All posts by Francis Mitterrand

News

Priyanka Chopra Jonas Joins Bentley

In an era when luxury automakers are just as likely to trade in storytelling as they are horsepower, Bentley Motors has found its latest narrator—and she doesn’t come from the paddock. She comes from the soundstage.

Enter Priyanka Chopra Jonas, the newly minted global brand ambassador whose résumé reads less like a casting sheet and more like a portfolio of modern influence: actor, producer, author, entrepreneur, and global advocate. For Bentley, this isn’t just another celebrity endorsement. It’s a calculated shift toward something softer, more human—and, arguably, more relevant.

The campaign, dropping this weekend with a longer-form film to follow, leans hard into authenticity. Shot in a documentary style at Sony Studios in Los Angeles, it pairs Chopra Jonas with Greg Williams—one half of Bentley’s recently appointed creative duo alongside Mai Ikuzawa. The result isn’t so much an ad as it is a conversation, one where the car plays a supporting role rather than the lead.

That car, by the way, is the Bentley Continental GT—a machine that, much like its new ambassador, trades on presence rather than noise. It’s there in the film, woven into the background, never demanding attention but always deserving it. Think less “hero shot,” more “co-star.”

Chopra Jonas speaks of craftsmanship the way Bentley engineers might talk about hand-stitched hides or milled aluminum: with reverence for the process. “There’s an intentionality behind every detail,” she says, aligning herself with a brand that has built its modern identity on precisely that idea. It’s a neat bit of symmetry—her world of filmmaking and Bentley’s world of coachbuilding both hinge on the same principle: nothing great happens by accident.

From Bentley’s perspective, the move makes sense. The brand has been steadily expanding its roster of ambassadors, but this feels like a pivot from traditional luxury signaling to cultural relevance. Marketing Director Ben Whattam calls it “a fresh energy,” though what he really means is that Bentley is betting on personality over polish.

And it might just work. Because while the Continental GT remains a masterclass in grand touring—equal parts speed, serenity, and stitched perfection—the real story here isn’t about the car. It’s about the people who give it meaning.

In a segment long dominated by specs and status, Bentley is trying something different: letting the narrative breathe.

Source: Bentley

Story

When Bentley Learned to Drift

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

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