Bentley Brooklands: Bentley's new coupe
Arnage-based Brooklands has 530bhp twin-turbo V8 and costs £225,000
Geneva is the most glamorous motor show in the world, so it’s fitting that Bentley chose to unveil its new supercoupe, the Brooklands, at the glitzy Swiss event.
Based on the Arnage/Azure chassis, the Brooklands is a full four-seater coupe. It’s propelled by the most powerful version of Bentley’s venerable 6.75-litre V8 ever produced. Bolstered by two low-inertia turbochargers, the V8 (which can trace its roots back to the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II and Bentley S2 of 1959) thumps out 530bhp and a huge 774lb ft torque through its six-speed ZF automatic gearbox.
Bentley hasn’t released any official performance figures yet, but expect a 0-60mph time of around 5sec and a top speed close to 180mph.The Brooklands is a car defined by huge numbers, then, but the biggest number of all will be the price: at around £225,000 it’s nearly £50,000 more expensive than the four-door, 500bhp Arnage T. A total of just 550 examples of the Brooklands will be hand-made at Bentley’s Crewe facility, with the first customers receiving their cars in early 2008.
The last V8-engined Bentley coupes were the Continental R and the short-wheelbase Continental T, both produced from ’96–’03. The Brooklands’ interior is much more accommodating than the R and the woefully cramped T, with Bentley claiming both legroom and headroom easily exceed that of any other luxury coupe on sale. So if your kids are moaning about being cramped in the back of your 612 Scaglietti, it seems Bentley has the perfect answer.
Find used Bentley Brookland for sale on the Classic and Performance Car site here.
