Bentley Mulsanne Sedan. 2nd generation, 2016 facelift
Bentley Mulsanne is an executive-class luxury sedan vehicle manufactured by the British company Bentley Motors since 1980. In 2020 the Israel market offered 2016 restyled versions of the second and last generation vehicles. In the spring of 2020, the production of Mulsanne vehicles was discontinued.
The 4-door and 4-seat sedan of the 2016/2017 model year has the following measurements: 5575 mm in length, 1926 mm in width, and 3266 mm in the wheelbase area. The ride height is 140 mm. The long-wheelbase Mulsanne EWB model is 25 cm longer than the standard one.
Exterior
The new Bentley Mulsanne has become more contemporary as well as more aggressive in design. The hood of the car is now slightly raised above the level of the car fenders, with a silver company logo on top of it – a feature borrowed from Mercedes and Rolls-Royce vehicles. In the front of the car, there are round LED headlights consisting of two elements – one big and one smaller headlight, with a ‘Bentley’ logo written inside the bigger ones. The rectangular chrome-trimmed radiator grille is now equipped with vertical slats, with chrome-trimmed air inlets and fog lights placed underneath it on each side. The front part of the car has also received larger wheel arches with sloping lines, with mounted side mirrors giving it a bit of a sports car look. There are also logo-shaped chrome-trimmed side vents on both sides of the vehicle, with moldings coming out of them wrapping around both the sides of the car as well as its rear part. All window frames are made of aluminum.
The rear part of the car has also received vertical taillights - a trademark of all Bentley vehicles – divided into two sections. The trunk lid has been raised a little, too, with a chrome trim placed at the bottom of it. Underneath the bumper, there are two narrow oval-shaped exhaust nozzles.
Interior
The passenger compartment of the new Bentley Mulsanne 2019/2020 is equipped with multicolored leather trim with different types of stitching, as well as various wooden and aluminum details. The main advantage of the vehicle is its great level of comfort. The front power seats offer massage, heating, and ventilation options. The seats themselves are extremely soft and comfortable to use, too, with plenty of legroom in front of them. As for the back seats, they offer even more legroom, especially in the long-wheelbase cars.
The rear seat area of the long-wheelbase Mulsanne EWB vehicles consists of two separate seats and one armrest situated between them which is also equipped with a cooling cup holder as well as champagne glass holders, multimedia control knobs, power seat control buttons, and many other useful devices. Integrated into the back of the front seats are retractable 10.4-inch multimedia entertainment screens, as well as foldable laptop tables.
The driver seat space is equipped with a 4-spoke leather-wrapped steering wheel with power steering and heating options. On both sides of the steering wheel, there are shiny on-board computer control buttons. The integrated instrument cluster is combined into one with the car dashboard, with the analog speedometer and tachometer just built into the wooden dashboard detail. Placed in the center of the dashboard there is an on-board computer display. All control instruments are chrome-trimmed.
The center console is equipped with an 8-inch multimedia navigation system screen, with round chrome-trimmed air vents with automatic temperature control function placed on both sides of it. Underneath there are three round sensors including a low fuel sensor, a clock, and an oil pressure sensor. At the bottom of the instrument cluster, there are two modules joined together – the top one is a climate control module equipped with multiple displays and control buttons, and the bottom one is the standard sound system control module. On the central tunnel, there is a classic Bentley gear shifter with a variety of different control buttons around it including safe mode control, camera control, stability control, etc. Underneath it, there is a traffic condition selector and the engine starter button.
Modifications
All Bentley Mulsanne 2020 vehicles are equipped with a 6.8-liter twin-turbocharged V8 gasoline motor offered in two power capacity options:
- The engine of the standard model –with 2 valves per cylinder – has a power capacity of 512 hp and torque of 1020 Nm;
- The engine of the Speed model – with 4 valves per cylinder – has a power capacity of 537 hp and a torque of 1100 Nm.
Both motors are equipped with a variable timing control system as well as a cylinder deactivation system allowing to deactivate half of the cylinders for lower fuel consumption. When driving at regular speed, only one-half of the cylinders are working, thus allowing you to limit the fuel consumption of the car. The vehicle weighs more than 2.5 tons, it’s 0 to 100 km/h time being only 5 seconds, and its maximum speed – more than 300 km/h. The engine is also equipped with an 8-speed automatic gearbox which places all the transmission linkage exclusively onto the rear wheels.
The chassis of the vehicle is equipped with two propulsion control levelers at the front and a group of levelers at the back. Both axles of the new Bentley Mulsanne are also supplied with air cylinders as well as antiroll bars and adaptive dampers with a damper stiffness control option. The disc brake system is equipped with ventilated brake discs for both front and rear wheels. The front discs are bigger – with a diameter of 400 mm - and the rear ones are 370 mm. The brakes themselves are also equipped with lots of different electronic controls to ensure the best braking performance.
