Bentley Arnage: A spenlid anachronism?

Thursday, September 14, 2006

Bentley Arnage: A spenlid anachronism?

We wouldn't call the Bentley Arnage anachronistic, our world needs such cars. It's a nice and worthful heritage.

The Arnage is the last pre-VW Bentley, the last model before the split between Rolls-Royce and Bentley and each marque's adoption by rival German companies (Rolls-Royce, of course, went to BMW).

The Rolls version, now gone, was called the Silver Seraph, but since the landscape was redrawn the Bentley has undergone two major under-the-skin revamps, leading to some intriguing numbers.

The top Arnage is called the Arnage T; it's the current incarnation of the tyre-smoking battle cruiser whose incongruous genre began with the mid-1980's Bentley Mulsanne Turbo.

It delivers a healthy 375kW but more significant is its 1000Nm of torque - obviously an attractive target for the Bentley engineers.

It's still a low-revving engine, though, its best efforts waning after 4200rpm. It's the closest in power delivery to a steam engine that you'll find in a car today.