Bentley Mulsanne - Puttin on the Ritz

Bentley Mulsanne - Puttin on the Ritz 

Bentley Mulsanne - Puttin on the Ritz

Be it a Louis Vuitton handbag, Tiffany lamp, or a child’s gift, craftsmanship should be cherished. Any chestnut can mass-bake holiday loaves, but the ones made by hand are truly special. This is clearly the sentiment behind Bentley’s first all-new flagship since the automaker’s divorce from Rolls-Royce and adoption by Volkswagen. Style and grace shelter the Mulsanne’s place.

If Mother Mary had driven up to the inn with her baby bump in the Mulsanne, Baby Jesus may have been born in a bed with servants attending his every need. A big chrome grille, round headlamps, flowing bodysides, 21” alloys, and yachtlike tail tell the world you are the next thing to the next messiah, prepared to drop serious coin at any spa or galleria. Floating elliptical LED taillamps outshine any deprived sled or guiding star. Its mere presence inspires awe from the stable hands.

Interiors ring to the rafters with exquisite hides, customized to your favorite colors. Mirror-matched wood veneers, hand-finished stainless steel, glass switches, and Wilton-weave wool floormats are of the highest quality. It takes 15 hrs. to hand-stitch each steering wheel, 10 hrs. to finish the brightware, and 2 weeks for wood veneer to become polished panels. You’ll ponder all of that labor while relaxing to the 20-speaker Naim for Bentley audio system. MP3 players connect in a leather-lined drawer, of course.

While all spot welds in the body are performed by hand, aluminum front fenders were formed using aerospace techniques – all drawn down the road by a 505-HP 6.75-litre twin-turbo V8 engine. Able to out-blitz a fleet of reindeer while melting the pee out of a snowdude, Mulsanne rides on a 3-mode suspension that can be dialed for “Bentley”, “Sport”, and “Comfort”.

Stylists were inspired by the 1930 “8-litre” and sought to revive the grand touring Bentley for newbies to the marque and habitual enthusiasts. Built at the old Rolls-Royce factory in Crewe, England, Mulsanne can be chosen in any hue, even matched to your wife’s favorite ornament. Sales begin in mid-2010 with prices wafting by the $300,000 peg.