Story

When Bentley Learned to Drift

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Bentley doesn’t usually do sideways. It does stately, it does fast, and it does opulence at 190 mph with the air of a private club on wheels. But every now and then, even Bentley decides to kick the doors open, light the tires, and remind the world that beneath the walnut veneer lies something a little more feral.

Enter Supersports: FULL SEND—a film that feels less like a marketing exercise and more like a controlled detonation inside Crewe’s famously orderly universe.

The premise sounds like a fever dream cooked up after hours: take a Bentley Continental Supersports, hand it to rally lunatic and professional gravity denier Travis Pastrana, shut down the entire factory, and let physics take a back seat. The internal codename? “Pymkhana”—a cheeky nod to gymkhana, but rooted firmly on Pyms Lane, Bentley’s spiritual home.

What makes FULL SEND more than just tire smoke and drone shots is the absurd level of commitment behind it. Bentley didn’t just tweak a showroom car and call it a day. Engineers went full mad scientist. The electronic limited-slip differential was recalibrated for aggressive early lockup. Stability control? Permanently disabled. Software was rewritten to allow both static and rolling burnouts—because apparently one kind of tire annihilation wasn’t enough.

And then there’s the pièce de résistance: a hydraulic handbrake, grafted into the car’s control system and synchronized with its eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox. In a brand better known for whisper-quiet wafting, this is like discovering your tailor moonlights as a drift coach. The goal wasn’t just power-oversteer—it was precision chaos, enabling the Supersports to pivot and slide through Bentley’s narrow factory roads like it had something to prove.

According to engineering manager Alistair Corner, the mission was simple: take the already formidable Supersports and “turn it up to 11.” Translation—strip away the digital safety net, add just enough mechanical mischief, and see what happens when a luxury GT forgets its manners. The result is less a modified Bentley and more an unfiltered expression of what the platform can do when unleashed.

Of course, Bentley being Bentley, it prepared not one but two cars—because even in the middle of a tire-smoking circus, contingency planning matters. Both were wrapped in a custom livery by Deathspray and fitted with bespoke 22-inch wheels. The hero car even wore titanium skid blocks underneath, engineered specifically to throw sparks like a Fourth of July finale.

Filming took place over three days in September 2025, and it wasn’t as simple as pointing cameras and letting Pastrana run wild. This is still a functioning factory, with gas lines, fiber optics, and power infrastructure lurking just inches beneath the asphalt. Every stunt was meticulously choreographed. Every corner, mapped. Every risk, accounted for.

And then there was the crew—over 100 strong. Camera operators, drone pilots, safety teams, vehicle specialists, medics, fire crews, and even a camera car built from a first-generation Bentayga W12 outfitted with a crane arm. It’s the kind of production scale you’d expect from a Hollywood action film, not a car company’s in-house project.

Yet somehow, against all odds and common sense, it worked. Over three days of filming, with speeds cresting 120 mph and a luxury coupe behaving like a rally car on espresso, the total damage tally amounted to a single broken wing mirror. That’s not just luck—that’s execution.

The final product, released after three months of editing under director Jon Richards, is packed with detail, including a dozen hidden “Easter Eggs” for sharp-eyed viewers. But the real takeaway isn’t in the background cameos or the cinematic polish. It’s in the attitude shift.

FULL SEND shows a side of Bentley we don’t often see—one that trades restraint for recklessness, at least temporarily. It’s a reminder that performance and luxury aren’t mutually exclusive, and that even the most buttoned-up brands can, under the right circumstances, go completely off the rails.

And honestly? They should do it more often.

Source: Bentley

Tuning

Liberty Walk Turns a Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 Into a $344K Statement

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In the collector-car universe, rarity usually means restraint. But every once in a while, a machine shows up that proves excess can be just as bankable. Case in point: a heavily modified 2007 Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 that recently traded hands for a staggering $344,000—despite wearing one of the wildest aftermarket makeovers this side of a Tokyo Auto Salon fever dream.

Values for Murciélagos have been climbing steadily, especially for cars fitted with the coveted gated six-speed manual. This one? Not quite. It’s equipped with the less-loved e-gear automated manual, and yet it still commanded serious money. Originality, it turns out, isn’t the only path to collector relevance—sometimes spectacle works just fine.

Originally delivered new in the United States, the LP640 made its way to Japan in 2012, where it fell into the hands of Liberty Walk, a tuner known for treating subtlety like an optional extra. The result is a Silhouette Works GT Evo body kit that transforms the already outrageous Murciélago into something that looks ready to chase hypercars down the Mulsanne Straight—or audition for a superhero reboot.

The front end alone is enough to stop traffic. A redesigned bumper, additional running lights, custom headlights, and a reshaped hood give the car a vaguely Reventón-inspired face, though with more visual drama. The signature bolt-on wide arches stretch the Murciélago’s stance to comic-book proportions, while sculpted side skirts exaggerate the low-slung silhouette. There’s even a large sunroof—its functionality uncertain, but its visual impact undeniable.

If the front is theatrical, the rear is full-on avant-garde. A custom bumper, aggressive diffuser, towering wing, and bespoke taillights combine into a look that’s equal parts GT racer and rolling art installation. It’s the kind of design that splits opinions instantly—and that’s precisely the point.

Underneath the visual fireworks, the upgrades continue. The car rides on 18- and 19-inch wheels wrapped in Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S tires, paired with an Ideal Air Max air suspension setup that allows adjustable ride height and front-axle lift. That means the Murciélago can go from slammed show car to speed-bump survivor at the push of a button—practicality, Liberty Walk style.

Inside, things calm down slightly. The cabin remains largely stock, aside from a digital rearview mirror and a Pioneer head unit. It’s a reminder that beneath the Batmobile aesthetics lies a recognizable LP640, complete with its naturally aspirated V-12 theatrics.

Perhaps the most surprising part of the story isn’t the styling—it’s the price. A modified Murciélago with an automated manual transmission might have been expected to polarize buyers. Instead, someone stepped up and paid supercar money, likely helped by the car’s relatively modest 32,000 kilometers.

The takeaway? In today’s collector market, originality may be king—but bold individuality can still write its own check.

Source: Liberty Walk

News

The last produced Mercedes E 500 is the star of the show

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In the pantheon of stealth performance sedans, few loom as large as the Mercedes-Benz E500—a car that perfected the art of looking like a company car while moving like something far more sinister. Now, one of the most pristine survivors has resurfaced, taking center stage at Mercedes-Benz’s “Youngtimer” exhibition in Stuttgart. And this one hasn’t just aged gracefully—it’s practically frozen in time, showing a scarcely believable 422 kilometers on the odometer.

This particular example represents the final chapter of one of the most fascinating collaborations in German performance lore: the unlikely but brilliant partnership between Mercedes-Benz and Porsche. Long before AMG became the in-house powerhouse we know today, Mercedes needed a rapid response to the second-generation BMW M5 (E34). The solution? Outsource the muscle—and some of the magic—to Stuttgart’s other sports-car icon.

The story reads like an automotive relay race. Standard W124 bodies began life at Mercedes before being shipped across town to Porsche’s Zuffenhausen facility. There, technicians widened the fenders by hand, reinforced the chassis, and reworked the suspension to handle what was coming next. The reason for the detour wasn’t romantic—it was practical. Mercedes’ Sindelfingen plant simply didn’t have the space to perform the modifications on its own assembly lines. So the shells traveled back to Mercedes for paint, then returned yet again to Porsche for final assembly. It was a logistical ballet that took 18 days to complete a single car.

What justified the effort sat under the hood: Mercedes’ 5.0-liter naturally aspirated M119 V8, massaged with Porsche’s input and good for 320 horsepower and 470 Nm of torque. Power flowed through a four-speed automatic to the rear wheels, launching the discreet sedan from 0–100 km/h in 6.1 seconds—serious speed for the early ’90s—and on to an electronically limited 250 km/h. Not bad for something that looked ready to pick up groceries.

The result was the ultimate “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Aside from subtly flared arches and a slightly more purposeful stance, the 500 E—later renamed E500—blended seamlessly into traffic. But those who knew, knew. And those who didn’t were left staring at taillights.

Production ran from 1991 to spring 1995, yielding just 10,479 examples. Today, even well-kept cars command around €60,000, but a virtually untouched final-year example like this? That’s more museum artifact than used car. It’s a reminder of a time when two rival German giants joined forces to build a super sedan the hard way—by hand, across town, and with just enough subtlety to keep things interesting.

Source: Mercedes-Benz

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