There’s a rumor that’s ever more pungent lately about the British at Bentley and what they’ve got lined up for the upcoming Geneva Motor Show.
The “winged B” will naturally have it’s usual big heavy, thirsty brutes of luxury cars there but there’s significant talk about how one would top them all.
Not a Supersports version of the Bentley Mulsanne, not a W16 Continental, but something much much scarier, a Bentley SUV, would be unveiled there.
It comes as no surprise to find out that after the rumor spread around, there have been plenty of queries and inquiries addressed to the British company.
The reply came relatively quickly from Christophe Georges, Bentley Motors president and COO, but, disappointingly, it was as vague and unsubstantiated as any tabloid article you may ever come across.
Quoted as saying “We are exploring the potential, but the vehicle has not been approved”, Bentley’s captain basically said: “yeah, we could bring it, but then again, we might not”.
If it will be unveiled at the Swiss show, the Bentley SUV will have some familiar features to talk about. The platform it’s riding on will be shared with the new version of the Audi Q7.
In terms of engines we’re likely looking at Bentley’s powerplants, the familiar 6.0 liter twin-turbo W12 would be a range topper and the newly presented 4.0 liter V8 would be a “fuel efficient, entry level” model.
There’s going to be some performance and smoothness about it but it’s all likely to be limited to a straight line unless the ride will be sacrificed as we’ve seen in other high performance SUVs.
