CREWE, England (May 2007) – The introduction of the Bentley Brooklands marks the company’s return to the luxury coupe market and its desire to reaffirm its reputation as creator of the world’s most exclusive coupes. Named for the famous Brooklands banked racetrack, the scene of Bentley’s greatest racing triumphs, the Bentley Brooklands is a stylish, four-seat, grand touring coupe with classic British proportions and muscular performance.
Bentley’s chairman Dr Franz-Josef Paefgen describes the motivation behind the new coupe: “Bentley’s proud sporting pedigree, forged by the exploits of the immortal ‘Bentley Boys’ on the famous Brooklands racetrack in the 1920s, was the inspiration for our new coupe, capturing all the style, power and splendour of that era.”
Sporting design cues are matched by the performance engineering of Bentley’s Crewe-built V8 engine. The new Bentley Brooklands is equipped with the most powerful V8 the company has ever produced – a 530bhp, twin-turbocharged 6.75-litre unit that also produces a prodigious 1050Nm of torque.
Each Brooklands coupe will be hand-assembled, employing traditional coach-building techniques and the craftsmanship skills in wood veneer and leather hide for which the Crewe factory is renowned. “The Brooklands’ beautiful flowing lines are testament to the traditional coach-building skills and craftsmanship of Crewe’s highly talented workforce,” said Programme Director, Ashley Wickham.
Bentley’s heritage provided the stimulus for Director of Styling, Dirk van Braeckel and his design team. For van Braeckel, the task was: “To create a powerful, muscular and rakish grand touring coupe with classic British proportions, in the finest Bentley tradition.”
While the new Brooklands is influenced by Bentley’s coupe lineage, its design and engineering are contemporary. The proportions of long hood/bonnet, short front overhang and long rear overhang achieve its design objective, while the low roofline, steeply raked screens and pillarless side glass convey strength and forward momentum.
Bentley officials say that to ensure exclusivity, lifetime production will be strictly limited to just 550 cars, with deliveries expected to start in the first half of 2008.
Since the Brooklands will be built in very limited volume, the designers were able to introduce unique features that require specialist coach-building techniques.
This still left room for a contemporary take on what a traditional coachbuilt Bentley should be today. An example is the ‘floating’ rear screen/window. The lower edge of the screen sits well above the upper edge of the trunk/boot lid to provide a flowing, flawless line to the back of the car. This can only be achieved by individually hand-welding the rear wings to the C-pillars.
The standard 20-inch diameter wheels not only signal the surefooted, robust and dynamic character of the Brooklands but give it a modern, muscular swagger in an understated way – of course.
This is one coupe the Bentley Boys would have loved to drive.
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