At this year’s Salon Privé on September 22-26, 2020, Bentley is to unveil a trio of vehicles handcrafted by Bentley Mulliner. At the picturesque grounds of Blenheim Palace, three Bentley’s will make their world public debuts, marking the first time all three portfolios will be represented together at Salon Privé. This also marks a return to live events for the luxury car brand, as they make a host of changes to their events, which include a comprehensive suite of health and safety measures to protect staff and guests.
For those who are unaware, Bentley Mulliner is Bentley’s in-house bespoke and personal commissioning division employing around 40 employees whose expertise has honed over decades of manufacturing work for the company. They operate a portfolio of three, which deliver above and beyond craftsmanship, which Bentley is renowned for. With new members of Bentley Mulliner Collections and Coachbuilt portfolios to be displayed, a new member of the Mulliner Collections family will be unveiled.
Introduced at last year’s Salon Privé – after showing its immaculate restoration of the 1939 Bentley Corniche – Bentley’s 1929 Team Blower has been reimagined with a 12 supercharged 4½-liter engine each individually handcrafted by a team of specialists from Bentley Mulliner. Among many first for the iconic luxury automobile company, it marks the world’s first pre-war race car continuation series.
Displaying the ultimate expression of two-seat, open-air luxury, the Bentley Mulliner Bacalar is the rarest two-door Bentley of the modern era. Making its debut at Salon Privé, this Grand Tourer marks a return to true coachbuilding from the oldest coachbuilder in the world. With only 12 to be produced, each handcrafted according to the individual customer’s tastes, this limited-edition model offers supreme luxury and breath-taking performance. Along with being one of the rarest luxury offerings from Bentley, it is the first car to be created as part of Bentley Mulliner’s new Coachbuilt portfolio.
The third car to make its debut is a roofless Barchetta design, which also embraces direct interaction between the Bentley Mulliner design team and the individual customer to ensure each vehicle is truly bespoke. The all-new vehicle with highly muscular coachwork draws from the award-winning EXP 100 – recently crowned ‘Most Beautiful Concept Car of the Year’ – with an intelligent curation of technology. All vehicle of this limited-edition offering has already been allocated to customers from around the world.
Through Bentley Mulliner Collections, customers will be able to personalize their new Bentley, choose luxury derivatives of the core Bentley range, choose to hide and thread combinations, color-matched paint, and bespoke feature content. One new vehicle from the Collections portfolio will also be shown at Salon Privé and will be announced a week before the event. Two other cars to be shown at the event are W.O. Bentley’s own 1930 8-Litre and the R-Type Continental of 1952 among a convoy of modern Bentleys.
Widely recognized in the UK’s automotive industry – along with being noticed around the globe – Bentley has made significant changes at the company’s headquarters and factory in Crewe. These changes, over 250 in total, has meant that they were able to restart production safely and effectively and has since reached 100% capacity. Starting at Salon Privé, their meticulous and careful approach will be extended to their live events program with a host of safety protocols including:
- Temperature checks for all attendees before admittance
- Five-times-daily schedule of fogging with Hypochlorous Acid
- Mandatory wearing of face masks for all staff and guests
- A full track-and-trace system will be in place for all visitors.
- Socially-distance stand with a one-way system to ensure that socially distancing between guests is easy to maintain
- A dedicated team will continuously clean readily available hand sanitizer and its cars
