Just How Grand? The Bentley Mulsanne

Like fishermen beholding a great catch.

By Gunnar Heinrich | IMG Bentley Motors

WHATto make of Crewe’s new Mulsanne recently unveiled at Pebble Beach?

There’s much for there’s much car to behold!

Imposing and regal, the Arnage successor and the noble chariot that carries on the name – “Mulsanne” – first bestowed upon a rally car in the 1930s and then again on a rebadged Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit in the 1980s, is the next “Grand Bentley”.

The new, full-size sedan confirms that Bentley still operates in the upper echelon of the super- luxury market and ready to level with rival Rolls-Royce.

The car does, however, look slightly odd by some angles.

There’s more than a hint of Arthur C. Clarke to those projector beam phaser headlights and just a tad too much Christopher E. Bangle in those flame surfaced flanks.

There are still pearls that the ancien regime can appreciate, however.

For instance, those fat, diagonally reclining C-Pillars which handily hide rear occupants from the paparazzi and descend smoothly into the rear wheel well flanks – separate from the boot line – and finalize into the taillights are classic pre-war and immediate post-war Rolls-Royce/Bentley.

You’ll note that the Queen’s limo features rather similar hindquarters.

Then there’s the iridescent quality to the paint finish. Lustrous and true to Crewe standards of multi-faceted brilliance, it’s never the same color at any one angle but rather a symphonic melody that surprises and pleases in equal share.

That said, I can’t tell whether those large “eyes” and that open gaped front air dam remind me more of a basking shark or a whale shark. In either event, the Mulsanne carries a slightly cartoonish presence that put its under the same kind of scrutiny that Rolls-Royce has received since the Phantom’s debut in 2003.

It’s difficult to follow on a predecessor so breathtakingly elegant and delightfully grand as the Arnage. Nevertheless, the Mulsanne for model year 2010, is the next step firmly planted in the correct direction.