Bentley launches Mulsanne Speed

The torquiest new car available on the Australian market will make a speedy arrival next month priced at $730,000.

The Bentley Mulsanne Speed will land (presumably with a big thud) packing 1100Nm from its 6.75-litre twin-turbo V8 engine; and all that torque will be thrown at the rear wheels at just 1750rpm.

The monster four-door limo gets to 100km/h in 4.9 seconds on its way to 305km/h and gulps 14.6L/100km on the combined cycle.

Yet the torque games for the upper-crust Brit brand won’t end there, as it also readies to deliver the most twist of any production SUV available.

The VW Group has just announced a brand new twin-turbo 6.0-litre W12 with the same 447kW as the Mulsanne’s twin-turbo 6.75-litre V8, except with ‘only’ 900Nm.

The W12 will feature “an oil circuit suitable for off-road use with a switchable oil pump”, indicating preparation for use in the Bentayga SUV.

A Bentley source recently indicated to MOTOR that the Bentayga is likely to launch with the new W12, before the V8, diesel and hybrid models arrive later in the model cycle.

Bentley claims its new off-roader “will be the most luxurious and most powerful SUV in the market”, sitting above the base Continental models in price, suggesting a price point in the mid-$400,000s or above.

A recent teaser video showed the first glimpses of the new interior (see image gallery), while Bentley has confirmed that the final car looks nothing like the controversial SUV concept shown at the 2012 Geneva Motor Show.

Production of the Bentayga will kick off in November.

The new W12 will also appear in Bentley's current models, and it claims that the fastest variant will do the 100km/h dash in “less than four seconds”.

Currently even the quickest Benter on sale locally, the 820Nm W12 Continental GT Speed, will ‘only’ do a 4.2 second sprint. Another 80Nm should help it limbo into the threes.

Although the fresh W12 offers similar outputs to the engine in current models, the changes are designed to rip the dozen-cylinder format closer towards 21st century emissions standards without chopping down the pots.

The engine now gets a combination of Audi direct injection and Bentley port injection, cylinder deactivation that can shut off a whole side of the cylinder bank to effectively make it a big-six, stop-start tech and ‘adaptive engine suspension’ to quell the vibes.

It is also claimed the most efficient model with the W12 will consume 10.8L/100km, a sizeable improvement when the current thriftiest twelve-potter (also the GT Speed) glugs 14.5L/100km.

Downsizing, Sir? What downsizing?

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