Bentley Arnage

The Bentley Arnage is a large luxury car produced by Bentley Motors in Crewe, England from 1998 to 2009. The Arnage, and its Rolls-Royce-branded sibling, the Silver Seraph, were introduced in the Spring of 1998, and were the first entirely new designs for the two marques since 1980.

Bentley Arnage On The Road

Bentley Arnage Elegant Interior

The revised version of the car was launched as the Arnage Red Label in October 1999. At the same time, but without the fanfare, Bentley made several minor modifications to the original BMW engine cars, and designated them as the "Arnage Green Label" for the 2000 model year. As part of the modification process, both Red and Green Label cars received stiffer body shells and larger wheels and brakes. The stiffer body shell was needed because of the extra weight of the old 6.75 engine. The larger brakes were needed for the same reason. Despite the larger brakes, braking performance worsened with the extra weight of the 6.75 engine. The braking performance of the '99 Green Label from 70-0 was 172 feet (52 m) while the later Arnage T's performance was 182 feet (55 m) from the same speed. The rest of the revisions included: 1. making a pop up Alpine navigation system standard 2. adding park distance control to the front and rear 3. increasing the rear seat leg room (by modifying the design of the front seat backs) 4. adding power folding exterior mirrors and 5. modifying the steering rack to reduce steering effort at low speeds. Strangely, the lens covers for the headlights went from being glass (98, 99) to plastic (2000+).

Bentley Arnage Rare Seat

Bentley Arnage Engine Detail

For the 2007 model year, the Garrett turbochargers were replaced with low-inertia Mitsubishi units designed to improve engine response. The engine was mated to a version of the six-speed ZF automatic transmission found in the Continental range. Also, the capacity of the engine was increased from 6,749 cubic centimetres (411.8 cu in) to 6,761 cubic centimetres (412.6 cu in). The new tuning gave the Arnage T 507 metric horsepower (373 kW; 500 bhp) and 1,000 newton metres (738 ft·lbf), while the milder Arnage R having 460 metric horsepower (338 kW; 454 bhp) and 875 newton metres (645 ft·lbf). For the performance oriented T, factory stated 0-60 mph acceleration is only 5.2 seconds, and the top speed is 288 kilometres per hour (179.0 mph).