The elegance of a 2007 Bentley Arnage revealed.
Driving a brand new car feels like driving around in an open billfold with the dollars flapping by your ears as they fly out the window, more than ever if the car’s name was Bentley Arnage…have what you desire, buy Bentley Arnage.
The Bentley Arnage is a large luxury car produced by Bentley Motors in Crewe, England from 1998 to 2009. The Arnage, and its Rolls-Royce-branded sibling, the Silver Seraph, were introduced in the spring of 1998, and were the first entirely new designs for the two marques since 1980.
Another break from the past was to be found under the bonnet, for decades, home to the same 6.75 liter V8 engine, a power plant which could trace its roots back to the 1950s. The new Arnage was to be powered by a BMW V8 engine, with Cosworth-engineered twin-turbo installation, and the Seraph was to employ a BMW V12 engine. The Arnage is over 5 metres (197 in) long, 1.9 metres (75 in) wide, and has a kerb weight of more than 2.5 metric tonnes. For a brief period it was the most powerful and fastest four-door saloon on the market. In September 2008, Bentley announced that production of the model will cease during 2009. Following the uplift in sales for all of Rolls-Royce, and resurgence of the Bentley Marque, the then-owner, Vickers, set about preparing a new model to replace the derivatives of the Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit/Bentley Mulsanne which it had been selling since 1980. In a complete switch from tradition, these new cars would have bodies built at the Crewe factory, with its internal combustion engines built elsewhere
The rear interior of a Bentley Arnage.
A number of potential engines were examined, including the GM Premium V engine, and a Mercedes-Benz V8 engine, before Vickers selected a pair of BMW power plants. It was decided that the Rolls-Royce model, to be called the Silver Seraph, would use BMW’s naturally-aspiratedV12 engine while the more-sporting Bentley model would use a special twin-turbo version of the 4.4 liter BMW V8, which was developed by Vickers subsidiary, Cosworth Engineering. On its introduction in the spring of 1998, the Arnage was available as a single model with this 4,398 cubic centimeters (268.4 cu in) BMW V8 engine, with twin turbochargers, developing some 354 metric horsepower (260 kW; 349 bhp). The basic BMW V8 Arnage was renamed the Arnage Green Label in 2000, its last model year. Standard features include a navigation system with voice recognition, air conditioning with 4-zone climate controls, massaging front seats, heated and cooled front and rear seats, power front seats with lumbar adjustment, power tilt/telescopic heated wood/leather-wrapped multi-function steering wheel with radio, climate, and navigation controls, power lift gate, premium sound system, remote engine start, power rear sunshade, rear-seat DVD entertainment system, and 8-disc CD changer. Optional features included massaging rear seats, power rear seats, heated and cooled cup holders, door-closing assist, and power sunroof.
The length of a Bentley Arnage Limousine.
The Bentley Arnage Final Series Dies with a Bang, Not a Whimper for 10 years the Bentley Arnage has been the very epitome of the high class performance luxury sedan. Long, broad and heavy, the Arnage series has still managed to provide some open-road thrills for those who can afford a Rolls-Royce but would prefer to drive themselves. As Bentley has moved toward sleeker, trimmer luxury cars that trade a little heritage in the name of modern styling, the Arnage has become a bit of an orphan. Still, there will be those Bentley customers who are up crying at night, sad to see the Arnage go, especially in its potent twin-turbocharged Arnage T iteration.
To give the Arnage line a sendoff appropriate to a car costing multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars, Bentley has just announced the 2009 Bentley Arnage Final Series, a special edition Arnage limited to 150 units that epitomizes everything that has made the Arnage line a success despite its stratospheric price tag, so buy now. Buy Bentley Arnage.
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