It wouldn’t be too long before the Top Gear gang got behind the wheel of the masterful Mulsanne, the long-awaited new release from the Bentley stable.
The Bentley Mulsanne 6.75 V8 looks set to continue the long-standing tradition that Bentley be the flag bearer of the British motoring establishment.
The BBC team confirm that the car ‘looks better in real life than in pictures’. That is an excellent starting point for this scenic beauty. The legacy of Bentley is the style and elegance that has been the epitome of this icon. The fact that the Mulsanne is even better than this in the flesh means that the Mulsanne is a worthy descendent in the bloodline. ‘Advanced and elegant’ were the designer’s ambitions when the Mulsanne was dreamed into life and it looks as if these have been achieved. At all vantage points of the car, this can be seen. In the front, for example, very subtle styling cues, such as are found in the headlights, hark back to the 8.0 Bentleys of the 1930’s. The Mulsanne equally displays a ‘masculine’ approach to the 21st century in its LED running lights which partner the larger oval lights. Top Gear continued to wax lyrical about the rest of the graceful exterior, coveting the sidelines and admiring the rear aspect as well.
Where they really get carried away is when they open the doors and step inside into ‘last-century opulence punctuated by decent slabs of sharp 21st-century technology’. Signature Car Hire agrees. The extreme luxury and comfort of the entertainment in the car makes it an ideal car for chauffeur-driven hire. You don’t want anything to get in the way of enjoying all the ‘infotainment’ choices that abound inside. Emanating from the 80-gig hard drive, the multimedia system allows for visual or audio pleasure. This comes either via the high-resolution 8 inch screen or the up-to twenty speakers.
The other striking feature of this Bentley that impressed Top Gear was the supreme drivability of the car. ‘Where you think the Mulsanne is going to be a boat, it isn’t’. The amount of power in this engine means that the Bentley was found to be ‘startlingly fast’. Drive Dynamics and Adaptive Cruise Controls put the driver back in the driving seat. Making use of these and the 505 bhp and 1020 Nm of torque, also make the Bentley ideal for self-drive hire. This makes the Mulsanne the perfect car for Signature Car Hire to release. ‘The combination of chauffeur-drive luxury and self-drive freedom certainly help assuage 21st-century stresses’, the Signature owner says.