Arnage Limousine by Bentley Mulliner - If You Have To Ask How Much $ You Can't Afford It

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Bentley Mulliner is the specialist personal commissioning department of Bentley Motors. Although newly launched, it can trace its ancestry back more than 200 years, and continues Bentley's fine reputation for hand craftsmanship and the individualisation of its cars.

Services include the building of unique one-off vehicles, such as the State Limousine recently built for The Queen to celebrate her Golden Jubilee, to the fitment of bespoke components, to building personalised cabins. Long wheelbase limousines and armoured vehicles are also a major part of its business.

"No other motor manufacturer can deliver the level of bespoke service provided by Bentley Motors," says the director of Bentley Mulliner, John Killick. "We not only do the vast majority of the work in-house at our Crewe factory, but we also do it to the highest quality levels expected from by the worlds most affluent customers."

There are 120 people employed by Mulliner. They include world-class coachbuilders, coach trimmers, cabinet makers, coppersmiths, sheet metal fabricators, electronics specialists and fitters, all employed in a dedicated workshop within Bentley Motors' Crewe factory. The workshop has its own wood mill and wood shop, its own trim shop to stitch and cut leather, its own steel fabrication area that can hand make body shells or modify existing ones, and a tool making area to make moulds for new components. Bentley Mulliner coachbuilders can craft the most luxurious cockpit imaginable, or make a mobile office capable of keeping a busy chief executive in touch with his or her business. Their goal is straightforward: to make the world's finest hand-crafted cars.

Almost no commission is too small, or too big, for Bentley Mulliner. A 'typical' job ranges from as little as £2,000 to as much as £300,000 - on top of the price of the standard production Bentley. About half of all Bentleys built now get Bentley Mulliner's treatment.

Arnage Limousine by Bentley Mulliner The Bentley Mulliner Arnage Limousine is a showcase for the unrivalled craftsmanship skills of Bentley Mulliner, the company's bespoke team of coachbuilders, craftsmen and designers; a unique team dedicated to tailoring any Bentley to its owner's exclusive requirements.

First shown at the Paris Motorshow in September, this Arnage Limousine - neither an impractical 'concept' car, nor a series production car - is a fine example of Mulliner's stretch limousine expertise. It is simply an example of what Bentley Mulliner can achieve for any customer with an open mind and a wish to own a Bentley that is not just exclusive, but unique. And judging by the numbers of Bentley customers old and new who expressed an interest in the car, it would seem to have struck a chord, even in a market with increasing and welcome competition from other marques.

The focal point of the car is a 728mm (28 inches) extension to the wheelbase, giving Bentley Mulliner's design team the opportunity to design an interior of a quality, magnificence and individuality that no production car could hope to emulate. The theme chosen for this Arnage Limousine was to demonstrate how traditional the very latest entertainment technology can be successfully and stylishly integrated with traditional materials such as leather and particularly wood can be used in challenging ways to create an entirely contemporary feel. It demonstrates clearly that the skills handed down from generation to generation at Crewe are as relevant today as ever, and that this combination of expertise, experience and understanding is unavailable anywhere else in the world.

Enter the car and the first sensation is one of space. Sit in one of the rear seats and you can stretch your legs until they meet footrests that also double as rear-facing occasional seats. A rear compartment sunroof has been fitted to provide additional natural lighting if preferred.

Stylistically the main focus falls on the use of both straight grain and burr English oak. Using dramatic curves, the cabin conceals a host of features many owners would consider essential. There is an independent air-conditioning system for the rear cabin, a concealed drinks bar, cigar drawer and bottle cooler. Lighting is provided not by conventional bulbs, but instead by fibre-optics, bathing the interior in warm light.

Most startling of all however is the hidden 22-inch (55 cms) entertainment screen that is skilfully designed to raise itself into view from in front of the electrically operated glass dividing screen between the front and rear cabins. Boasting Dolby 5.1 surround sound, which works in conjunction with the DVD and television systems and blinds on all windows to the side and rear, the Arnage Limousine turns itself into a private cinema in an instant.

On the outside its chrome-finished radiator, door mirror caps, sill covers, a jewel-type fuel filler cap and Mulliner badging distinguishes the car as something rather special. Under the bonnet lies Bentley's renowned and recently entirely re-engineered 400bhp, 6.75-litre V8 motor. Mulliner engineers to complement the increased stiffening of the body shell have finely tuned the cars braking and suspension systems.

Bentley and Mulliner have been associated since the earliest days of the marque and their strengths have always complemented each other perfectly. Some of the most beautiful and distinctive Bentleys of the vintage and pre-war eras owe their bodywork to the fabled Mulliner coachbuilding house.

It is therefore absolutely right that the name of Mulliner should now be used to denote those Bentleys whose owners have chosen in some way to differentiate their car from any other on the road.

Unlike conventional luxury cars where equipment is limited to a list of items selected by their manufacturers, Mulliner's craftsmen and women are there to realise the dreams of their customers.

Almost anything is possible, from stitching the family crest or names of your children in the rear head-rests to designing and producing arguably the most exclusive car in the world, The Queen's new Bentley State Limousine. In between lies a limitless array of possibilities from the most sumptuous luxury to a mobile office capable of keeping a busy executive fully in touch and in tune with his or her business.

Customers can choose to become involved from the earliest stage, even before anything has been created and the design is still in the virtual world. No other car manufacturer currently offers anything approaching this level of customer interaction and design capability, or the extensive range of bespoke features ranging from armouring of cars, installation of the latest information, entertainment and communications systems to complete or partial restoration of previous Bentley models.

For all the sportiness shown by Bentley in cars such as in the new Bentley Continental GT, creating bespoke cars offering supreme luxury to a discerning few is a territory Bentley has no intention of surrendering. Indeed it is precisely the reason Bentley Mulliner was created. And the Bentley Arnage Limousine, for all its understated magnificence and individuality, offers just a mere glimpse of its capabilities.

2002-12-03 Please quote Autoindex.org if You use this news article!