What Makes a Bentley

[silverhawk]

Ever wondered what makes a Bentley??? or what makes it so special & why its so Expensive?

i have a bentley brochure which explains in detail the unique factors that make up a bentley:-

there are 19 standard colours of upholstery. Bentley boasts that they can match any colour in upholstery. in the past they matched a set of bentleys with the colour of a nail varnish.

a full leather set is selected & cut at the same time. skilled trimmers cut the trim shapes using the judgement of hand & eye & use 60% hide- the best in the industry.

every car's steering wheel needs to be double stitched by hand- a task too difficult by hand. any imperfections show up in a lumpy & uneasy wheel rim. each steering wheel takes 15 hours to complete.

a full set of trim for 1 bentley has 400 separate pieces of leather each marked with the chasis no of the car. each machinist who completes a piece of upholstery signs his/her name at the back.

each hide is inspected minutely for scarring or imperfections like a gnat's bite which can affect the quality of the finished hide. they use A grade hides only ,around 14metre sq. usually from Northern European climates where insects are fewer.

items like radiator grille, door handles, badges & wheels are finished in a process of over 10 hours. 85% polishing is done by hand.

Every car goes thru a monsoon b4 leaving the factory. 1820 litres of water containing a trace dye are aprayed at each complete car to check for leaks by UV light.

Chrome replaced nickle on door handles in 1929 as it is easier to clean & preserve.

the wheel are regularly subjected to 2000 hour salt spray testing equivalent to many lifetime's use.

there are 6500 spot welds in every arnage.
each car is painted 120 times from bare metal to finished car. dry-sanding is done to eliminate any tiny surface imperfections & give a mirror finish. this process takes 10 men hours.

there are 21 colours in the bentley range in the first 18 months after the arnage's launched they have matched 111 different colours.

every piece of glass is polished with fine powdered pumice stone.

each car is tested between 1500 & 3000 rpm for 90 minutes.

the Brightware team at bentley produce components like tappets, pushrods & brake castings. the Clean Room team works in dust free conditions to prevent im purities from getting into oilways or hydraulic circuits.
the tappets are given a natural finish of 16-MILLIONTH of an INCH.

burr walnut's pattern comes from the fungus in its roots. it takes 80 years for the fungi to form the pattern. each tree may be over 100 years & each tree is immediately replaced by another.
the root is formed into leaves around 0.6mm thick for veneering. it takes 16 leaves to form 26 main components of bentley's interior with another 8 for waistrailsalong the top of the doors.
when the leaves are peeled they have a recurring pattern. they use the effect by placing 4 leaves end to end to form a symmetrical pattern on the fascia's centreline.

the total amount of wood used is as much as 6.5 metre sq.

the wood is given
5 coats of lacquer
3 days of curing time
final sanding by 5 grades of sandpaper to achieve a flawlesssurface
& coat of wax buffed by a cotton mop polisher for a glass clear shine.

the wood is not bleached as it will lose its original colour.

[atombob03]

thats insane

[Rockefella]

:eek: :eek: i wouldn't have that much patience.

[bigkyy464]

one word
wow.... :eek: :D

[Rockefella]

I'd like to see the same article relating to Maybach's. My guess is Maybach takes it to an even higher level with their cars.

[QuattroMan]

Crewe,England - Bentley Motors is delighted that its 198mph Continental GT coupe has won another prestigious award, this time the special design award, nominated by the jury of 'L'Automobile più Bella del Mondo' (The Most Beautiful Car in the World) of 2003 :cool:

[Cyco]

When you hop in one it is beautiful, the carpet is thicker than in my house! The finish of everything is perfect, far better than any car I have been in (the new RR Phantom is equal). Some of the little things are what stand out the most, like the work that goes into the badge on the boot - the enamalled centre is the release button, but fits the chromed souround better than on most badges.

I think W.O. summed it up best wtih the quote along the line of 'huge mass propelled by immense amounts of torque".

Uttterly amazing to drive, the power is there and the car never feels stressed (didn't floor it). It is amazingly quiet and smooth, I glanced at the speedo as the scenery was rushing at me down some back streets and thought the car feels very composed but it looks faster than 70 (50 zone) then it clicked that the outer rim of the speedo was calibrated in mph rather than kph!

[GrimaH]

What's the special treatment for? It's just as drivable as a BMW or Mercedes.

[silverhawk]

my dad has driven a bentley. i was on the front passenger seat. the interior was incredible. ive also sat in a maybach 62, phantom & cont. GT. they each have very luxurious interiors that cannot be compared with ordinary luxury sedans like the S-class, 7 series & jaguar XJ.

[Cyco]

What's the special treatment for? It's just as drivable as a BMW or Mercedes.

The torque at low revs (Arnage T 875Nm@ 3250rpm) gives the very heavy car amazingly quick acceleration, without it feeling strained. The weight also give the body lots of inertia, so expansion joints, potholes and the like disappear with it being barley audible. The car also has the ability to to be thrown about and keep its poise, something no other car of its type can match (Havnt driven an Maybach for myself yet). The MBs and BMWs have to be screaming to keep up - and for this sort of car thats loud and uncouth.

The finish is superb, it make a Mercedes or BMW feel cheap and tacky. Things like the wood grain vast perfectly polished expances in the Bentley, small almost an after thought in a MB. There is also the ability to make it "your" car - will MB give you an extra 400mm in the back if you want it? With a larger D pillar for extra privacy? Will BMW match you leather colour to your (or your wife/girlfriend/significant others) nail polish while matching any paint colour you like?

Take one for a drive - it's the only way to truly find out.

[QuattroMan]

What's the special treatment for? It's just as drivable as a BMW or Mercedes.


what do you mean dude!!!!! this car is the mother of all cars... :D

i meant to say dude and not dud..... :D

[cuntukimushroom]

whaoh!!! :eek:

[Misho]

interesting facts silverhawk. a very enjoyable read. +1

[junaman]

I heard somewhere that 26 different animals are used in the production of each Rolls Royce Phantom!!!!! :)

[junaman]

Thought id post this here too... A taste of the competition

(from Rolls-Royce Press Release) While to a high degree machines have replaced people in conventional automotive manufacturing, the finest quality work and detailing can only be achieved by hand. However machines have the advantage over traditional hand building in their consistency and precision. Combine the two though – hand-built quality with the intelligent assistance and quality assurance of the latest technology – and it is possible to produce a hand-built car that is right first time, every time. This is one of the things which makes the Rolls-Royce Phantom such a special motor car.
Aluminum Space Frame

The Phantom’s aluminium space frame is the largest of its kind ever built for automotive use. Made up of more than 200 extruded aluminium profiles and 300 sheet parts, it combines low weight with extreme strength. The whole bodyshell weighs just 550 kg yet has a torsional rigidity of more than 40,000 Nm/degree – making it at least twice as stiff as any previous Rolls-Royce.

Each frame has 120 metres of welds at over 2,000 separate points, every one completed by hand. The weld at the rear C pillar alone is almost 2 feet long. The expertise of the highly specialised team, based at Dingolfing, combined with state-of-the-art measuring equipment means that the entire body is constructed to within a plus / minus tolerance of just 0.1mm (0.004in). This level of accuracy allows the coach doors, for example, to clear each other by just 2.7 mm.

Driveline

The driveline of the new Phantom is unique to Rolls-Royce, delivering all the virtues and traditional characteristics of a Rolls-Royce engine, and making use of the latest engineering technology. A Rolls-Royce motor car has a specific type of performance which has been referred to as “waftability“. This means a powerful performance without apparent effort or disturbance to the driver and passengers. To deliver this the power unit needs to produce tremendous levels of torque, extremely smoothly, whatever the engine speed, but especially at low revs.

Each engine is hand-built by a team of specialists based in Munich, in the same facility where the BMW M Series engines are produced. Hand-building means that every component can be selected and assembled by some of the most skilled power train engineers in the world. The result is an exceptional engine which has been specifically designed for Rolls-Royce to give exactly the correct power characteristics – quite different to those required for a BMW. It is unique to the marque.

This lightweight, normally aspirated, 6.75 litre V12 engine develops its peak torque of 720 Nm (531 lb ft) at 3500 rpm – an impressive figure. More impressive still, is that 78 per cent of this (or 560 Nm) is produced at just 1000rpm – fractionally above tick over. This makes for smooth, effortless and extremely rapid acceleration from a standstill. The sprint to 60 mph takes 5.7 seconds (0-100 kph in 5.9 seconds).

Lying within the engine is the very latest technology, including direct injection, variable valve timing and variable valve lift – the latter which removes the need for throttle butterflies and their accompanying efficiency losses. The result is an engine which is not only powerful, but also extremely fuel efficient, returning 25.7 mpg (11.0 l/100 km) on the extra urban cycle and a combined figure of 17.8 mpg (15.9 l/100 km) – remarkable figures for a motor car of this size and performance.

Wood Veneers

About six times a year, the manager of the interior wood trim meets the supplier – the only one of its kind in England – to select personally the veneers for the Phantom. This painstaking process ensures that the highest quality veneers of the correct colour and grain characteristics are chosen.

The woodshop team has been carefully selected too and comes from a variety of backgrounds. Each member brings specialist skills to the team - true craft skills, like musical instrument making, the construction of fine furniture and cabinet work, and also from the fitting of luxury yachts. Intensive training allows them to turn these skills to the production of Rolls-Royce motor cars.

Throughout the new Phantom, wood take an architectural form, not merely an ornamental one. Each of the 60 separate panels is constructed of a core wood and an aluminium substrate of up to 40 layers. This lengthy process helps deliver the best crashworthiness properties and means that the wood parts are not simply veneers glued to aluminum or plastic.

The craftsmen hand select the veneers to apply to each panel. A complete “wood set” of matching and complementary veneers is constructed to give each individual motor car its own special character. The wood grain is bookmatched on each panel – the right and left grain structures are mirror images of each other. More elaborate woodwork to a customer’s specificiation is also possible. The effect is aesthetically pleasing and demonstrates the meticulous attention to detail that is essential for Rolls-Royce.

Leatherwork

The hides used in the new Phantom come only from carefully controlled breeders. Hides are sourced from mature bulls that have been breed for their meat, producing leather as a by-product. The animals are kept in conditions as close to their natural habitat as possible.

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars uses a newly developed colouring process whereby the dye permeates through the depth of the hide. This produces a supremely soft, natural finish that will not fade or crack. Conventional methods require the final colour to be painted on to the surface before being covered with a clear lacquer. This can produce shrinkage and creaking as the leather moves and can eventually lead to a cracked appearance.

Between 15 and 18 hides are used in each motor car and each one is checked by hand for blemishes before laser equipment is used to assist in laying out the pattern pieces. The interior of the Phantom is made up of 450 pieces of leather, which are cut by a computer-guided knife. The individual panels are sewn together by a highly experienced team before the completed parts are fitted to the interior panels on custom built jigs. Ergonomically designed to allow the optimum working angles, the jigs have continually running vacuums to extract any fumes.