Bentley first showed the Continental V8 S at the Frankfurt Motor Show a few months ago, but the slightly more powerful V8 Continental makes its North American debut in Detroit. More horsepower is always welcome, and the handsome new grand tourer delivers precisely 21 more. While Bentley has been concentrating on W12-powered Speed models -- even suggesting that it might be an entertaining drive on a racetrack -- the V8 range has been bolstered by its own modest performance enhancements: 21 more horsepower and 15 more lb-ft of torque bring the 4.0-liter engine's figures up to 521 and 502, respectively.
A 1937 BMW 328 Roadster owned by Lothar Schuettler of Darnestown, Md., took Best of Show honors at the Hilton Head Island Motoring Festival & Concours d'Elegance. The Sunday concours, which had BMW as the honored marque, wrapped up a weeklong event that included the Savannah Speed Classic vintage races in nearby Savannah, Ga., a tour around Hilton Head by concours entrants, a Motoring Midway and a Car Club Jamboree on Saturday featuring exhibits from car clubs from around the country. The 328 Roadster was first owned by German race driver Baron Fritz Huschke von Hanstein and is one of only 18 cars that were painted black that year.
The Bentley SUV will get a W12 engine option
Back in July we had the talkative Bentley boss Wolfgang Dürheimer musing that Bentley will produce the ultimate luxury SUV, with plans to take the underpinnings from sister company Porsche’s Cayenne and make the most opulent SUV on the planet. The plan for a Bentley SUV has been around for a while, but the perception by car makers that big SUVs were unpalatable to the general public in these eco-obsessed times meant plans by many car makers to build an SUV were left to gather dust on the shelves. But those car makers who chose to ignore the brickbats directed at big SUVs have proved that there is big demand for luxury monsters (the Cayenne has turned in to Porsche’s biggest cash cow) and that the anti-SUV lobby was simply a very small bunch of eco-mentalists making headlines.