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Paris...Taking personal commissioning to new heights, Bentley Motors is presenting at the Paris Motor Show a unique Arnage Red Label, with a magnificent, hand-crafted interior that demonstrates the virtually unlimited design, craftsmanship and engineering skills of the Crewe-based company.
The design brief for the show car's rear compartment was to create: 'an oasis of calm serenity'. Using ideas from the two worlds of automotive and furniture design, and the traditional craft techniques allied with the latest facilities and abilities of the Crewe site and its specialist workforce, the result can be described as unsurpassed in the history of Bentley.
In particular, this extended wheelbase Bentley reflects the skills of the Personal Commissioning team, whose vision and motivation is to turn customer dreams into reality - the only limiting factors are the materials with which they work and construction and use legislation.
The Paris Show Bentley represents many of the capabilities offered by the company's Personal Commissioning team to customers. These extend from power and performance enhancements, through unique hand-crafted wood and leather interior treatments to exterior changes such as the extended wheelbase as seen on this car which involves lengthening not only the chassis but also both front and rear doors.
The team's power and performance skills were brilliantly evidenced by the Bentley Continental T Personal Commission created for the European Drive to Le Mans 2000. The car's power output of around 440bhp, with over 875 Nm of torque at 2200 rpm, light weight and chassis set up to deliver corresponding levels of roadholding, was enhanced by its remodelled bumpers, larger air intakes and sculpted sills.
Continuing this theme of virtually unlimited expertise, the interior of the Arnage Red Label on display at the Paris Motor Show - and in particular the breathtaking rear compartment - underline this extraordinary proficiency that is unique to Bentley Motors.
The primary wood veneer is birds eye maple, the hardest of all possible finishes to work into corners and crevices without tearing. The complex curves of the rear consoles and bridge proved to be exceptionally difficult to cover, but having met and beaten the challenge set by the designer, those intricate areas replicate the finest hand-made furniture and could easily grace the most elegant drawing-room. The ingenious folding and turning table set into the top of the bridge is another demonstration of the skills available to all customers at Crewe who wish to sample the talents and ability of the Bentley Motors' Personal Commissioning team.
The Paris Motor Show car displays the finest traditions of Bentley in a stunning exposition of car building at its best. Fitted with a centre division, the Arnage Red Label features a number of developments that have never before been seen. These include the complex manufacture of the centre console and the beautifully formed 'bridge' effect, which marries up with the cascade of wood from the glass division downwards. The fibre optic 'mood' lighting, including dimming and spot focussing, which spills from the suspended ceiling panel fitted to the headlining is unique, as are the fine chromed brass inlays which perfectly contrast with the cherry cross-banding veneer on the centre console and door headers.
The discreet yet intricate inlays are acknowledged within Crewe as, arguably, one of the most difficult wood working tasks ever successfully achieved by Bentley Motors' Personal Commissioning craftsmen.
Design student creates radical interior
Twenty four year old Brett Boydell's breathtaking, radical and world-class design for the inside of a unique Bentley Arnage Red Label, won the design student from Coventry University, England, the chance of a lifetime: to style the interior for one of the company's Paris Motor Show cars.
Brett's winning design required both intricate and ingenious use of the wood and leather working skills of the Personal Commissioning craftsmen, as well as their considerable technical expertise. The details of the design include birds eye maple and cherry veneered waist rails and centre console which also covers the rear cabin 'bridge'. Fibre-optic mood lighting and contrasting colours add the finishing touches.
The completed interior displays exquisite levels of craftsmanship, which are unrivalled and unique in the automotive industry. The series of hand-crafted furnishings created by the Bentley Motors Personal Commissioning craftsmen from Brett's original design clearly reflects the design team's skills as well, but all acknowledge the complex difficulty of the task.
"The design had to be contemporary. By using birds eye maple veneer over solid maple, with a cherry cross banding and inlaid chromed brass centre lines, we have made something that is distinctly 'Bentley' and cannot be mistaken as belonging to any other manufacturer," said Brett.
"At first the wood specialists were concerned as to whether it could be built, but they produced it exactly as it was designed and as the design team and I originally saw it," says Brett. "Now when they get asked to make things they say: 'That's too easy; give us something more difficult to do!' I think this project has been a really good challenge for everyone involved with it and it has raised confidence levels throughout - especially mine!
"The best thing is that the end product looks like the original drawings. It's still pure," he says with the delight of an artist whose work is left uncompromised by an equally enthusiastic employer.
The left-hand-drive car's exquisite paintwork is finished in Peacock Blue while the discrete and luxurious interior is finished in Peacock coloured hide at the front and, for contrast, Magnolia hide in the rear. The carpets are dark blue, as are the overmats and lambswool rugs.
This unique Bentley is powered by the latest development of the world-famous Crewe-built 6.75 litre V8 turbocharged engine. Developing 400bhp, this engine produces more torque than any other production saloon in the world - 835Nm (616 lb ft) at 2100rpm, with an electronically limited top speed of 155mph.
"The capability of the Personal Commissioning team at Bentley Motors is unique to us," says Tony Gott, chief executive. "No other car company in the world can exclusively create, customer by customer, such a range of individual enhancements to a car's performance, its exterior or its interior."
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