More than 100 000 units were built at Crewe, but production will stop on 24 April 2024.
By Rubin van Niekerk
Only 18 examples of the most powerful Bentley Batur will be handcrafted by Mulliner and have sold out. It has 750 horses and 1000Nm under the bonnet and is completing durability testing currently. All 30 W12 manufacturing staff will be retrained and used in other divisions of Bentley. The W12 engine line will be replaced by the V8 and V6 Hybrid which both offer exceptional performance.
Bentley is accelerating towards a sustainable future through its Beyond100 strategy, which will see the company’s entire model line fully electrified by the start of the next decade. This has begun with the popular new Bentayga and Flying Spur Hybrid models. When production of the W12 ceases next year, Bentley’s entire model line will be available with the option of a hybrid powertrain. Meanwhile, an engine first made available in the sector-defining Continental GT, which has been powering Bentley both metaphorically and literally for the last 20 years, will be consigned to history.
The uprated engine has proven to be as reliable as ever and so will equip the most powerful road-going Bentley ever built. While all Baturs are sold, a limited number of the 659 PS version of the W12 engine offered in the Speed versions of Continental GT, Bentayga, and Flying Spur, as well as the Continental GT Mulliner and Flying Spur Mulliner, can still be ordered. Demand for these final W12-powered Speed and Mulliner models is expected to be high, and customers eager to secure one of the last-ever 12-cylinder Bentleys should contact their retailer with equal speed. Batur Showcases the Ultimate collectable W12 Bentley.
Mulliner’s engineering team has reworked the intake, exhaust and cooling systems to liberate more power and torque than ever before. The turbocharger compressors are of a new design to improve efficiency, while the ducts that feed air to them are 33 percent larger – at
peak power, the new engine ingests more than a ton of
air (1050kg) per hour.
The legendary 6,0-litre twin-turbocharged W12, created in 2002, has evolved into the latest iteration of the W12 engine used across today’s current model range. The unique W-configuration means that the engine is 24 percent shorter than an equivalent V12, benefitting packaging and maximising usable cabin space.
Bentley’s Variable Displacement system shuts down half of the engine under defined conditions. Intake and exhaust valves, fuel injection and ignition, are all shut down on defined cylinders, with the engine running as a six-cylinder for improved efficiency. This brilliant system will run in this mode in gears three to eight, below 3000rpm and up to 300Nm torque output.
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