Oops: Half-naked car dealer found with gun in Bentley

You know that old saying “don’t get caught with your pants down?” It means that you should always be prepared. But it also means that you literally shouldn’t get caught with your pants down. Too obvious? Tell that to Eugene Bernshtam, an auto dealer in the Chicago area who The Chicago Sun-Times reports was caught by police naked from the waist down in the front passenger seat of his 2006 Bentley.

Bernshtam reportedly told police that the reason he was found sans pants was because he had just urinated in an alley. Indecent exposure is a fairly serious crime that likely carries a hefty fine, so why was Bernshtam’s bail set at a steep $50,000? The (alleged) pantless luxury car driver also had a loaded hand gun in the car without a permit. Nice.

Bernshtam’s preliminary hearing will be held on November 9, and remember, pants are required in court.

2011 Bentley Continental GT

When tasked with creating the 2011 Continental GT, Bentley officials sought the assistance of those who knew the outgoing car best – its owners. Upon querying current and past Continental GT buyers about what they’d like to see in the new model, a surprisingly unified voice came back loud and clear: “Don’t screw up my car, but fix the sat-nav.” As far as owner surveys go, this type of response speaks volumes. Most apparent is that it speaks to the universal inadequacy of the outgoing car’s wayfinding electronics, but more importantly, it serves to underscore just how much of a bull’s-eye Bentley hit with the original model back in 2003. After all, who among us can’t think of a laundry list of improvements for our daily driver? This also goes some way toward explaining how the GT has been on the market for eight years while still selling in respectable numbers.

Of course, given ever-toughening emissions and crash standards to contend with, Bentley couldn’t simply shove a new infotainment system in the Conti’s dashboard and amble off to the pub job-done, so they set about improving the car in a million little ways so that it’s at once clearly new and fresh to the faithful, yet endearingly familiar. Surprisingly, much the same can be said for the Sultanate of Oman where Bentley hosted our first drive…

Axl Rose sued by Bentley for leased car damage, exceeding allowance by 42,000 miles

Axl Rose, front man for hard rock band Guns N’ Roses, has an appetite for destruction and his latest target is reportedly a 2006 Bentley Continental Flying Spur. According to celeb dish outlet TMZ.com, Rose is being sued by Bentley over a vehicle he leased. The car was given back several months after its scheduled date of return. That is just icing on a sweet cake of disregard however, as the car was allegedly returned with a cracked windshield, two damaged wheels, a broken taillight, a missing key, dents on the doors and damage to the bumper. Axl or his compadres also racked up serious seat time by going 42,000 miles over the lease limit.

The boys from Crewe have little Patience *ahem* for someone mistreating their property like this, and Bentley is suing Mr. Rose for nearly $74,000.

Bentley reportedly readying four-door coupe

The Mulsanne is still fresh. The new Continental GT has just arrived on scene. Bentley will undoubtedly have its hands full creating another couple of variations of each, but it’s not about to stop there. According to emerging reports from the British Isles, Crewe is planning a four-door coupe or five-door hatch to take on the likes of the Aston Martin Rapide and Porsche Panamera.

The reports come courtesy of Auto Express, who spoke with Bentley chief Dr. Franz-Josef Paefgen about the company’s plans for the future, and this is what reportedly came up. Although styling is anticipated to follow the cues from the new Continental, the four-door coupe, if approved, would likely borrow its underpinnings from the Audi A7 while employing the new 4-liter V8 being co-developed with Audi. Pricing, meanwhile, could undercut the Continental and give Bentley a new entry-level model. One with a sleeker roofline to boot.

More speculation on Bentley and Audi sharing next-gen V8

Bentley hasn’t let much slip about the V8 that will be available in the 2011 Bentley Continental GT. However, each article that appears about Audi’s use of the engine has one more little bit of information on it. According to what has been written we can piece together that it will be a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 with 550 horsepower. Bentley, though, hasn’t given any indication of power output yet, though the 550 number was mooted in reference to next year’s RS7 Sportback. If that were true for a V8 Continental GT, it could be uncomfortably close to the base V12 output.

Regardless, the latest news has the V8 will reduce CO2 emissions by 40 percent compared to the W12, listed as 396 g/km. Bentley said during the release of the second-gen Continental that the V8 would have “a class-leading CO2 emissions-to-power ratio,” but even with that in mind, 40 percent is still a huge jump. Unless they’re talking about simply piling on a huge amount of emissions equipment, there figures to be a serious rise in the Conti’s EPA mileage rating, currently at 13 miles per gallon. It still wouldn’t break 20 mpg, but it would be close closer, and not inconsequential.

Paris 2010: 2011 Bentley Continental GT, live and in the flesh

Here is your first glimpse at the redesigned 2011 Bentley Continental GT as it makes its world debut at theParis Motor Show. Earlier, we mentioned that it will receive a nearly four percent price hike over the previous model, which is nothing compared to the overall improvements the new car has received.

Like any car, it has good and bad angles (obviously, the exception to this rule is the Maserati GranTurisumowhich looks beautiful from every angle…) – we’ll hold off final judgment until we can see it outside in natural light, not surrounded by a mob of flash bulbs and clamoring journalists. See for yourself in our high-res gallery of live images below.

2011 Bentley Continental GT arrives with new design, optional V8

The 2011 Bentley Continental GT is just the second generation of the blockbuster coupe that rumbled ashore eight years ago. And frankly, this new one looks a lot like that ancient one, but Bentley would have us believe that this is actually a completely new car. Outside, the bodywork gets all kinds of massaging: prominent front fender lines that roll over the headlights and into the more-upright grille, a more pronounced grille treatment that asserts itself into the lower intake, LED running lamps surrounding the main headlight elements, a double-horseshoe rear-end treatment inspired by the Mulsanne and taillights that curl into the rear fenders. For a start…

More substantively, the 2011 Conti gets a boost in horsepower from its 6.0-liter twin-turbo W12 engine, hitting 567 horsepower and 516 pound-feet. The engine swipes a page from the Continental Supersports playbook and gains flex-fuel capability, accepting any combination of gasoline and E85. To keep you in touch with that power, Bentley’s six-speed Quickshift transmission swaps cogs more quickly and does double downshifts. To keep that power in the right place, the rear track is wider, front-to-rear bias of the all-wheel-drive system is now 40/60 front-to-rear, and the coefficient of drag has been reduced to 0.33. 0-60 mph? 4.4 seconds? Top speed? 198 mph.

(Un)Delete Option: Bentley Continental Supersports options list to include rear seat?

We’ve come to expect the ultimate in customization from Bentley. If you’ve got the scratch, the company will be more than happy to custom tailor its products to fit your tastes – right down to the color of your car’s seat belts. It should come as no surprise, then, that the company is now allowing potential ContinentalSupersports Coupe buyers to order their cars with a back seat.

One of the coolest parts of the 612-horsepower coupe is the fact that, for its part, Bentley tried to trim the car’s fat. Weight got ditched wherever possible, including the cabin. Those hefty, infinitely adjustable, heated, cooled and massaging front buckets were swapped for lightweight carbon fiber-backed units, and the two rear seats were scrapped all together. In their place? A sexy piece of carbon-fiber bracing. We like.

But evidently, Bentley buyers would prefer their two-door to have more seats. To help boost Continental Supersports Coupe sales, the company has decided to offer the back thrones as a stand alone option. Checking the box will put the standard front seats in, ditch the rear bracing and re-install the rears. There’s no word on exactly how many pounds that will add to the car’s waist line, but it can’t do the coupe any favors. Boo to this.

New Bentley Mulsane Limousine Priced from £220,000 in the UK, Sales Start Next Summer

Bentley’s new flagship limousine, the Mulsanne, will arrive in the United Kingdom in the Summer of 2010 with a starting price of £220,000 (including taxes and delivery charges), which comes to about US$365,000 or €242,000 with the current exchange rates, the company announced today.

Powered by a twin-turbocharged 6¾-litre V8 engine that delivers a hefty 512 horsepower, the luxury Bentley flagship will offer buyers a wide variety of personalization options including a palette of 114 paint colors, 21 carpet colors, nine wood veneers and 24 different interior leather hides to choose from.

Bentley said it has already held more than 1,000 private customer previews of the Mulsanne at the company’s factory in Crewe, England as well as a series of preview events held at dealerships across the UK, Continental Europe and the United States, and that early customer interest exceeds 2010 production targets

“Even at this very early stage, the expression of interest we’ve received easily exceeds our 2010 production targets,” said Stuart McCullough, Member of the Board for Sales & Marketing for Bentley.

“The Mulsanne’s credentials are a pure expression of Bentley design and craftsmanship, and that’s struck a chord with Bentley enthusiasts across the globe as well as many of the potential customers we have welcomed for tours in Crewe this year. We’ve been encouraged by the positive commentary, notably from our American customers as the Mulsanne was privately previewed in seven metro markets across the country.”

Production of the Mulsanne will commence at the firm’s Crewe headquarters in England in the second quarter of 2010 with each example taking about nine weeks to build.