manufacturer building up to 10,000 cars a year.

CAR Online nabbed a world exclusive earlier in July 2009 when we published pictures of an early prototype of the new Arnage successor. Now we've caught it on the road, albeit in heavily disguised form.

Despite the layers of cladding and camouflage, you can now get a sense of the scale of the car – and it dwarfs the Peugeot 205 going in the opposite direction! As we reported earlier, the new Bentley limo will be available in a single wheelbase this time – placing it between the current Arnage and RL.

Why is it disguised as a Rolls-Royce?

Well, the new Bentley is hardly a carbon-copy Roller. But the engineers have put a bluff, upright front grille like modern Rolls-Royces' and some of the body panels have been cloaked to look more Phantomesque – all in the name of putting spy photographers and nosy members of the public off the scent.

It's not the first time we've caught British engineers disguising their cars with a sense of irony. Earlier this summer we caught a Jaguar XJ test car dressed up to look like an arch-rival BMW.

Bentley has announced it'll show the new car at Pebble Beach on 16 August 2009. It's expected to go on sale in spring 2010 for around £220,000.

CAR's previously reported how it will have a 6.75-litre V8 that will be able to run on biofuels in certain markets. Although based on the 50-year-old Bentley V8, it has been completely overhauled to cope with the demands of 21st century regulations. The rest of the car, too, will follow the ancient and modern creed – with the emphasis on cutting edge tech married to the beautiful, top-end craftsmanship for which Bentley is famed.

[iraghava]

Well the new Bentley has been launched and has been christened the Mulsanne. With regards to the styling, take your own call but I'm not a fan. It looks too confused and an amalgamation of too many themes and the confused front fascia does its looks no wonders either. The looks might grow on me as time passes but things don't look good.

In a sentence, would I rate it a worthy successor to the Arnage (it was one of my all time favourite cars though), No not based on the looks anyway. The elegance and understated class of the Arnage is missing in this design!













Source: Autoblog — We Obsessively Cover The Auto Industry

[ajmat]

Looks a bit yankee, arab, and bling footballer to me but that is Bentleys market nowadays

[abhijitaparadh]

I feel the rear is almost Phantom-ish

[shankar.balan]

beautiful car, lovely lines. yes, it is a bit blingy but if that's what the customer wants and is willing to pay for, why not?

[FlyingSpur]

Huh? What went wrong? I hope they don't mutilate the Flying Spur in the same manner.

[manu7781]

Everything looks good except for the front.. That is the worst headlight placement on a Bentley.. The best look is from the rear three-Quarter (5th Image). IMO it is not a worthy successor of Arnage Range

[avishar]

The side profile is beautiful,reminding one of the Brooklands coupe.The rear also is very tastefully done.Its only the droppy front that seems a bit out of place.Any interior pics?

[amit V8]

why why why?? the arnage was far better. it looks horrible, specially the front.

[AyAn!]

A lovely,lovely car! I like the front.Innovative positioning of the headlamps!Breaking away from the traditional mould. Anybody share my views?!!
Brooklands rear is great too! Nice name..harks back to the old Mulssane.

[AltoHoncho]

The 9-spoke look really great, frontals are very catchy but the headlamp positioning is not great (innovative but lacking). Rears are awesome. This ones gotta Phantom-izing appeal, a bit far off from the Arnage lineage.

[TRANSAM]

Styling is great and quite a blingy looking car, its side profile could be mistaken for the Phantom as well, hope to see one on our roads soon...

[v12]

The front looks as if the Chinese tried to copy the design of the Bentley grille with round lights. The round lights definitely dont suit the design of the Mulsanne. This is not what I had expected the Grand to look like.

I would still prefer the looks of the Arnage to this one.

The Mulsanne reminds me of the Japanese Rolls Royce - Galue Limousine S50 - tested by Top Gear.

[hillram]

The headlights look smashing

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by hillram

The headlights look smashing

+1. Looks like apart from the name change, they considerably worked only on the headlights