The birth of the automotive world has a plethora of amazing driving experiences, but some of them are not designed for the driver.
Some of them are meant for the person that sat back here.
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Bentley finds it self at a crossroads with one foot firmly planted in its future but another in its past.
One part Jekyll, one part Hyde.
On one side it's their new sporty aggressive look that came in this century with things like the Bentley continental GT and the speed 6 concept we saw this year.
And on the other hand, it's their legacy from the 20th century where speed and aggression were not the watch words.
Luxury, comfort, stature, and firmly under that description falls this.
The Bentley Mulsanne.
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People will sometimes over simplify the difference between Bentley and Rolls Royce by saying You drive a Bently, your driven in a Rolls Royce.
But that's simply just not the case.
You don't buy a Rolls Royce Wraith to be driven in it.
No one want's to have to have the driver put the front seats down so you can clamber in the back of your luxury car.
That's a drivers car, equally the Molzahn.
Is a hugely long limousine car.
It's designed for you to sit in the back.
This car alone, the gadgets it has in the back are phenomenal.
The comfort level back there has been as much, if not even more considered than anything up here in front.
So to say that Bentleys are driver's cars over Rolls-Royces is simply not the case.
But this speed, this Mulsanne Speed, changes things up.
It adds that extra power, it gives you that slightly sportsier edge on a car that That's not to be sporty in the first place and then confuses the hell out of me cause who's going to buy this car?
The Moran is hugely popular in China.
One of its largest markets is out of there.
But I don't predict that many of these will be sold over there.
These have been turned to the European market.
Someone who wants to buy the family to buy if you want to be driven, but who also wants to buy that car Brass tacks, the Bentley Mulsanne Speed has a six and three quarter liter twin turbo V8 engine up front, delivering 530 brake horse power and 811 pound foot of torque.
That's over a thousand newton metres.
That is a phenomenal amount of What's even more incredible is that that peak torque is at 1750 rpms.
Right low down in the range, and it stays pretty much flat all the way up to 4000 rpms.
This is a different kind of speed.
This is a different kind of delivery of power.
This is not built for a track, but this is built for the autobahn.
If you can get an open stretch of road And the chance to put your foot down.
This car will not disappoint.
The brakes however have got one hell of a job to do.
They've got over two and a half tons of car that they somehow need to bring to a halt.
And for something this heavy going that fast, that is a difficult job.
the hood ornament's which in addition to being a great status symbol is also the only thing you have to indicate where the bonnet ends
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Which is usually in a different postcode to where you find yourself sitting.
At five and a half metres long, this isn't the easiest thing to weave around small Bavarian towns.
That said though, right here and now, I can't think of anything I'd rather I'd rather be in.
On the exterior, there's loads of little touches which differentiate it from the standard [UNKNOWN].
Like on the Continental GT Speed, there's a rifled exhaust and chrome details around the headlights.
Which are nice little touches.
And if you're down at the pub with your mate who also owns a model.
But the standard one, you can point those out as evidence that you have the more expensive and faster car.
But unless you're an absolutely Bentley nerd, those things will largely go unnoticed.
Bentley maintains that this is a driver's car, they maintain that all Bentleys are driver's cars.
But really, if you're buying a Bentley as a driver's car Is this the one you buy?
Well, probably not.
If I really, really want to drive a Bentley, and frequently that feeling does come across me, I would go for the Continental GT3 for several reasons.
In our previous Bentley film I went into a lot of details about why I love the VWW12 and It's in the Continental GT speed.
A phenomenal piece of work.
I'm in the minority, most people prefer the V8 but I love that engine.
That's not available in this car.
It's faster, has a higher top speed.
It's faster to 60 and it's lighter `enough that the brakes feel like you have more control over the car.
And this Now it's well known that Bentley put huge amounts of detail into their work and go to great efforts to create the best-looking interiors, using the finest materials and the finest artisan techniques.
And that is true for every Bentley.
[INAUDIBLE] From the cheapest Continental GT, all the way up.
But in the Moldan they take it to that extra level.
The quality of the finish is at that premium Bentley style, but every little detail has been Being considered.
Our car has fully loaded iPad desk trays that come ut.
You have at your disposal a mini-office in the back of this car.
In fact, if you're in the market for an office, this actually might be a more efficient way of doing business In fact, we should move the X Car office into the back of a Bentley.
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There are touches on this car Car that do [UNKNOWN] more sporty nature or at least sporty intentions.
One thing I've always complained about on Bentleys are the flappy pedals which have always been these plastic sticky outy things that have been set up for ten to two driving.
Which always to me indicates that really no one was ever going to use them.
They were not in the right place for if you wanted to drive fast.
On the speed however, they're at quarter to three, and they have this wonderful gnarled metal feel on the back.
Now they control the eight speed [INAUDIBLE] gear bar.
box which is one of my favorite gearboxes its absolutely phenomenal.
And then the continental GT speed it was unbelievable.
And certainly if you plant your foot in any gear it drops 2/3 gears no problem in a heartbeat.
This is as good as any Joel Clutch gear box you can get and anything from Porsche.
Bentley is clearly moving forward.
In my opinion, if Rolls Royce had never taken them over in the 30s, Bentley today would be on a par with Aston Martin or Porsche for incredibly fast, exciting sports cars.
But because of that 20th century run under Rolls Royce, it's a different beast now.
And although with things like the Speed 6 concept, which we saw at Geneva this year.
There clearly is a drive to become an even more sporty, more aggressive, lighter sports cars.
There is a heritage that has been brought over those years that they would be crazy to throw away.
You still see that from the finish from all of their cars across the range.
The wood, the leather, the effort The attention to detail is absolutely phenomenal, and they don't want to lose that, and they definitely shouldn't, but the Mulsanne really is a car of it's past.
Will Bentley continue to make cars like this in the future, will the audience that loves these ever dry up?
Possibly not, but if that Ashamed, it's holding back Bentley from really committing to being what I really always want him to be.
There's no two ways about it, the [UNKNOWN] really is a reflection of Bentley's past.
But that's not a bad thing.
That history was built on a tradition of the highest quality engineering and design.
But it's not where the mark is going.
This, however, the Mulsanne Speed, adds those lessons it's learned in the 21st Century to create something that's truly the best of both worlds where performance and speed have been married with the highest level of comfort and luxury.
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It might not be the ultimate driver's Bentley, but speed has never been this comfortable.
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