Autoblog

Toyo has tapped a handful of tuners to produce six SEMA creations to highlight its range of track-ready and dirt-friendly tires. Unfortunately, we've already seen the 800 hp, Bentley Continental-based Tetsu GTR, but joining that rolling abomination to tasteless consumption are a handful of rides that better represent what SEMA is all about.

To begin with, Bulletproof Automotive is trotting out a customer-owned Nissan GT-R, wearing limited edition (and GT-R specific) BBS LM-DBK-P wheels wrapped in Toyo's 20-inch Proxes R888 tires. An Amuse Super Tough Titanium exhaust, Endless monoblock six-piston front and rear brakes and a smattering of carbon fiber aerodynamic parts round out this track- and show-friendly package.

Vivid Racing will be joined by several other firms bringing tuned Mitsubishi Evolution Xs to the show, but Vivid should stand out with its Porsche GT3 RS paint job, 18x10-inch AME Tracer 02 wheels and 650 hp on tap. We'll be on hand in a few weeks to find out how Vivid went about freeing those extra 350 ponies.

Additionally, an unnamed sixth vehicle will be accompanied by a 2009 Toyota Tundra CrewMax SR5 built by Two Brothers Custom Trucks, along with Choppin' Block Custom Fab's four-door 1931 Studebaker Model 54, riding on a custom air suspension, Centerline Smoothie wheels and powered by a Chevy 350 fed by a trio of two-barrel carburetors.

Hit the jump for all the details and stay tuned for our SEMA coverage beginning the first week of November.

If you've got it, flaunt it. The super high-end automotive market has been counting on that attitude for years, and it may now be coming back to bite them. It seems that sales of luxury marques such as Bentley, Maybach and Aston Martin have been on a downward trajectory over the last year. Despite the fact that there are a number of people who still have plenty of dough to purchase these expensive toys, public perception is causing some of them to hold back and keep those fat wallets in their pockets.

To combat the problem, some high-end brands are choosing to aim even higher. If ex-customers with a net-worth of less than $5 million find it socially unacceptable to make a purchase, Bentley has said it will begin marketing to those with at least a net worth of $25 million. Let us add that we've driven a few Bentleys and Rollers and can say with certainty that they are definitely conspicuous in a sea of CamCords and Mustangs.


[Source: Advertising Age]

Automakers are always coming up with new branding and merchandising efforts in an attempt to separate the rich from their money, but here's one that's actually trying to help them keep it secure. Stockinger, the same safe manufacturer to which sister company Bugatti turned for their bespoke vault, has crafted a new line of safes exclusively for Bentley.

The irony could hardly be lost on anyone: Bentleys are built like vaults, and here's a vault built like a Bentley. Two vaults, actually: the Arnage safe is designed to keep watches, complete with little winding mechanisms to keep those special edition Breitlings working. The Continental safe, meanwhile, is crafted to store jewelery and would probably make the ideal location to keep that $20,000 Ego laptop. The attention to detail on the vaults is staggering: the painting process, for example, takes 18 hours, while the Bentley door handle takes 16 hours to mill from a solid piece of brass. Only 400 will be made in total, and each buyer can specify any exterior color from the Bentley catalog, a choice of ten different suedes for the interior and three different wood veneer panels.

There's plenty more information about the Stockinger for Bentley safes in the press release after the jump, and a small fortune's worth of images in the vault gallery below.

[Source: Stockinger]

Speaking as someone who has driven more than his fair share of Bentleys, I can say that although the brand's Continental series is the way of the future, the more expensive and stately Arnage is still a benchmark to be respected. Bentley has announced that it will debut the Arnage Final Series at next month's Paris Motor Show, thereby confirming for the first time that the current model's ten-year run is about to end. Only 150 of these special Arnage models will be built, and all are powered by Bentley's legendary twin-turbo 6.75-liter V8 producing 500 bhp and 738 lb-ft of torque, which also happens to be celebrating its 50-year anniversary in 2008. Bentley says the Final Series combines the performance of the Arnage T with the refinement of the R, and a few odd features are thrown in like a rear cocktail cabinet with a Final Series stainless steel flask and two shot glasses and four Bentley umbrellas mounted in the trunk. Like any special edition, there are also Final Series badges on the exterior and interior, as well.

So if the Final Series marks the end of the Arnage, what's next? We asked Bentley outright, and they of course couldn't comment on future product, but say that work is well underway on the brand's next flagship model and hinted that it may move even further upmarket. We take that to mean the Rolls-Royce Phantom should consider itself put on notice. We also asked if Bentley's iconic V8 would be retired in these times of strict emissions regulations and maybe replaced with something from the VAG parts bin. Again, while they could neither confirm nor deny anything, we got the impression that there's life left in this 50-year motor.


[Source: Bentley]

The latest Bentley Arnage is doing the rounds in Spain, but it isn't the sedan's appearance that's news, it's how it might be powered. As far as cosmetic bodywork, the changes appear minimal, including new fog light placement, rear apron and exhaust exit. A little more substantially, the car is widened at the B-pillar, which should finally give back bench passengers the kind of room that befits a Bentley sedan.

Exterior and interior tweaks aside, what's under the hood is where things are supposedly cracking. Rumors that we can only guess are highly speculative suggest that the coming Arnage will get a diesel engine. We're not sure if those rumor-mongers got the memo a month ago in which Bentley CEO Josef Paefgen stated there will be no diesel Bentleys. But supposing one of Rudolph's children was dropped in that massive engine bay, suspects are Audi's V12 TDI for the standard model, and the Veyron's W16 to create a thermonuclear Arnage T. Sign us up.

[Source: Global Motors]

Click above to view the Ego for Bentley laptop in hi res

$20,000 seems like a lot of money for a laptop computer, and it is for ordinary people like you and me. But in case you hadn't noticed, we're not the type of customers to whom Bentley caters. The stoic British automaker exists at the upper crust of the automotive elite among the kind of people from whom $20k is chump change to pay for a computer that will match their car perfectly.

With them in mind, Bentley has teamed up with Ego, an aptly named fellow outfitter to the obscenely wealthy, to produce this exclusive notebook computer. The specs are fairly straightforward: 64-bit processor, 160GB hard-drive, Windows Vista...but as we initially reported when news of the Ego Bentley first surfaced, the detailing is what sets it apart. The laptops are hand-built like a top-of-the-line Bentley, but inside out, with diamond-stitched leather and knurled aluminum trim on the outside and the buyer's choice of color options for the interior panels. Only 250 examples are being offered, which is just as well because we doubt there are many more consumers in the world than that who possess the means and inclination to buy one. For the rest of us, we can check out the press release after the jump and images in the gallery below.

[Source: Bentley]

In case the Grey Goose edition Rolls-Royce Phantom wasn't your poison, champagne label Veuve Clicquot, the same French vineyard that teamed up with Porsche Design for that unique refrigerator, has crafted this one-of-a-kind 1966 Bentley S3.

The S3 model was produced between 1962 and 1965, and was differentiated from the S2 largely by its distinct four-headlamp nose. The Veuve Clicquot edition, meanwhile, has a distinctive yellow and black paintjob and remains largely stock and true to the original... save for the addition of a satellite navigation system. The car belongs to Edouard de Nazelle, a descendant of one of the vineyard's founders, and apart from serving as an elegant transport for its noble owner, it doubles as a promotional tool for the company's carbonated elixir.

[Source: TrendHunter]

Click for a hi-res gallery of the Bentley SenseS concept

An outside perspective can do wonders for an automaker. In this case, we're not sure ourselves what to make of this concept, let alone what Bentley would do with it. The British luxury marque actually commissioned Arturo Peralta, a Spanish automotive designer, to come up with this concept that he calls the SenseS.

While pursuing his second MA in vehicle design, Peralta interned at Pininfarina, where, judging from the striking similarities, he either had an integral part in designing the Sintesi concept or else made off with the blueprints in his briefcase. Peralta waxes poetic about the relationship he envisions that the Bentley SenseS would share with its driver and the environment around it, thanks in part to – wait for it – Genetic Engineering, but offers little in the way of actual details aside from the translucent body panels and suggesting that the vehicle would be powered by the wind. In the end, don't expect to see this design shaping the direction of the next Continental... somehow we don't think the twin-turbo W12 would quite fit in there.

[Source: Car Body Design]

What does SEMA mean to you? For most of us, it's a place for the country's top tuners to show their wares to a power-hungry public. But the dark side of SEMA never ceases to rear its ugly head, and further proof will be available at the Toyo booth where the Tetsu GTR Bentley Continental GT will be displayed.

The unholy brainchild of Japanese tuner ASI features a custom carbon fiber wide-body kit that makes ASMA's unfortunate creations look demure in comparison. The two-tone paint scheme... uhhh... compliments the massive haunches, deep side skirts and GT-style wing, while 22-inch blingalicious rollers prove that chrome is still in high demand... unfortunately.

According to Modified Luxury and Exotics, only 29 Tetsu GTRs will be produced, each putting out over 800 hp. We'll be on hand to provide live shots of the other five vehicles featured at the Toyo stand, assuming our camera lens doesn't crack when we zoom in on the GTR's gaudy fascia.

[Source: Modified Luxury and Exotics]

Click above for more images of the Bentley luggage collection by Dunhill

Dunhill, the English leather goods maker, has worked with then Bentley Design Team to create a five-piece luggage set. Huzzah! Not only does the fluting on the bags echo the fluting on your Arnage's seats, but the luggage trim is done in knurled aluminum. The entire set consists of a briefcase, large and small suitcases, a washbag, and a weekend bag. You can expect to pay £4,300, before options. But then, if you're an Arnage owner, you're probably more concerned with finding out if you can get leather to match your seats. Check out the gallery below for more photos.


[Source: Sybarites]