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Kraftwagen König
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TOM FORD champions the Bentley Mulsanne
Rolls-Royce and Bentley: automotive upper classes, long and glorious histories peppered with provenance, beautiful inlaid wood and deep shagpile carpet. The names define Britishness, redolent of Spitfires and men with handlebar moustaches engaging in derring-do.
The Mulsanne is the first all-new big Bentley for nigh on 80 years. The Phantom is Rolls-Royce’s flagship. The stage is set, then, for a formidable contest, especially when you realise that Bentley is pitching the Mulsanne at its former ally. Once they were part of the same company; now they are in direct competition.
Yet even though these two prestigious marques still make much of their heritage and the skills of British-based craftsmen, this isn’t a gentlemanly battle between two blue-blooded aristocrats: both are now under the control of massive German corporations. Bentley is owned by Volkswagen; Rolls by its arch rival BMW. So it’s a case of bowler hats and Savile Row suits on the outside, but German muscle and money on the inside.
The great thing about the Mulsanne is that it fills a gap left wide open by the competition. It is of a similar size to a £275,990 Phantom but claims the agility of the smaller £195,840 Rolls-Royce Ghost and is priced somewhere between the two at £220,000. You get the huge lounging room from the back of the Phantom — as well as the unmistakable street presence — but with the dynamic feedback and general joyfulness from behind the wheel of the Ghost.
Just look at the facts. The Mulsanne is as good to drive as it is to be driven in. There’s beautifully judged steering that filters out sharp movements (good for rear-seat passenger comfort), but carves smoothly when you need it to.
There’s a buttery eight-speed auto like on the Ghost, but with steering wheelmounted paddles to play with when you press on, and the car has an uncanny ability to be properly good fun going fast — not easy to do in a car that weighs almost 2.6 tonnes.
There are four modes to choose from, depending on your mood:”comfort” for not spilling the gin of the rear-seat passengers,”sport” for more aggressive responses,”custom”, which accesses your preferred setup, and”Bentley”, my personal favourite, which sets the car up according to what the engineers at Bentley think it should be. All work as they should, making the Mulsanne very satisfying behind the wheel.
It’s clever, too. The 505bhp twinturbo 6.75-litre V8 is a proper old traditional Bentley engine, but brought bang up to date with clever cam phasing and a whole host of other tweaks that allow it to shove out 752 lb ft of torque from a barely-there 1750rpm — meaning you surf around on waves of torque and wonder why everyone else appears to be in reverse. And when you hit it, the Mulsanne really does go: 0-60mph in 5.1 seconds and a frankly scary 184mph top speed. Eat that, Rolls.
It’s also got a beautiful sat nav, and the option of a Naim audio system, which as well as being the most powerful yet fitted to a production car — it can potentially go up to 2,200W — is perhaps the finest stereo I’ve heard in a car. Everything from drum’n’bass to the most delicate classical music sounds ridiculously good.
The truth is that the Phantom is getting on a bit — it was launched in 2003 — and the Ghost has the guts of a BMW 7-series in order to feel sporty. In the Rolls range, you need two cars to accomplish what the Mulsanne will do on its own.
The only slight fly in the ointment? I’m still unsure about the front-end treatment with those big goggle eyes.
The main headlights are the big ones, with the daytime running lights and indicators housed in the smaller lights diagonally below. They’re supposed to echo the old Bentley 8-litre, though I’m not so sure they work in 2010.
Still, it’s fair to say that the Mulsanne looks a lot more satisfying in the metal than it does in photographs. Oh, and there’s one final thing I feel I should point out. Rolls-Royce has an owners’ club; Bentley has a drivers’ club. I rest my case.
ANDREW FRANKEL defends the honour of the Rolls-Royce Phantom
The clue is in the title. A Phantom is a silent apparition, Mulsanne the tightest corner on the Le Mans circuit, as well as the fastest straight. Despite the similarities they share in price, power and positioning, there is a difference between this Rolls-Royce and that Bentley, and choosing which is right for you is as simple as deciding if you want to put your feet up or your foot down. If you are in the former camp, it’s the Phantom every time.
Good though the Mulsanne is, there is no question which is the more remarkable achievement. The Phantom is old now, so old in fact that were it a normal car it would have been replaced: most modern cars are revised every couple of years. But when I first drove the Phantom, I’d never driven another car that rode so well; seven years later I’m still waiting.
Neither should we forget that this is the car that saved Rolls-Royce: its BMW parent company bet not just the farm but Britain’s most blue-blooded marque on the Phantom’s success.
To step into this car is to appreciate just how far ahead of the rest of the planet the British are when it comes to handcrafting a vehicle’s interior. A Mercedes — built Maybach — the onlyother car with any claim to be a contender in this class — just looks silly by comparison. What makes the Phantom so special is that it takes you back to a gentler, more civilised time. It comes with a sense of occasion that not even a machine as advanced as the Mulsanne can emulate.
Ask which would provide a greater frisson of pride and pleasure to see parked on the gravel outside your stately home? From which rear door would you choose to alight onto the steps of La Scala: the passenger door of a Bentley, or the Rolls-Royce’s magnificent rear-hinged alternative? It’s the Rolls every time.
Even so, there is a balance to be struck. The Phantom is the way it is because that’s how Rolls-Royce wanted it, and the same can be said of Bentley’s approach to the Mulsanne.
Racing has been in Bentley’s blood since the company’s earliest days, an activity always regarded by Rolls as uncouth, unnecessary and, no doubt, somewhat arriviste. As a result, no one could seriously claim the Phantom is a better car to drive than the Mulsanne: the Bentley is not merely a fraction more powerful and a shade swifter, it is also more responsive, agile and urgent.
Both reflect the disparate values of their founders better today than at any time since at least the second world war. For that you can thank the fact that in 1998 Bentley and Rolls-Royce were unshackled from the common ownership that had stifled both brands for more than 60 years and sold to separate proprietors.
There is an argument to say that if you want to drive, take the Bentley, if you’d rather be driven, it’s the Rolls. Perhaps. But if you have to make a choice, what it really comes down to is this: limousines such as these should be about ride and refinement first andeverything else second. For that reason, it is to the Phantom you must turn. It really is as simple as that.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/features/article7112351.ece
TOM FORD champions the Bentley Mulsanne
Rolls-Royce and Bentley: automotive upper classes, long and glorious histories peppered with provenance, beautiful inlaid wood and deep shagpile carpet. The names define Britishness, redolent of Spitfires and men with handlebar moustaches engaging in derring-do.
The Mulsanne is the first all-new big Bentley for nigh on 80 years. The Phantom is Rolls-Royce’s flagship. The stage is set, then, for a formidable contest, especially when you realise that Bentley is pitching the Mulsanne at its former ally. Once they were part of the same company; now they are in direct competition.
Yet even though these two prestigious marques still make much of their heritage and the skills of British-based craftsmen, this isn’t a gentlemanly battle between two blue-blooded aristocrats: both are now under the control of massive German corporations. Bentley is owned by Volkswagen; Rolls by its arch rival BMW. So it’s a case of bowler hats and Savile Row suits on the outside, but German muscle and money on the inside.
The great thing about the Mulsanne is that it fills a gap left wide open by the competition. It is of a similar size to a £275,990 Phantom but claims the agility of the smaller £195,840 Rolls-Royce Ghost and is priced somewhere between the two at £220,000. You get the huge lounging room from the back of the Phantom — as well as the unmistakable street presence — but with the dynamic feedback and general joyfulness from behind the wheel of the Ghost.
Just look at the facts. The Mulsanne is as good to drive as it is to be driven in. There’s beautifully judged steering that filters out sharp movements (good for rear-seat passenger comfort), but carves smoothly when you need it to.
There’s a buttery eight-speed auto like on the Ghost, but with steering wheelmounted paddles to play with when you press on, and the car has an uncanny ability to be properly good fun going fast — not easy to do in a car that weighs almost 2.6 tonnes.
There are four modes to choose from, depending on your mood:”comfort” for not spilling the gin of the rear-seat passengers,”sport” for more aggressive responses,”custom”, which accesses your preferred setup, and”Bentley”, my personal favourite, which sets the car up according to what the engineers at Bentley think it should be. All work as they should, making the Mulsanne very satisfying behind the wheel.
It’s clever, too. The 505bhp twinturbo 6.75-litre V8 is a proper old traditional Bentley engine, but brought bang up to date with clever cam phasing and a whole host of other tweaks that allow it to shove out 752 lb ft of torque from a barely-there 1750rpm — meaning you surf around on waves of torque and wonder why everyone else appears to be in reverse. And when you hit it, the Mulsanne really does go: 0-60mph in 5.1 seconds and a frankly scary 184mph top speed. Eat that, Rolls.
It’s also got a beautiful sat nav, and the option of a Naim audio system, which as well as being the most powerful yet fitted to a production car — it can potentially go up to 2,200W — is perhaps the finest stereo I’ve heard in a car. Everything from drum’n’bass to the most delicate classical music sounds ridiculously good.
The truth is that the Phantom is getting on a bit — it was launched in 2003 — and the Ghost has the guts of a BMW 7-series in order to feel sporty. In the Rolls range, you need two cars to accomplish what the Mulsanne will do on its own.
The only slight fly in the ointment? I’m still unsure about the front-end treatment with those big goggle eyes.
The main headlights are the big ones, with the daytime running lights and indicators housed in the smaller lights diagonally below. They’re supposed to echo the old Bentley 8-litre, though I’m not so sure they work in 2010.
Still, it’s fair to say that the Mulsanne looks a lot more satisfying in the metal than it does in photographs. Oh, and there’s one final thing I feel I should point out. Rolls-Royce has an owners’ club; Bentley has a drivers’ club. I rest my case.
ANDREW FRANKEL defends the honour of the Rolls-Royce Phantom
The clue is in the title. A Phantom is a silent apparition, Mulsanne the tightest corner on the Le Mans circuit, as well as the fastest straight. Despite the similarities they share in price, power and positioning, there is a difference between this Rolls-Royce and that Bentley, and choosing which is right for you is as simple as deciding if you want to put your feet up or your foot down. If you are in the former camp, it’s the Phantom every time.
Good though the Mulsanne is, there is no question which is the more remarkable achievement. The Phantom is old now, so old in fact that were it a normal car it would have been replaced: most modern cars are revised every couple of years. But when I first drove the Phantom, I’d never driven another car that rode so well; seven years later I’m still waiting.
Neither should we forget that this is the car that saved Rolls-Royce: its BMW parent company bet not just the farm but Britain’s most blue-blooded marque on the Phantom’s success.
To step into this car is to appreciate just how far ahead of the rest of the planet the British are when it comes to handcrafting a vehicle’s interior. A Mercedes — built Maybach — the onlyother car with any claim to be a contender in this class — just looks silly by comparison. What makes the Phantom so special is that it takes you back to a gentler, more civilised time. It comes with a sense of occasion that not even a machine as advanced as the Mulsanne can emulate.
Ask which would provide a greater frisson of pride and pleasure to see parked on the gravel outside your stately home? From which rear door would you choose to alight onto the steps of La Scala: the passenger door of a Bentley, or the Rolls-Royce’s magnificent rear-hinged alternative? It’s the Rolls every time.
Even so, there is a balance to be struck. The Phantom is the way it is because that’s how Rolls-Royce wanted it, and the same can be said of Bentley’s approach to the Mulsanne.
Racing has been in Bentley’s blood since the company’s earliest days, an activity always regarded by Rolls as uncouth, unnecessary and, no doubt, somewhat arriviste. As a result, no one could seriously claim the Phantom is a better car to drive than the Mulsanne: the Bentley is not merely a fraction more powerful and a shade swifter, it is also more responsive, agile and urgent.
Both reflect the disparate values of their founders better today than at any time since at least the second world war. For that you can thank the fact that in 1998 Bentley and Rolls-Royce were unshackled from the common ownership that had stifled both brands for more than 60 years and sold to separate proprietors.
There is an argument to say that if you want to drive, take the Bentley, if you’d rather be driven, it’s the Rolls. Perhaps. But if you have to make a choice, what it really comes down to is this: limousines such as these should be about ride and refinement first andeverything else second. For that reason, it is to the Phantom you must turn. It really is as simple as that.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/driving/features/article7112351.ece
