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LIVE from 2013 Geneva Motor Show: Bentley Press Conference +VIDEO


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All new Bentley Flying Spur

Watch the complete Bentley Press Conference featuring the all new Bentley Flying Spur right here on The Auto Channel


GENEVA - March 4, 2013: Bentley Motors will be broadcasting the introduction of the Flying Spur at 4:15AM EST on Tuesday morning (that's 1:15AM west coast time).
Scroll down to to watch the live broadcast

Bentley is establishing a new luxury performance sedan benchmark with the launch of the new Flying Spur. With its unrivalled blend of effortless driveability, exquisite luxury and craftsmanship, sculpted design and state-of-the-art technology, the new Flying Spur takes the worldwide success of its iconic predecessor further. Bentley’s most powerful four-door model ever makes its global debut at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show on March 5th.


Watch the Bentley Flying Spur teaser video


Bentley’s styling team has developed an athletic design for the new Flying Spur that combines traditional Bentley styling cues with a sporting stance and contemporary details. Sharp feature lines complement muscular rear haunches, while LED day-time running lights, dipped headlights and taillights characterise the front and rear profiles. The interior designers have created a luxurious, spacious cabin that dresses advanced acoustic and electronic technologies in exquisite hand-crafted leather hides and wood veneers.

Driver and passengers alike interface with the car and the outside world through touch-screen infotainment, mobile connectivity including Wi-Fi, a Rear Sear Entertainment suite and a new hand-held Touch Screen Remote which allows rear-cabin occupants to control an extensive range of features from the comfort of their seat. An eight-channel, eight-speaker audio system with Balanced Mode Radiators provide high quality sound clarity, with the 1100W NaimŪ for Bentley premium system available as an option.

Powering the new Flying Spur is Bentley’s renowned 6.0-litre, twin turbo W12 engine, coupled to a ZF eight-speed transmission. Developing 625 PS (616 bhp) and 800 Nm of torque, the new Flying Spur features more power than any other Bentley four-door in history. A 14 per cent improvement in the power-to-weight ratio over the outgoing model delivers a breath-taking 0-60 mph time of 4.3 seconds and a top-speed of 200 mph (322 km/h). In the modern Bentley tradition, power is delivered to the road via all-wheel drive with a 40:60 rear-biased torque split for a sure-footed, engaging drive in all road and weather conditions.

Bentley Chairman and Chief Executive, Dr Wolfgang Schreiber, comments “Bentley’s new Flying Spur is the ultimate luxury performance sedan. Our engineers have worked tirelessly to ensure that the Flying Spur is the perfect combination of power, comfort, refinement and hand-crafted quality. Fitted with the very latest technology, the new Flying Spur is equipped both for business and relaxation whilst remaining a car to enjoy from behind the wheel.”


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A SLEEK AND STRIKING EXTERIOR
The styling of the new Flying Spur establishes a new design character for Bentley’s performance sedan. An elegant direction is reflected by a lower, wider appearance with sharp lines and gently curvaceous surfaces. A lower roof line, deeply sculpted panels, precise feature lines and a muscular rear haunch give the Flying Spur a more aggressive stance and a powerfully dynamic profile.

The front fenders feature a striking new wing vent complete with an elegant Bentley “B” motif. From here, an additional feature line forms a sharply defined edge running from the front wheel all the way to the rear bumper, underlining the shape’s dynamic character.

At the front of the car, a more upright chrome grille sits between the pairs of jewel-like LED headlamps. Emphasising the lower, wider stance, the outer lamps are the larger of the two. Beneath the front grille, the lower intake is now full width with no vertical divisions, but instead with a chromed horizontal accent that completes the dramatic face of the new Flying Spur.

At the rear, a longer and lower boot lid lends a more swept appearance to the side profile. Horizontal single ellipse LED tail lamps combine with a new interpretation of the Bentley “Horse Shoe” feature line, now running the full width of the car and encapsulating a graceful concave section.

Beneath the elegant skin of the new Flying Spur, a wide range of materials are applied in an intelligent and efficient manner. Designed to improve overall body stiffness and refinement whilst meeting stringent crash performance targets and pedestrian protection legislation, the new body structure includes reinforcement to the B-posts, sills and front crossmembers together with deformable components in the floorpan for optimal load transfer. A deployable bonnet that includes both new reinforcement panels and deformation elements helps to improve pedestrian impact performance.

The bonnet and front fenders are constructed in aluminium, with the fenders shaped using the aerospace-industry superforming technique, employing compressed air to shape heated sheets of alloy in to the required form at over 500°C. Exceptionally clean lines with sharp radii and lighter-weight components are the result, giving the new Flying Spur an unmistakeably Bentley front end with extremely taut shut lines.

The new door structures are completely redesigned with fewer individual parts for improved quality and refinement. An optimisation of the doors realised through efficient use of materials contributes to much improved door kinematics and feel. Meanwhile, further weight savings are achieved through the crafting of the bootlid in a polymer composite material that also integrates the main antennae for the car’s electronic systems.

The exterior design, manufacturing processes and carefully optimised materials selections combine to provide a bodyshell that is not only muscular and clean, with minimal shutlines, but also one that performs exceptionally well on the road. With a torsional stiffness of 36,500 Nm/degree, a 4% increase over the previous generation Flying Spur, the new bodyshell provides an extremely rigid platform for the chassis components and a stable foundation for NVH reduction. The sleek shape also has outstanding aerodynamic properties for a large sedan, with an overall drag coefficient of just 0.29 and ensuing benefits to emissions performance.

Weight savings in the body structure and throughout the car mean that the new Flying Spur is 50 kg lighter than the first generation car, despite the additional refinement measures, enhanced technology specification and stronger structure.