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Bentley Centenary Concept Going Official On July 10th

As Bentley prepares to take the veils off the Flying Spur, the ultra-luxury automaker from Crewe is also putting the finishing touches on the Centenary Concept. Not known how it’s called at the present moment, the one-off Bentley will be unveiled on July 10th according to chief executive officer Adrian Hallmark.
Bentley EXP 12 Speed 6e Concept 12 photos
Photo: Bentley
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The concept promises to showcase the roadmap for the next three decades, but on the other hand, a lot will change in 30 years. Hallmark talks about design and technology like no other Bentley before it, but did he ever imagine what a Bentley would look like and feature as standard in the year 2050?

Chances are Hallmark doesn’t have that much foresight, and in hindsight, do remember how much the Chevrolet Impala changed in three decades. The Porsche 911, by comparison, is one of the few exceptions in this regard. The Chevrolet Corvette is an even better example, going mid-engine and possibly hybrid for the eighth generation of the breed.

Designed off site near the headquarters in Crewe, the Centenary Concept is also going to introduce Bentley to a different design language. Remember the Turbo R from the 1990s? It’s been succeeded by the Arnage and Mulsanne over the past decades, and with every successor, the design language changed for the better. Given these circumstances, it’s impossible for the Centenary Concept preview the design language of Bentley for the next three decades.

Transparent OLED displays are expected from the mysterious one-off, and we wouldn’t be surprised if that were the case. A precedent was set by the EXP 12 Speed 6e Concept from the 2017 Geneva Motor Show, featuring a solid piece of curved glass that encompasses a high-definition OLED screen.

Even though most of the exterior styling helped Crewe come up with the latest generation of the Continental GT, we’re still questioning the automaker’s decision to pull the plug on the EXP 12 Speed 6e Concept. Even if the engineers would’ve gone for a twin-turbo V8 instead of an all-electric powertrain, a sub-Continental GT sports car would have rounded off the lineup rather nicely.

Speaking of EVs, Bentley is planning to hybridize everything in the near future. By 2025, an electric vehicle will also be launched, most likely on the Premium Platform Electric platform developed by Audi and Porsche.
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About the author: Mircea Panait
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After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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