The best combination of power and beauty
By Fei Lim

Bentley Motors Limited is a manufacturer of luxury automobiles and Grand Tourers. The company is based in England. Walter Owen Bentley, the founder, started this company on 18 January 1919. Mr. Bentley, also known as WO, was also famous for the rotary aero-engines during World War I with the Bentley BR1 being the most popular. The Audi division of Volkswagen Groups took over the company in 1998.

Rolls-Royce merged the entire Bentley line with its own and the Bentley marque was converted into another Rolls-Royce that lacked the distinctive grill and was lower priced. Bentley once again became an independent high performance car line in the 1980s. During the time it was a part of Rolls-Royce, the most notable car was the Bentley Continental that appeared in many versions from 1952 through 1965 and once again in 1992 before its production was finally halted in 2003. The Bentley factory, located in Crewe, Cheshire is still referred to as "Royce's" by the locals.

Volkswagen purchased Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motors for 430 million from Vickers in 1998 after a long bidding war with BMW. BMW had just recently begun supplying components for the new range of Bentley cars, especially the V8 engines in the Bentley Arnage and the V12 engine in the Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph. The purchase of Volkswagen did not include the Rolls-Royce name. It was separately licensed to BMW for 40 million by the Rolls-Royce aero engine company.

Volkswagen and BMW came to another agreement that gave Volkswagen the right to manufacture the Bentley and Rolls-Royce cars through the year 2002 after which the right to make Rolls-Royce cars would pass on to BMW. During this time, Volkswagen decreased its reliance on BMW and BMW engines were no longer used in Bentley cars as of 2003.

The Modern Bentley

The current Bentley models include Arnage Queen Elizabeth II's State Limousine, Bentley State Limousine, Continental GT, and Flying Spur.

Queen Elizabeth II was presented with an official State Limousine to mark the Golden Jubilee in 2002. Bentley Azure, the 2-door convertible was phased out in 2003 and was replaced with the Bentley Continental GT, a big luxury coupe powered by a modified version of the Volkswagen W-12 engine.

Demand for this new car was so big that the factory was not able to provide sufficient new cars even though it has an installed capacity for nearly 9500 vehicles per year. The waiting list for new cars had stretched to more than a year. As a result the production of the Flying Spur, which is actually a 4-door version of the Continental GT, was given over to the Transparent Factory, the same place where the VW Phaeton is assembled. This arrangement came to an end in 2006 and in 2007 all production was reverted back to the plant in Crewe, Cheshire.

Bentley confirmed its plans to make a 4-seat convertible model in 2005. Named the Azure, the design was a derivation of the Arnage Drophead Coupe prototype. By fall of 2005 Bentley had also presented a convertible version of the Continental GT, named the Continental GTC. Both models were successfully launched towards the end of 2006.

Bentley recorded strong sales in 2005 with 8627 cars sold all over the world and 3654 of them sold in the United States alone.

Bentley cars are fast and flashy and of course they are expensive. They are imaged as exotic sports cars that represent the ultimate speed and style. Exotic sports cars thrive on the latest technology and are built more for aesthetics than anything else. This means that the cars do not worry about things like fuel economy or storage space. Exotic sports cars are mostly made to order or they are available as limited editions and the owners do not cut costs when they decide to buy one. There are few people in a crowd that can afford to buy exotic sports cars.

The Bentley cars rely on engines that generate a lot of power. Depending on the model it could be anywhere from 500 to 600 horsepower. For example, Ferrari's latest limited-edition model named Enzo offers the sports-car enthusiast a near Formula 1 experience. Regular cars are no match for the speed and performance of these exotic cars. Their power and their design is what makes car collectors all over the world covet these machines.

Bentley cars are powerful and make a good statement of your personal taste, but always remember that they are costly to buy and even costlier to maintain. They cannot be checked or repaired by regular mechanics.They need special professionals for maintenance and repairs.

They are delicate beauties that need careful handling.