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Mulliner’s Dutch Masters Collection Blends Art History With Horsepower

Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum has held its share of masterpieces, but it’s not every day that three one-off Bentleys take their place among Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Van Gogh. At a special event hosted in the museum’s Gallery of Honour, Bentley and its bespoke division, Mulliner, unveiled the Dutch Masters Collection—a trio of Continental GTs that reinterpret the palettes, textures, and symbolism of iconic Dutch art.

More than 200 guests from Bentley’s Dutch dealerships gathered first for a virtual reveal, then for an evening inside the country’s most revered art space—an appropriately dramatic backdrop for cars that blur the line between coachbuilding and canvas.

Car 01: Rembrandt’s “Night Watch” Reimagined

Rembrandt’s 1642 Night Watch never lacked drama, and neither does Mulliner’s corresponding Continental GT Convertible. Draped in Midnight Emerald, the car picks up the painting’s deep shadows, while its interior splashes of Hotspur red riff on Captain Frans Banninck Cocq’s famous sash. A combination of Magnolia and Cumbrian green hides softens the cabin, echoing the lieutenant’s coat and the painting’s muted tones.

Gold organ stops add a subtle baroque flourish, but the real showpiece comes when the door opens at night: an illuminated animation of a floating feather—an Easter egg nodding to the lieutenant’s hat in the center of the canvas. Feather motifs continue across the door cards, set against Dutch Masters badging that reminds you this Bentley is not just a car, but a one-off piece of rolling art.

Car 02: Vermeer’s Light, Captured in Metal and Leather

Few artists command light the way Johannes Vermeer did, and Mulliner’s Vermeer-inspired Continental GT aims to distill that luminance into automotive form. The exterior’s Sapphire satin finish immediately sets a different tone—cool, reflective, almost Delft-like in its purity. A panoramic sunroof ensures daylight floods the cabin just as Vermeer did with his window-lit interiors.

Inside, Beluga and Ocean blue hides establish a calm foundation, broken up by daring flashes of Citric yellow and seat piping in Klein blue. Mulliner looked to Vermeer’s The Little Street for the welcome lamp animation and door card imagery, capturing its rolling clouds with surprising delicacy. The Bentley Rotating Display even receives a hand-painted inner ring and a Klein blue bezel—small touches that elevate the whole car from homage to interpretation.

Car 03: Van Gogh’s “Starry Night,” Now in Dark Sapphire and Khamun

If Rembrandt delivered gravitas and Vermeer contributed serenity, then Vincent van Gogh brings emotion—turbulent, color-charged, and unmistakably expressive. Mulliner’s third entry, a Continental GT in Dark Sapphire with Khamun yellow pinstriping, channels the whirling sky of The Starry Night without resorting to mere imitation.

The interior leans heavily on Imperial blue, Dark Sapphire, Linen, and Khamun, a near-direct translation of Van Gogh’s Post-Impressionist palette. Illuminated welcome lamps and etched door panels recreate the painting’s swirling sky, while a dual-finish Piano Linen veneer bisected by a hand-painted Dark Sapphire pinstripe anchors the theme. Open-pore chiselled Walnut across the center console and gold knurled organ stops finish the look with texture and warmth—Van Gogh through a luxury lens.

The Art, Beyond the Cars

Each Dutch Masters Bentley comes with a bespoke presentation key box trimmed in its car’s hides. Open it, and you’ll find laser-etched artwork—feather, clouds, or starry sky—on the inner lid. Mechanically, all three cars share Blackline and Touring specifications, body-colored styling kits, wellness seating, mood lighting, the Bentley Rotating Display, and a Naim for Bentley audio system. In other words: they’re as modern and technologically complete as any Continental GT, just dressed with a level of artistic intention rarely seen in automotive design.

Art Meets Engineering—Literally

Most manufacturers love calling their cars “works of art.” Mulliner’s Dutch Masters Collection is one of the few times that claim holds up to scrutiny. These Continentals don’t merely borrow color palettes—they translate light, iconography, and mood. They’re reinterpretations of three world-famous masterpieces, crafted not for galleries, but for the open road.

And inside the Rijksmuseum, surrounded by centuries of history, these Bentleys didn’t look out of place. That might just be the highest compliment an automotive designer can hope for.

Source: Bentley

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Bentley Brings Back the Carbon Fibre Styling Spec—Now More Advanced and More Exclusive

Bentley isn’t usually the brand you look to for subtlety, and its latest update to the Continental GT, GTC, and Flying Spur proves that Crewe still knows how to make a 5,500-pound grand tourer feel like a motorsport trophy on wheels. Enter the new Carbon Fibre Styling Specification, a fully reengineered aesthetic and aerodynamic package aimed at customers who want their six-figure cruiser served with a sizeable portion of track-inspired aggression.

And judging by Bentley’s own numbers—one in four previous-generation cars left the factory fitted with the Styling Specification—the appetite for carbon isn’t going anywhere.

A Mulliner-Level Makeover

This latest iteration expands availability dramatically. Previously limited to a narrower slice of Bentley’s portfolio, the carbon package is now open to every variant of the Continental GT, GTC, and Flying Spur, and even makes its way to the Bentayga lineup. More importantly, the Styling Specification has returned to Mulliner, Bentley’s bespoke division, where personalization borders on obsessive. Buyers can now commission carbon components that align with the handcrafted ethos of the brand’s highest tier.

The public got its first look at the refreshed kit on a Continental GT Speed in Orange Flame, shown at the 2025 Goodwood Festival of Speed—because of course Bentley would debut a carbon-festooned grand tourer by sending it up the hill in front of several hundred thousand car obsessives.

Hand-Laid Carbon with Motorsport Intent

The package includes a front splitter, full-length side sills with electroformed Bentley badges, a more comprehensive rear diffuser, and mirror caps, all constructed from multiple layers of structural carbon weave. Bentley insists this is not a styling exercise grafted onto existing bodywork: every component has been developed from scratch alongside the fourth-generation models.

True to Mulliner form, each piece is mirror-matched across the centerline, just like the wood veneers inside the cabin. The side sill badges deserve special attention—each is a three-dimensional electroformed piece, with a faceted, jewelry-like finish created specifically to avoid lacquer bubbles and micro-imperfections. It’s a tiny detail, but one that showcases how Bentley can turn even a performance add-on into a craftsman’s showcase.

Looks Good, Works Hard

The carbon fibre hardware doesn’t just sharpen curbside presence; it actually contributes to performance. Bentley’s new Performance Hybrid powertrains put out a monstrous 782 PS and 1,000 Nm, enough to shove the Continental GT to 62 mph in 3.2 seconds. That kind of thrust needs aerodynamic stability, not just swagger.

Bentley says the components underwent over 100,000 kilometers of durability testing, plus intensive lab-based stress cycles. The new reinforced front splitter is now twice as thick as before—engineered as a functional aerodynamic tool rather than a cosmetic flourish.

Pair the carbon package with the titanium Akrapovič exhaust and the Blackline Specification, and suddenly Bentley’s gentlemanly grand tourers take on a darker, more focused demeanor. Not quite a race car, but certainly a statement that this new generation of Continental and Flying Spur isn’t all about quiet luxury.

For New Buyers—and the Already Converted

Uniquely, the Carbon Fibre Styling Specification is available not just on newly commissioned cars but also as a retrofit for existing fourth-generation models. That gives current owners a chance to bring their cars up to the latest visual and aerodynamic standard—a rare move for an ultra-luxury brand, and one that signals Bentley’s understanding of its audience: owners who want the newest specification, even if their car is already parked in the garage.

Bentley’s new carbon fibre suite doesn’t reinvent the Continental GT or Flying Spur, but it sharpens their personalities in all the right places. It’s more cohesive than the outgoing package, more widely available, and engineered with enough functional credibility to justify its existence.

If you want a grand tourer with the poise of a luxury yacht and the attitude of a Le Mans pit lane, this is Bentley giving you exactly that—and doing it with a level of craftsmanship no other brand can quite match.

Source: Bentley

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Bentley Turns Light Into Luxury: The Futuristic Craft Behind Mulliner’s Animated Welcome Lamps

For more than a century, Bentley has defined luxury with wood so polished you can see the future in it, leather so supple it could pass for a tailored suit, and metalwork fit for a fine Swiss chronometer. But now, the Crewe craftsmen have added a surprising new medium to their palette: light.

And not just any light — curated, animated, digitally sculpted light.

Originally developed for the ultra-exclusive Mulliner Batur, Bentley’s first-ever use of Digital Light Processing (DLP) in a road car is now making its way into the brand’s broader coachbuilt offerings. The result? Customers can design their own animated welcome projection — a personal light show that appears on the ground as they open the door. Think of it as the automotive equivalent of a signature handshake, crafted from photons.

Light as Luxury Material

Bentley calls the concept “digital craftsmanship,” and for once, the marketing speak undersells it. What the brand is doing here is redefining how technology and traditional coachbuilding can intersect.

Every projection features a two-part animation:

  • An intro sequence triggered when the door first swings open
  • A continuous loop that plays afterward

Bentley’s designers aren’t just sketching pretty patterns — they’re pulling motifs from the cabin and exterior and giving them motion. Embroidered feathers can flutter to life. Initials can sweep across the pavement in a handwritten flourish. Even bespoke themes can be crafted for special commissions.

Case in point: a recent Mulliner collection inspired by the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest. The headrest embroidery and dashboard’s musical cues became the backbone of an animation featuring warm central light surrounded by swirling musical notes — a bit of nighttime theatre every time you step inside.

Microscopic Mirrors, Massive Impact

If this all sounds like projector tech, that’s because it is — extremely advanced projector tech.

Bentley’s system uses three colored light sources that pass through five lenses and two prisms before striking a tiny 8 mm² Digital Micromirror Device (DMD™). This silicon chip contains 415,800 mirrors, each only 16 microns wide — roughly one-fifth the width of a human hair.

These mirrors can tilt thousands of times per second. When they’re “on,” they reflect colored light out toward the ground. When “off,” they aim light into a heat sink so the image stays razor-sharp. Each mirror is a pixel, and together they form animations detailed enough to match the rest of the car’s handcrafted identity.

If luxury used to rely on rare materials, Bentley argues the next frontier is mastering how those materials behave in motion.

The Future: Where Craft Meets Code

Bentley’s designers are already exploring how far this idea can go. What happens when lighting, interior design, and UI all merge into one cohesive artistic language? What if the emotional resonance customers expect from woodgrain or leather stitching could also come from curated moments of digital animation?

This isn’t about more screens or brighter LEDs; it’s about using technology to amplify the emotional signature of a Bentley. A new kind of luxury — less about physical mass, more about sensory experience.

And while animated welcome lamps might seem like a small flourish, they hint at something bigger: a future where the line between coachbuilding and coding gets beautifully blurred.

Bentley built its reputation on craftsmanship you can feel. Now it’s working on craftsmanship you can see — even before you step inside.

Source: Bentley