New Bentley Continental V8 Range Revealed, will Debut at the Detroit Motor Show

Bentley today unveiled its new Continental V8 range powered by the VW Group's new 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine. The new powerplant will power both the Continental GT coupe and its GTC convertible sibling, which will receive their world debut at the Detroit Motor Show on January 9.

This is the first time Bentley has put a V8 engine under the hood of the Continental: since 2003, when the first generation of the grand touring coupe entered production, the sole engine choice was the twin turbocharged 6.0-liter W12, which remains the flagship of the Continental engine range.

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Bentley Teases the Sounds of its New 4.0-liter Turbocharged V8

It's been known for over a year now that Bentley is planning to supplement the range of its Continental series with a brand new twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 engine sourced, of course, from the Volkswagen Group's vast parts bin.

While Bentley remains tight lipped on the details, today, the British carmaker released the first teaser video of a Continental GT coupe fitted with the base V8 powerplant that is currently shared with the Audi S6, S7 and S8 models.

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Saudi Edition: Bentley Continental Flying Spur Grounded in Sand

As it turns out, despite their advanced all-wheel drive system, Bentley's luxury limousines and coupes aren't very good when it comes to off-road activities. Who would have known!

We saw it last year when a blissfully unaware owner of a Continental GT Coupe got bogged down in tons of mud in Russia (see the epic video clip here), and we're seeing it now with this Saudi Arabian owner of a Continental Flying Spur sedan who had some troubles conquering the desert sands. Wonder why...

For some amusing footage, follow the break to watch the videos for yourself.

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Buy a Bentley Continental Convertible ISR, Get a Breitling Limited Edition Chronograph for Free

Many people that are into premium cars are also into expensive watches, which is only natural since the finest examples of both serve more than just a utilitarian role.

A Bentley and a Lada can both take you from point A to point B. In much the same way, a 10 dollar watch can tell you the time in exactly the same way as a Rolex or a Breitling.

So if you’re looking just for transportation and knowing what time it is, pass on the Bentley and the Breitling and save yourself enough money to buy a house.

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Bentley Launches Redesigned Continental GTC in Los Angeles, Priced from $212,800

As Bentley is on track for a new annual record of 7,000 sales, the U.S. continues to be the number one market for its open top models, accounting for almost half of Bentley convertible worldwide sales.

And in the whole of the U.S., California and more specifically its southern part, is the place to go if you want to see a convertible Bentley. Therefore it makes perfect sense to choose the LA Auto Show for the new Continental GTC's North American debut.

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Bentley Launches Mulliner Styling Pack for Continental GT

Bentley’s new Continental GT is, without question, a coupe with imposing road presence. But the British firm wishes to offer its customers the opportunity to make their cars even more unique by launching a range of styling options named Mulliner Styling Specification Classic Pack.

This styling package consists of a front splitter, strakes integrated in the front intake grilles, side extension blades and a rear diffuser, all made from glossy black carbon-fibre.

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Investigators Uncover Multi-Million Pound Tax Scam in India; European Exotics, Foreign Diplomats and Bollywood Actors Involved

In what sounds more like the plot of a The Fast and the Furious movie than real life, investigators at India’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence office (a.k.a. India’s IRS) have uncovered a massive exotic car smuggling operation in the nation’s capital of New Dehli. It all has to do with India’s notorious 100% import tax on new luxury vehicles.

It began with one New Dehli luxury car dealer, Sumit Walia, importing brand new luxury cars on forged invoices. These invoices listed the cars as second-hand, which saved Walia – and his customers – some 40% on import tax. Some of the cars – which included Porsches, Bentleys and Aston Martins – were found to have been stolen from the streets of Britain, France, Singapore and Japan.

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Take that Goodwood: Vilner’s Mini Cooper S Inspired by Bentley

The BMW Group’s decision to launch a new posh version of the Mini hatch called “Mini Inspired by Goodwood” motivated Bulgarian design studio Vilner to develop its own luxed-up variant of the British supermini. However, while the Goodwood model received the Rolls Royce touch, Vilner’s proposal tries to emulate a Bentley – at least in the interior.

Even though Vilner has baptized the car “The Italian Job” as homage to the famous movie, for obvious reasons, a more appropriate name would have been “Mini Inspired by Crewe”. The Bulgarian company has dressed the Mini hatchback’s interior with fine materials such as brown Nappa leather and Alcantara, with parts of the seats, door panels, dashboard and roof lining featuring a diamond shape theme. In addition, the doors have gained elements of black leather while the original plastic was re-sprayed in a sparkling gray finish.

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China Becomes Bentley's No. 2 Market after Record Breaking Q1 Sales

Bentley Motors sold 396 cars in Mainland China (excluding Hong Kong and Macau) in the first four months of 2011, an all-time record result for the Asian market. With this number, Bentley broke its previous record set just last year, by an amazing 66 percent increase in sales.

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SCOOP: 2012 Bentley Continental GTC Convertible Facelift Spotted Testing at the Nurburgring

We knew that Bentley was working on a revised version of its Continental GTC drop-top model after the introduction of the facelifted Continental GT coupe, and these fresh-from-the-Nurburgring spy shots are here to prove it.

Following the example of its coupe sibling that was unveiled in facelifted form at last year’s Paris Motor Show, the 2012 Conti convertible receives a styling makeover. The changes include newly shaped body panels all around and a more prominent front end with Mulsanne-inspired quad headlamps featuring inner lamps powered by xenon on low beam and LED on high beam.

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2010 Goodwood Festival: Bentley Continental Supersports Convertible

The new Bentley Continental Supersports Convertible made its official public driving debut this past weekend at the 2010 Goodwood Festival of Speed. The British firm's fastest ever topless model, which comes with a 630HP W12 turbocharged flex-fuel engine is capable of a top speed of 202mph (325 km/h) and a 0-60mph (96 km/h) sprint time of 3.9 seconds, was piloted throughout the weekend by honorary 'Bentley Boy' Derek Bell. Full picture gallery from the event right after the jump.

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New Video and Photo Gallery of 2011 Bentley Continental Supersports Convertible

Bentley has dropped a new batch of images and driving footage (strangely enough, audio-less) of the new Continental Supersports Convertible shot on location in Colorado.

Unwrapped at this year's Geneva Motor Show in March, the soft-top version of the E85-compatible Continental Supersports coupé is said to be fastest convertible ever to roll out of Crewe's factory going from zero to 60mph in 3.9 seconds and topping out at 202mph (325km/h).

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Ouch... Bentley Continental GT Bogged Down in Mud Bath [with Video]

There are some things you just don't do with a $250,000 luxury sports car; for example, you do not attempt to plow through a farm road full of mud as if you were driving a John Deer tractor.

Unfortunately, the Russian owner of this Bentley Continental GT learned his lesson the hard, costly -and worst of all- hugely embarrassing way.

Complete photo gallery and a rather entertaining video of the Bentley and the amazing jumping mud-man who didn't care less about the fate of the British GT, or anything else, for that matter, [you'll see what we mean...] after the jump.

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Fantasia: Bugatti EB1.2 TSI and Bentley Continental Super Mini

While we sincerely hope that no other supercar maker will ever follow in the degrading footsteps of Aston Martin and it's luxed-up Toyota iQ, the Cygnet, we have no problem whatsoever with photoshop artists attempting to imagine the impossible.

In this case a pair of Bugatti and Bentley superminis, both of which would, in theory, be based on the VW Group's Polo, Ibiza or Fabia hatchbacks. The two designs were created by Autoblog.nl reader Jasper van der Heiden. Check them out after the jump.

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Is Bentley Considering a Shooting Brake Model?

Car and Driver had a chance to sit down with VW board member Stuart McCullough. In regards to future Bentley models, he said, "We have an idea in the back of our minds that we may yet bring to market."

Of course, this immediately led to whisperings and theories of a possible Continental Shooting Brake like Carozzeria Touring Superleggera's Flying Star (see here) that was revealed at this year's edition of the Geneva Motor Show.

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