Bentley breaks into India with its top end Mulsanne and GTC Supersport. The British premium car industry, shall start widening their premium car sales in India and China, as the humpty list of millionaires wait for cars that costs crores, to enhance their status symbols.
Benley’s Mulsanne costs about just Rs.2.9 crore, so what it has for such a huge price? This space might not be enough for the list. Yes, the car’s 6.7 litre V8 petrol heart rated at 505 horsepower and a earth-reversing 752 pound-feet of torque, which derives at mere 1,800 rpm, a touch of feet on accelerator will make you fly. It’s a rear-wheel drive with shifts handled by a paddle-shifted eight-speed automatic, like the one in WRC cars.
Mulsanne rides on an all-new chassis, and features a range of driving kinetics context for its air suspension system.Mulsanne is a mammoth too, at 219 inches long (that’s 18.25 feet), 75.8 inches wide, 60 inches tall and curls gravity in its neck of the woods to the tune of 5,700 pounds, not even BMW and Benz could stand on it’s immenze size.
The Mulsanne is a home theatre on wheels, domiciliates some of the highest-tech audio and entertainment systems available, with a 14-speaker audio system standard, or an upgraded Naim unit rated at 2,200 watts with 20 custom-made speakers and eight dedicated DSP modes. USB, Bluetooth, mobile data, navigation, video playback, and phone integration are all standard, and most of the infotainment functions are got at through an 8-inch touchscreen that blots out behind an electrically-operated covered door when not in use. There’s even a leather-lined drawer just below to stow your MP3 player.
Before grasping your breath with these features, let me also reveal what’s under the hood of GTC Supersport, launched in Geneva Auto Expo.The ZF gearbox of the Supersports is tied to a six-liter, twin turbo, 621hp W-12 engine.
Horsepower is up from 550hp in the base Continental and 600hp in the GTC Speed. Interestingly, Bentley’s peak torque of 590 foot-pounds arrives early, at 1,700rpm, and doesn’t wake up until 5,600rpm, when in any gear you’re aviating already. The pricing of GTC Supersport is yet to be figured out. India holds a 2% share in world’s luxury car market, constituted mainly by Rolls Royce and Lamborghini, with specially designed yachts and private jets of the big shots. Bentley started it’s business way back in 1911, selling 8 models, with showrooms in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. Muslanne is available in India with 6.25 billion trims and colours, personalised for every pround owner. Wait till October-November 2010 for your first delivery.