Bentley Brooklands : HANDMADE HERO

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Bentleys aren't like other cars and the Bentley Brooklands Coupe isn't like other coupes. Steve Walker reportsâ€¦

`The world's most exclusive coupe'. It's a big claim but the Bentley Brooklands has the opulence and class to back it up. It may not look like a sportscar but that 6.75-litre twin-turbo V8 delivers acceleration that will keep supercars honest.

It's Friday afternoon and you've just completed a week's grouse shooting in the Scottish boarders. The grand scheme is for you and your old school chums Bertie and Tarquin to overnight at your Mayfair apartment before popping across the channel and heading down to the Riviera where your 180 footer is moored in Monaco harbour. Then it's a few days of pink gins and chasing heiresses around the Baccarat tables of Monte Carlo and St Tropez. It sounds positively spiffing and daddy's loaned you the perfect car for the jaunt, his Bentley Brooklands. When you've got a continent to cross, a bottomless bank account and a highly refined taste in motorcars, your choice of wheels isn't as straightforward as many people might imagine. A luxury saloon is a bit business-like for your leisure time and the various big money supercars don't major on practicality. You'd never get the golf clubs in a Ferrari let alone that third passenger and the case of Krug Clos du Mesnil 1995 that mother asked you to bring back. There aren't that many cars that could do the job while keeping their occupants in the manner to which they've become accustomed, so Bentley obviously saw it as their duty to step back into the breach with the Brooklands - a rakish luxury four-seater that's being touted as the world's most exclusive coupe. Unveiled at the 2007 Geneva motor show, the Brooklands signalled Bentley's return to the super premium coupe sector if you can call it a sector. At the kind of money that the Brooklands commands, it has few, if any, direct rivals and with sales strictly limited to 550 vehicles across the entire lifespan of the car, it won't be troubling the top superminis and family hatchbacks of the day in the sales charts. The whole point of this car is quality and exclusivity. Each one is hand-built by craftsmen employing skills they've honed over years precisely manipulating wood, leather and metal in Bentley's Crewe-based production facility. It's named Brooklands after the legendary Surrey racetrack where the marque achieved some of its greatest motorsport triumphs in the 1920s with the famous `Bentley Boys' at the wheel. It's more than just a name too: there's definitely something of that era in the aura around the Brooklands.

"The whole point of this car is quality and exclusivityâ€¦.

Power for the big Bentley comes from the 6.75-litre V8 that can trace its development all the way back to 1959 and its first installation in the S2 saloon. In its day, it was a highly advanced unit will all-aluminium construction and a five-bearing crankshaft but it's less high-tech by modern standards. That should matter little, however, since with twin low-inertia turbochargers installed and a reprofiled camshaft, it's not lacking in old-school grunt. The crushing low-end torque that has become a Bentley trademark over the years is all present and correct with a monstrous 1050Nm maximum being generated. There's 530bhp to experience as well so Brooklands owners can expect prodigious in-gear acceleration combined with brutal top end performance all delivered with poise and an eerie hush inside the cabin. The Brooklands uses a six-speed torque converter automatic transmission with a semi-automatic function and features ESP stability control to reign-in any over-enthusiastic drivers before they get carried away. Fuel economy is likely to be absolutely crippling but that kind of expenditure is a mere drop in the ocean for the average Brooklands customer. The Brooklands keeps it very traditional on the styling front with classic proportions and a long, elegant shape. In profile, the short front overhang and long drawn-out rear are highlighted while the front end is typical Bentley with the twin headlamps and the unmistakable grille. The car's waistline is kept high and the glasshouse low to emphasise this coupe's dynamic side but the overriding impression is of the car's presence and sheer size. The roof flows beautifully into the wide C-pillars and down into the bootlid with one flowing movement, a feature that can only be achieved by individually hand-welding the rear wings to the C-pillars - an indication of how far Bentley will go to achieve the desired effect. Then the whole package is topped off with a set of 20-inch wheels with huge flat centre sections. Inside, the Brooklands is similarly impressive with the finest materials and hand-finished touches at every turn. Customers are presented with a vast range of carpets, leather types, veneers and seatbelt colours so they can have their vehicle produced to their specifications. This is a Coupe and there are racy touches including the aluminium pedals but nothing comes close to breaking with the general ambience of refinement and class. Most of us will never see a Bentley Brooklands let alone own one but cars like this show us just how much is possible. They operate on a different plain from the rest of the motoring world and are judged by different standards but you've got to appreciate the work that goes into producing a motorcar of this quality. The traditional styling won't be to everyone's taste but that's the point. This is a Bentley and even under Volkswagen's stewardship, the brand remains all about heritage, Britishness and that understated elegance. With the Brooklands, we can see that the famous Crewe firm remains firmly in touch with its roots.

Facts At A Glance
CAR: Bentley Brooklands
PRICE: £230,000 - on the road
INSURANCE GROUP: 20
CO2 EMISSIONS: 465g/km
PERFORMANCE: Max Speed 184mph / 0-60mph 5s
FUEL CONSUMPTION: (combined) 14.5mpg
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front and side airbags, ABS, ESP
WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: Length/Width/Height mm 5411/2078/1473