Undoubtedly
the most successful British luxury car in recent history, the Continental GT
coupe did more than rebuild Bentley’s fortunes. It was a dream, fully realised
…..
The main styling studio in Volkswagen AG’s Wolfsburg
headquarters is known colloquially as ‘Walhalla’ and is located on the topmost
floor of the building. In November 2000 Bentley’s 14 most senior executives
gathered there, expectantly, around a full-size clay model, draped in a simple
silver cloth.
As the cloth was whipped away, the 14 men gasped, in unison,
as they saw their future, represented by the coupe before their eyes. From this
initial reveal, to the first production model, little changed from the
prototype. The designers’ dream became the reality, which was the Bentley
Continental GT coupe, and start of a whole new era for the venerable British
car company.
The coupe spawned a sedan, then a convertible; and each of
those models was used as the basis for other variations, meaning that in total more
than 50,000 of the whole range of Continentals have been sold.
Of course, the story begins much earlier than that first
viewing in Wolfsburg, and the success of the Continental GT was a story of the
blending, refining and moulding of a series of themes, designs and concepts.
Like all good tales this one begins a while back, in the
early 90s in fact. At this time the Bentley team were arguing with the current
owners of the company, Vickers plc, about the need to modernise the Bentley
brand, update the design language and create an identity for Bentley which was
very much separate from the staid Rolls-Royce image.
At the time Vickers was working up to selling off the
company and didn’t want to spend any more money than was absolutely necessary. In
1997 it had already agreed to fund two new sedans – the Rolls-Royce Silver
Seraph and the Bentley Arnage, which would give the company two new cars to
help make it attractive to a potential buyer.
So Bentley designer Graham Hull, leading a very small team,
on a miniscule budget began to pull together several design ideas into a
cohesive concept.
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| Bentley 'Java' |
In 1993 the company had built the Bentley Java concept car,
and revealed it at the 1994 Geneva Salon, to great acclaim.
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| Simon Loasby |
However, by 1997 the Java concept had dated, and it was then
designer Simon Loasby’s job to further develop the Java design cues, which led
to the creation of a concept nicknamed ‘MSB’ (Mid Size Bentley).
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| MSB Concepts |
The Java concept model had been a ‘runner’- in that the
designers had simply sliced the top off a BMW 5-Series sedan, and built the
show car on that platform. This necessarily dictated all the key dimensions. However, by 1996 the relationship with BMW had fallen apart,
and Bentley was on its own.
The MSB concept ideas were defined, re-defined and refined until
a new set of design criteria for Bentley– the muscular rear haunches, the four
round headlights and the more compact dimensions were born.
In late 1997 an MSB concept with a retractable hard top was
shown to various potential buyers for the company, which included Volkswagen,
BMW and Mercedes-Benz. Then in late 1998 Volkswagen AG won a bitter bidding war
and successfully acquired Bentley Motors.
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| Hartmut Warkuss |
In the meantime, stimulated by Bentley’s advanced design
work, the VW styling team led by respected chief Hartmut Warkuss had
independently developed a Bentley coupe/sedan concept based on Volkswagen’s
Ypsilon platform. In early 1999 the design ideas whirling around between the
Bentley and Volkswagen teams were distilled into a singular vision.
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| Dirk van Braekel |
Following the Bentley acquisition Volkswagen Chairman Dr.
Ferdinand Piech personally appointed Skoda’s head designer, Dirk van Braekel to
the job of Design Director for Bentley Motors.
From this time on Bentley Motors began to benefit from the
vision, talent and generosity of spirit which resided in both Hartmut Warkuss
and Dirk van Braekel. The two men acted as ‘fathers’ of Bentley design work,
guiding the efforts of young Brazilian-Italian Raul Pires as he refined and
blended all of the previous exterior work into the concept which would become
the Continental GT coupe.
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| Raul Pires |
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| Robin Page |
At the same time van Braekel was encouraging talented young
British designer, Robin Page, to blend some of the exterior design cues into a
brief for a stunning interior.
Dirk van Braekel took the two young designers back to
Bentley’s historic heritage. Using both the 1931 ‘Blower’ and the 1961
Continental as thought-starters, the team combined both historic and
contemporary themes to create the car we first saw in 2002.
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| Design development |
Simon Loasby credits both the Warkuss and van Braekel for
the support and encouragement of Bentley’s work on the Continental range, which
later led to cars like the outstanding Mulsanne sedan.
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| Original Pires sketch |
As good it looked, the Continental GT coupe would have to be
based on a VW Group platform. Ferdinand Piech was anxious to take advantage of
the new engine designs he and Dr. Martin Winterkorn had been developing, like
the W12, W16 and a new V10.
In 1999 it was decided that the platform for the planned
Volkswagen Phaeton luxury sedan, would be the donor for the Continental GT.
This meant that the Bentley would have a 6 litre, W12 engine.
Volkswagen originally appointed Dr. Ulrich Hackenberg to
lead the work to graft the Phaeton platform under the Continental GT design
model, and he was succeeded by Dr. Joachim Rothenpieler, who brought the car to
production stage. However, the man responsible for the ongoing refinement of
the rolling platform is Dr. Ulrich Eichhorn, Bentley’s most recent Chief
Engineer.
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| Ing. Dr. Ulrich Eichorn |
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| 2012 Bentley Continental GT |
To reiterate, the Bentley Continental GT has been an
outstanding emotional and commercial success, and has underwritten Bentley’s
future security as a high end luxury brand. The restyled model shown in Geneva
in March 2011 is, unsurprisingly, another triumph of sophistication, and
refinement of a brilliant original concept.
It has been a singular honour and a privilege to have been
associated with this car, and this company.
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