"First, what do you think?” asks Kirsteen Campbell, creator of the new Bentley as I approach her with a few questions about her latest work.
This isn’t after getting out of the Flying Spur Speed Edition 12 that I had spent the day driving – one of the very last W12-powered Bentleys to leave the Crewe factory line as the famous old engine fast approaches retirement – but after having a taste of the latest Bentley.
For this is no normal Bentley but a whisky, and Campbell is no normal Bentley engineer but a master whisky maker. Don’t worry, you are still within the pages of Autocar and I will explain how we got here shortly.
Rather than Crewe, this story of the development of a new Bentley comes from the Macallan distillery in north-east Scotland, on the banks of the River Spey. It teamed up with the car maker to spend four years developing a whisky that’s supposed to taste like a Bentley.
Called Horizon, it has been through the longest development period of any Macallan whisky to date, and it’s priced like a Bentley road car is among its peers: £40,000.
Horizon arrives at a time when a Bentley legend is about to say goodbye. Allowed to mature for a little over 20 years, the W12 engine should just be coming into its prime, but alas emissions regulations and the onslaught of electrification have done for another multi-cylinder great. It is now in its final throes, not available in a built-to-order Bentley, but you should be able to pick one up from stock.
There’s no end date on production yet, but it’s a matter of weeks rather than months.
Introduced in the brand’s relaunch under Volkswagen Group ownership at the turn of the century, the W12 is the foundation on which the success of modern Bentley has been built.
It has always been a performance engine of a very different kind, one in which the torque figure means much more than the power figure, and its size is to ensure it operates with as little stress and as much refinement as possible. Its configuration helps with packaging too, making it about a quarter shorter than an equivalent V12.
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40,000 - that's disgusting. There are mothers and children being abused because there's "no money" to provide safe accommodation, but there's money for 40,000 whisky. Whoever buys this is trash.
You are hundertprocentig richtig.Another point is the Macallan whisky that's supposed to taste like a Bentley. It's a mistake for the connoisseur who will feel traces of petrol and motor oil tastes in the whisky. Psychology works.
You are hundertprocentig richtig.
ooops. Please advise how I erase or edit in Autocar. I can easily do it in any other magazine.