Tag Archives: Bentley

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Even Bentley’s Cargo Jets Are Going Green Now

Bentley has never been shy about excess. Twelve cylinders, mirror-finish walnut, enough cowhide to upholster a gentlemen’s club. But in 2026, excess comes with an asterisk—and a carbon calculation. So while the brand from Bentley Motors is still perfectly happy to airfreight your six-figure grand tourer across continents at a moment’s notice, it now plans to do so on something a little less Jurassic than conventional jet fuel.

The company announced it will use Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) for all customer car airfreight movements worldwide, effective immediately. It’s a headline that sounds bureaucratic until you remember what’s actually happening: when a customer in, say, Dubai or Los Angeles needs their Continental or Bentayga delivered yesterday, that car often boards a cargo jet. And cargo jets, as physics relentlessly reminds us, burn a lot of fuel.

Bentley insists airfreight remains the exception, not the rule. Sea freight is still the default, because container ships sip fuel compared with aircraft guzzling it at 35,000 feet. But in the rare cases when time zones and client expectations collide, the brand says those flights will now run on ISCC-certified SAF—an alternative fuel derived from renewable or waste-based sources that can be pumped into existing aircraft without modification. No new engines. No sci-fi hardware. Just a different cocktail in the tank.

The important bit isn’t that it works—it does—but that it meaningfully cuts lifecycle emissions. Depending on feedstock and production method, SAF can reduce lifecycle CO₂e emissions by up to 70 to 95 percent compared with conventional jet fuel. That’s not greenwashing math; it’s independently verified well-to-wheel accounting, the kind sustainability departments love and engineers respect.

According to Aimee Kelly, Bentley’s Head of Sustainability, the shift reflects “measurable, evidence-based steps” to reduce emissions where flying remains unavoidable. Translation: if you must ship a two-and-a-half-ton luxury coupe by air, at least make the jet fuel count for something.

Bentley says it has already transported customer cars using SAF, recording substantial CO₂e reductions compared with traditional aviation fuel. At present, the coverage applies to all customer car airfreight movements, and the company is exploring whether SAF can be expanded across additional logistics routes that require air transport.

This isn’t an isolated PR flourish. It slots into Bentley’s broader Beyond100+ strategy—its long-term roadmap to transform the company into a leader in sustainable luxury mobility. Beyond100+ aims to decarbonize operations and the value chain while preserving what Bentley considers non-negotiable: craftsmanship, performance, and the sort of quiet authority that comes from building cars in Crewe for over a century.

If this sounds like a strange juxtaposition—private jets and planet-saving ambitions—you’re not wrong. Luxury and sustainability have historically been uneasy roommates. But the modern ultra-luxury customer expects both: speed and conscience, indulgence and accountability.

There’s also a pragmatic undertone here. Airfreight produces significantly higher emissions than sea transport. That’s a hard truth. So rather than pretending urgency doesn’t exist in global markets, Bentley is targeting the emissions intensity of the flight itself. It’s a surgical move: decarbonize the outliers while continuing to lean on lower-impact shipping where possible.

For a brand built on W-12 engines and two-tone paintwork, this is a different kind of engineering challenge. Not horsepower per liter, but carbon per kilometer. Not 0–60 times, but well-to-wheel emissions curves.

Will Sustainable Aviation Fuel single-handedly absolve the environmental footprint of shipping a 5000-pound luxury car by air? Of course not. But in a world where logistics is often the invisible giant in a product’s carbon story, it’s a meaningful lever.

And if Bentley is serious about redefining sustainable luxury, the real work isn’t just in electrifying the lineup—it’s in rethinking everything that happens before the key fob ever lands in a customer’s hand.

Source: Bentley

Auctions

The 1999 Continental SC Is the Rarest Way to Be a Gentleman Racer

Before the Bentley Continental GT became the globe-trotting symbol of nouveau-luxury speed, Bentley was already experimenting with how to make old-money muscle feel modern. One of those experiments—the Continental SC, also known as the Sedanca Coupe—is now resurfacing at auction, and it might be one of the most interesting Bentleys most people have never heard of.

Built in 1999 on the bones of the Continental R, the Continental SC was Bentley’s idea of a high-speed tuxedo with a removable roof. It was part grand tourer, part targa, and entirely unnecessary in the best possible way. Only 73 were built (plus six even rarer Mulliner versions), making this one of the rarest post-Crewe Bentleys ever produced.

And now one of them—barely driven and still looking freshly tailored—is heading to RM Sotheby’s in Miami.

Old-School Bentley, But Make It Sporty

Finished in classic Bentley black, the Continental SC looks exactly how a late-’90s British luxury coupe should: imposing, formal, and just slightly menacing. The upright matrix grille and mesh lower intakes are flanked by red Bentley badges, a subtle nod that this is no ordinary Continental R. The chrome trim is tasteful, not flashy, and the five-spoke 18-inch wheels give the car a planted, muscular stance.

Everything about the exterior says “banker by day, outlaw by night.”

But the real party trick is on the roof.

A Bentley With a Split Personality

The Continental SC is a targa in the most Bentley way possible. Two removable glass panels sit above the front seats, while a fixed glass roof section covers the rear. Whether the panels are installed or stowed away, the cabin remains bright and open—more Riviera than racetrack.

When you want open-air motoring, the glass panels lift out and disappear into a dedicated trunk compartment. To keep the chassis from turning into a luxury noodle, Bentley borrowed structural reinforcements from the Azure convertible, making this part-coupe, part-convertible Frankenstein surprisingly stiff for something weighing well over two tons.

It’s weird. It’s brilliant. And Bentley would never build something like this today.

Wood, Leather, and Late-’90s Excess

Inside, the SC is peak pre-VW Bentley. Heated leather seats with black piping look barely used, and they’re surrounded by acres of burled walnut, cold metal trim, and the sort of craftsmanship that made Rolls-Royce nervous back then.

There’s also an Alpine audio system with a CD changer, which is a reminder that this car was built when people still curated music instead of streaming it. It’s not modern, but it is wonderfully period-correct.

Turbo V8, Because of Course

Under that long, formal hood lives Bentley’s legendary 6.75-liter turbocharged V8. It makes 400 horsepower and a truly absurd 590 lb-ft of torque—numbers that still feel outrageous today. Power flows through a four-speed automatic, because manuals are for peasants, and Bentley had places to be.

The result? 0–60 mph in just over six seconds and a top speed of 155 mph. That might not sound shocking now, but in 1999 this was supercar territory for something with walnut trim and heated seats.

The Price of Rarity

This Canadian-market example is being sold without reserve at RM Sotheby’s Miami auction and is expected to bring between $250,000 and $300,000—roughly what a brand-new Continental GT costs today.

But here’s the difference: a new GT is mass-produced luxury. This is hand-built, absurdly rare, and nearly untouched, with just 4,330 km (2,691 miles) on the clock over 27 years.

You’re not just buying a car. You’re buying a Bentley that Bentley almost forgot.

And in a world of increasingly digital, sanitized luxury, the Continental SC feels like a reminder of when automakers still took wild, wonderful risks—just because they could.

Source: RM Sotheby’s

NEW CARS

Bentley Continental GT S and GT Convertible S

Bentley has never been shy about mixing indulgence with insanity, but the new Continental GT S and GTC S lean harder into the latter than any “S” model before them. Inspired by the ferocious, limited-run Supersports, these new mid-range heavy hitters now land in the sweet spot between the refined Azure and the full-fat Speed—only now they bring hybrid firepower and the most aggressive chassis ever bolted under a Continental badge.

GT Convertible S

Under the hood sits Bentley’s new High Performance Hybrid, pairing a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 with an electric motor for a combined 680 horsepower and 930 Nm of torque. That’s 130 more horses than the outgoing GT S—and, crucially, it actually outguns the old W-12–powered Speed. Zero to 60 mph takes just 3.3 seconds, and the car doesn’t stop pulling until 190 mph. For a coupe that weighs about as much as a moon, that’s deeply unsettling—in a good way.

Even more shocking is the electric-only range: up to 50 miles. So yes, the same Bentley that can run with supercars can also quietly creep through a city center on electrons alone, like a billionaire ninja.

But the real story isn’t just the powertrain—it’s the hardware beneath it. For the first time, the GT S gets the full Bentley Performance Active Chassis previously reserved for the Speed and Mulliner models. That means active all-wheel drive, rear-wheel steering, a 48-volt active anti-roll system, torque vectoring, twin-valve adaptive dampers, and—finally—an electronic limited-slip differential. This is Bentley’s most sophisticated setup ever, and it transforms the Continental from a continent crusher into something that actually wants to be hustled.

In Dynamic mode, the stability control loosens the leash just enough to let the rear step out, giving the driver real control over cornering attitude. Turn ESC all the way off, and the GT S becomes a 5000-pound physics experiment you can steer with the throttle. That’s not something you’d ever say about a traditional Bentley—and that’s exactly the point.

Visually, the GT S makes sure no one mistakes it for the polite one. The Blackline Specification blacks out nearly everything that isn’t painted, from the grille and badges to the mirror caps and diffuser. Dark-tinted LED matrix headlights and taillights reinforce the menacing look, while standard 22-inch ten-spoke wheels fill the arches like they mean business. It’s less “country club” and more “midnight Monaco.”

Inside, Bentley continues the performance theme without forgetting its roots. The GT S gets a unique two-tone interior layout, fluted sport seats, and Dinamica microfiber on all the right touch points—the steering wheel, shifter, doors, and seats—giving the cabin a more motorsport-inspired feel than any Continental before it. Piano black trim comes standard, with carbon fiber available for those who want to lean even harder into the modern-super-GT vibe.

Continental GT S

The result is a Bentley that finally admits what everyone already knew: a 190-mph, V-8-hybrid grand tourer with rear-wheel steering has no business pretending to be subtle. The Continental GT S doesn’t replace the Speed—it offers a different flavor of madness, one that blends daily usability, long-distance comfort, and real driver engagement into something uniquely Bentley.

If the old Continental was a luxury cruise missile, the new GT S is a stealth fighter—quieter when it wants to be, louder when it needs to be, and far more agile than anyone expects.

And in Bentley’s world, that might just be the most dangerous thing of all.

Source: Bentley