Lap of luxury
Above: .
Above: The Bentley Arnage
Above: .
Above: Sheer opulence inside
As you might have noticed, taking up a lot of space in the middle of this issue is the Kent Life Rich List. Heading up that list is Mr Peter Cullum, currently sporting a net worth of a little under £2bn. Impressive stuff, but what should he be driving?
Armed with that kind of cash, there is nothing with four wheels on this earth that’s out of reach, and while it’s easy to splash silly money on temperamental rare classics and such like, I reckon the car you see here would be a good place to start.
This is a Bentley Arnage, and it’s built, if I remember rightly, on the slowest-moving production line in the world. It’s also big. Not a bit big, but very big. It’s more than five metres long and even with the mirrors folded in, nearly two metres wide.
A smart move
It’s not exactly light either – the Arnage weighs in at a not inconsiderable three tons. While we were shooting this car we had to move a Smart car out of shot, and somebody suggested putting it in the boot of the Arnage. I don’t think he was joking.
The imposing styling hasn’t really changed since its introduction in 1998. Looking like it was created with a complete disregard for aerodynamics, from its massive square radiator to the tapering boot it is unapologetically stately.
It is though, a strangely compelling shape. Even the most talented car designer would be hard pressed to make a three-ton car look lean, and it’s appropriate that Bentley hasn’t bothered; from all angles the Arnage is an arresting sight.
With all this weight, you’ll be needing quite an engine to heft it around, then. Happily, under the bonnet lies a 6.75-litre V8 with two turbochargers, and it’s quite a piece of machinery.
Heart of iron
The heart of this car began in 1959, when the all-aluminuim Rolls Royce/Bentley V8 replaced the ageing six-cylinder powertrain. It was designed to fit in the same space, and fit behind the same radiator, but be more powerful. Quite a challenge then, and little did they know that the resulting engine would still be in production today, enlarged slightly but essentially barely changed.
When the Arnage was introduced it was powered by BMW engines, but in late 1999 the Arnage Red Label was launched, partly due to customer demand and partly due to the fact that Volkswagen, owners of the Bentley brand, were loathe to keep purchasing engines from BMW. The Red Label boasted the classic V8, and the BMW-powered Arnage was history.
The two pushrod-operated valves per cylinder make for a low-revving characteristic, but there’s enough torque there to push that square front through the air at 179mph, and it’s comforting to know that you’re being motored along by something with some history and provenance. It just feels right.
The result of putting your foot down in an Arnage is an experience verging on biblical
Fire it up and you’re greeted with a comfortable but lazy woofling sound. It’s classic V8 and it’s never intrusive, just burbling away patiently infront of you as you potter effortlessly around town. Open the taps though, and you’re in for a surprise - there are planets smaller than the Arnage, and yet the result of putting your foot down is an experience verging on biblical.
The monstrous V8 wakes up and, snorting air through two Mitsubishi turbochargers and fuel, I assume, through something like a fire hose, slingshots this stately home on wheels to 60mph in a distinctly un-stately 5.2 seconds. Soon after you’ll be doing 100, and, lifting off the throttle, the roar settles to a gentle thrumming and you’re cruising in silence, sweeping aside other road users with the sort of imperious manner usually reserved for monarchy.
Accelerating in an Arnage really plays tricks on your mind. You know it is several tons of iron, tree and cow, and that it really shouldn’t be capable of much more than a sedate cruise. That it can shame a Lotus Elise from a standing start is nothing short of astonishing, and it flies in the face of everything you learned in physics at school.
Green, it isn't...
Unfortunately, despite the fact that the big V8 now emits 99 per cent less toxic gas than it did in 1959, it’s still not going to have Greenpeace thanking you for your help.
Expect around 14mpg as an average, unless you’re going to be doing a lot of town driving, when it will drop to under ten, no matter how light of foot you are.
Still, while you’re sitting traffic, wondering where the nearest petrol station is, you will receive some admiring glances. There is a special kind of disdain people reserve for the drivers of some cars – BMW and Porsche drivers suffer the brunt of this, but somehow a big Bentley just commands respect – they always have.
Some years ago, I was blinded on a gloomy day on the outside lane of the M25, and in my mirrors, at least six inches away from my rear bumper, all I could make out was four headlights, all ablaze, and two Kenlowe fans turning lazily behind a massive radiator grille. I pulled over as soon as I could in the knowledge that the driver of this Bentley was on his way to somewhere important, but I didn’t resent him for nearly stuffing his car into my boot. If it had been a Porsche I’d have hated him for the rest of my life. You get the point; there’s something about a Bentley that people just appreciate.
You can’t help but smile at the sheer opulence of your surroundings
Inside the Arnage is another world. Pull open the hefty doors, and you’re greeted by the smell of leather wafting from within. Slide behind the wheel and the first thing you feel compelled to do is take off your shoes and bury your foot in the thick carpet. It’s beautifully finished, from the chrome switches to the hand-stitched leather, and commands a sense of occasion second to none. Looking out across the vast acreage of bonnet is quite a view, and you can’t help but smile at the sheer opulence of your surroundings.
Obviously you want one, but to acquire an Arnage, you have to go through the procedure of ordering, and buying an Arnage is not simple.
The basic car will set you back around £175,000, and then you need to hand it over to Mulliner, Bentley’s in-house personalising service.
Fridge, anyone?
Mulliner is capable of adding anything from a refrigerated Champagne cooler to designing a whole new coachbuilt body for your Bentley, and everything in between. You choose the leather, the stitching, the colour of the lambswool carpet, the headlining you want, the type of wood on the dash, and whether you’d like something inlaid into it. Outside, you must choose from 40 exterior paint colours and seven two-tone options, and then four options of strip running down the side. Wheels need to be specified, you need to decide on what sort of badge you want on the front and then you get to the fun bit – the interior appointments. From silk curtains and DVD systems to picnic tables and cocktail compartments, the list ends at your imagination. Or bank balance, whichever comes first. Really, if you’re a naturally indecisive person, don’t buy an Arnage. There isn’t enough time.
So you might be wondering why you should buy one. It is, after all’s said and done, a very expensive car. For much less money you could have a Mercedes S600, but allow me to explain why it’s worth spending the extra £70,000 on a Crewe-built Bentley.
When you’ve finally selected the type of wood you’d like on the dashboard of your Arnage, it will take a man at Bentley two weeks just to prepare it. Then, several days later, the five layers of lacquer required to make it shine properly will have been applied, and the dashboard is ready to be part of your car. The end result is one of the finest pieces of craftsmanship you’ll ever see, and it’s almost a pity that it’s going in your car instead of in your house, where you could show it to everybody.
A painstaking build
This is repeated in every facet of the Arnage. The leather, the paintwork, the hand-built engine – it’s all done to a painstakingly high level of attention.
The Arnage is undoubtedly a motoring anachronism. There are cheaper cars that do the job just as well, and there are other Bentley’s too, but the Continental has been bought by too many premiership footballers, and the Flying Spur is just too ‘new money’.
None has quite the cache, the presence or the sense of occasion that the Arnage does, and while it may be big, thirsty and from another era, for many it’s still the only true Bentley.
Bentley Arnage
ENGINE: 6.75 litre V8
PERFORMANCE: 0-60 5.2sec, 179mph
ECONOMY: 14mpg (combined)
PRICE: From £175,000
WE LIKE: Imposing stature and provenance
WE DON'T LIKE: Not being able to afford one
VERDICT: The last eccentrically British Bentley