[Auto] Let it blow: A Bentley-themed winter road trip

[Agent47]

 

 

Within the likes of a Bentley, nature’s proceeds of timber, wool, hide and more are crafted from raw material into sophisticated and elegant yet functional finishes. They come together to create a cabin of atmosphere and comfort where synthetic materials might otherwise leave you cold. Yet the origins of these finishes are easily taken for granted. So we’re going on a road trip to discover the what, where, how and who of Bentley’s luxury interiors.

We’ll visit four manufacturers that supply Bentley, and then finish up at Mulliner, home to Bentley’s most rarefied products and whose carriage-building roots in 1760 make it the oldest surviving name in the Volkswagen Group’s portfolio. By way of contrast, we’ll be driving a Formentor crossover from the VW Group’s youngest brand, Cupra, spun out from Seat in 2018.

We start in my corner of Edinburgh, the Dean Village, which has its own four-wheeled history and links with Mulliner. We pose the Formentor outside what from 1934 to 2001 was the Bentley specialist workshop of Ian Cunningham senior and then junior. Both were trained in-house by the manufacturer and cared for countless Bentleys – including several Blowers – plus the Queen’s Scottish f leet and famous racers including Ecurie Ecosse’s 1956 Le Mans-winning Jaguar D-Type.
The Cupra’s angular form and piercing LEDs are stark against the building’s weathered frontage. The car has a brooding, high-tech aesthetic outside and in, accentuated by ‘Dark Camouflage’ paintwork and black nappa. It comes in VZ2 spec and the UK market’s most powerful engine choice, the VW-familiar EA888 2.0 TSI with 306bhp. 

Exploring those credentials will wait, though, as we select Comfort mode to slip westbound out of town. Adaptive dampers softened, Edinburgh’s notoriously fractured roads are for the most part gently parried while the seven-speed DSG gearbox smudges us towards the M8.
Swiftly reaching 70mph on the motorway, the engine sits docile at 2000rpm. There’s some roar from the 19in rubber on rougher sections but otherwise the Formentor manages this workaday stuff nicely. We’re soon bisecting Glasgow, where COP26 delegates are busy pondering the future of its kind.

We cross the Clyde, whose shipping trade bankrolled the lavish lifestyle of Glen Kidston – derring- doer, Bentley Boy and winner of 1930’s Le Mans, sharing Woolf Barnato’s Speed Six. Then it’s a short hop into Renfrewshire to visit Bridge of Weir, supplier of leather to Bentley and other British and international marques. The Muirhead name has been in tanning as long as Mulliner has been in coachbuilding, and it’s James Muirhead, head of automotive sales, who shows us around.
The hides processed here come from British and Irish bulls: the region picked for climate and diet, the sex for durability and tightness of grain. The leather is an unwanted by-product of the meat industry, so those with ethical concerns arguably have a beef with, well, beef more than the material itself.

Once preserved via tanning, shaving machines reduce the unseen ‘B side’ so the hides are barely one millimetre thick. Imperfections are few; black patches of hair endure as blue splodges on the otherwise pale skins but disappear after dying in huge drums using organic dyes.

 

Link : https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/features/let-it-blow-bentley-themed-winter-road-trip