The Bentley Brooklands Limited Edition Coupe

Bentley has taken the wraps off a very exclusive coupe which it will call the Bentley Brooklands. The motivation behind the new coupe is Bentley’s proud sporting pedigree, forged by the exploits of the immortal ‘Bentley Boys’ on the famous Brooklands racetrack in the 1920s. The stunning new model marks the company’s return to the luxury coupe market with just 550 of the machines to be built. It is the ultimate Bentley: a stylish, four-seat, grand touring coupe with classic British proportions and muscular performance from the most powerful V8 engine Bentley has ever produced – a 530bhp, twin-turbocharged 6.75-litre unit that also produces a prodigious 1050Nm of torque.

The challenging Brooklands banked racetrack, which this year celebrates its centenary, was the birthplace of British motor racing. During the 1920s and early thirties, Brooklands, located in Surrey, England, was the scene of some of Bentley’s greatest racing triumphs, forging an inextricable link between the company’s motorsport heritage and this historic race circuit.

Sporting design cues are matched by the phenomenal performance engineering of Bentley’s legendary Crewe-built V8 engine. Each Brooklands coupé will be hand-assembled, employing traditional coach-building techniques and the craftsmanship skills in wood veneer and leather hide for which Bentley is renowned. To ensure exclusivity, lifetime production will be strictly limited to just 550 cars, with deliveries expected to start in the first half of 2008.

Exterior Design: Classic British Proportions

Bentley’s rich coupé heritage provided the stimulus for Director of Styling, Dirk van Braeckel and his design team. For van Braeckel, the task was very clear: “To create a powerful, muscular and rakish grand touring coupé with classic British proportions, in the finest Bentley tradition.”

While the new Brooklands is influenced by Bentley’s fine coupé lineage, its design and engineering are thoroughly contemporary. The proportions of long bonnet, short front overhang and long rear overhang achieve the design objective perfectly, while the low roofline, steeply raked screens and pillarless side glass convey both power and movement.

As the Brooklands will be built in very limited volume, the designers were able to introduce unique features that necessitate specialist coach-building techniques, as Programme Director, Ashley Wickham, reveals: “The Brooklands’ beautiful flowing lines are testament to the traditional coach-building skills and craftsmanship of Crewe’s highly talented workforce.”

The ‘floating’ rear screen, for example, is a contemporary take on traditional coachbuilt Bentleys. The lower edge of the screen sits well above the upper edge of the 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.

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