XCAR Review of 2013: February

-Hi, and welcome to XCAR's round-up of the year where today, we're looking at February. Short month, short round-up. We've got Mk 1 Cayman and Bentley GTC V8 factory tour. Mk 1 Cayman is a retrospective. -Yes. It was retrospective that I wanted to do for a couple of reasons. One, 'cause I always wanted to drive a Mk 1 Cayman because they're awesome. I think it's out-- out of the Cayman, the Boxster of that particular era, I think the Cayman just looked so much better. So, I wanted to have a go. But also, it was a car that never quite reached its potential. Everyone seemed to know about it. Everyone seemed to like it, but not enough people really bought it, even though it was actually almost as good-- if not a little bit better-- than the 911, like the base 911. So, it could just be your basic Porsche sports car to get in and enjoy. So, I wanted to try and convey that message and show people that, yes-- actually, it is that good. And it's okay to buy it. And now, there's a new one out, which we drove later on the year, which is also super [unk] great. Tell you what, though. I'll be controversial. I think the old Cayman looks better than the new Cayman. -That is a bit controversial-- -Yeah. -'Cause a lot of the latest design changes in the Boxster-- -Yeah. -From the old Boxster to the new one, are much improvement. And I actually felt the improvements from the old Cayman to the new Cayman. Although not quite as night and day-- -Uh-huh. -still slight improvement. -I-- I prefer, even though-- the only [unk] I don't like about the original Cayman is the small engine cooling vent. The rest of it, I think, is just head and shoulders above the new one. -Uh-huh. -But I'm strange like that. -We've covered both. We'll put the links to both films in the description below, and you can make up your own mind. Moving from one luxury car manufacturer to another-- -Yes. -Bentley. -We wanted to go kind of behind the scenes on this one, under the skin, and see what really makes a Bentley so special-- which is the title of the film, fondly enough. We wanted to see kind of the amount of work that goes into these things. 'Cause you hear kind of rumors about Rolls Royce and Bentley, the amount of time and kind of work ethic that goes into making these cars, the materials, everything about it. So, we just kind of went and did it all, really. -Yeah. -We saw the factory, the upholstery, the kind of wood-crafting. -Bentley's woodwork department. That's the thing I found incredibly [unk], their woodwork department. The standard of wood they ask for is so high that they created a new industry standard for it, the Bentley standard wood. The entire factory, every single bit of it, has a different but very alluring smell-- in the paint shop. -Oh, God. The leather was the best-- -Uh-huh. -there was. I mean, they only use how many balls was it they used for one car? -It was-- it's 12 to 15 in a Continental GT and the Flying Spur, and then, it's something like 17 to 20 odd in a Mulsanne. -It was something like-- -I heard-- -Yeah. I heard. -A whole herd. Yeah. -It really makes you kind of respect Bentley, though, doesn't it? I mean, they're kind of written off sometimes as footballer's cars and something like the Rolls Royce is kind of seen as a-- -Yeah. -the better manufacturer. But when you see the work that goes into it and the attention to detail, it's something-- it's stunning, really. I was just a bit blown away by the day and just the paint. I mean, the amount of stages that it goes to painting a car. -Twenty two, if memory serves. -That's like a whole week or something. -Yeah. It-- and it would take-- it takes five days to go from shell to complete car. And they get through something like 40 or 50 sanding pads going from the mega tough stuff, then to fine, then to ultra fine just to give the car the Bentley mirror shine, which is their thing. -Cool. Well, all the videos mentioned here will be linked to below. We'll link in all of the videos that we've done for Bentley. And join us again tomorrow where we will be talking about March.