First customer cars for both handcrafted series now finished
Both cars created in Bentley Mulliner’s dedicated workshop in Crewe
Bacalar Car One finished in bespoke Atom Silver Satin paint
Blower Car One resplendent in Birkin Green
The next three cars in each series now in build
Customer deliveries about to begin
Bentley Mulliner has completed the first customer cars in both of its new series of pinnacle, handcrafted, bespoke projects.
Each car is the first of their respective 12 vehicle series, with Bacalar Car One being the first customer delivery of Mulliner’s new coachbuilt barchetta. Meanwhile, Blower Car One is a millimetre-accurate mechanical recreation of Sir Henry ‘Tim’ Birkin’s 1929 supercharged 4½-Litre, and the first customer car of the world’s first pre-war continuation series.
The first customer cars follow their engineering prototypes, known in Bentley as the “Car Zeroes”. Each has completed significant durability mileage, performance and climatic testing in various locations and the engineering sign-off of both projects was successfully achieved to allow customer builds to commence.
Bentley’s Director of Mulliner and Motorsport, Paul Williams, comments: “Seeing these first two cars now finished has given the whole team an enormous sense of pride. Years of work have gone into the design and development of these projects, and seeing them together is incredibly rewarding. These cars are totally unique, absolutely bespoke, and yet have been built to the same quality standards as any other Bentley. Mulliner is truly the only place in the world that could deliver a 21st century, coachbuilt grand touring barchetta at the same time as recreating an iconic road-going 1929 race car.
“I’m excited for our customers to take delivery of their new cars, and to seeing the rest of the orders in both series come to life. Alongside the more mainstream yet still distinctive cars of the Mulliner Collections family, these are the first models of the Mulliner Classic and Coachbuilt portfolios – but there will be more. We’re just getting started.”
As with every car in the two series, strictly limited to 12 examples apiece, the first cars have had every detail specified by their imminent owners, and as such are totally bespoke to them.
Due to the nature of these personal commissions, Bentley is not able to reveal the identity of the customers nor where the cars will be heading. However, each customer shares a love of driving, along with an avid appreciation for craftsmanship, authenticity & attention to detail, all deeply associated with Mulliner.
Blower Car One The first Blower Continuation Series car is a shining example of classic design, executed to perfection. The body is trimmed in period-correct Rexine and finished in bespoke Birkin Green paint, a recreation of the colour of the original Blower on which it’s based – Team Car No.2, registration UU 5872. Built, owned and raced by Sir Tim Birkin, the car is still owned by Bentley Motors and is run weekly. Car One is therefore the most fitting start to the Continuation Series that could be imagined. The Birkin Green body is complemented by identically coloured wire wheels, with colour-matched leather trimming the interior. The foldable roof is in black.
Mechanically, the car is identical to Birkin’s original, save for two safety-critical features – modern electric fuel pumps, and a foam baffle to the fuel tank. A dynator, a reworked alternative to the original dynamo has also been added, offering a more powerful and reliable charging system whilst retaining the look of the original dynamo. The engine is a brand new example of W.O. Bentley’s own 4½-litre design, featuring aluminium pistons, an overhead camshaft, four valves per cylinder and twin spark plugs. Attached to the front is the iconic supercharger that gives the Blower its name, and is an exact recreation of that created in the 1920s by renowned engineer, Amherst Villiers. Power has been measured as part of engine sign-off, with the near-100-year old design reliably making 240 bhp.
Bacalar Car One Alongside the Blower, Bacalar Car One has also been finished. Designing a Bacalar is an exercise in imagination, with the material, colour and finish of practically every interior and exterior surface being bespoke.
The carbon fibre body is finished in a bespoke colour for the lead customer – a champagne-tinted satin silver called Atom Silver. The car sits on 22” Bacalar Tri-Finish wheels, with polished faces, dark grey satin spokes and gloss Moss Green accent highlights. The same Moss Green accent is applied to the front grille centre bar, the insides of the headlamps, the upper body chrome surround and around the gloss black “power humps” to the rear. Gloss black also provides contrast to the A-pillars, grille meshes and surrounds, bonnet vents, side vents, lower body, rear bumper insert and brake calipers. The rear of the car is finished with gloss black outer exhaust tips with Moss Green inners.
The interior of Bacalar Car One follows the same black and green trend. Beluga leather is accented with Moss Green hide to the wings of the console, the outer seat backs and throughout the cabin as contrast stitching through the unique Bacalar quilting pattern. The seat centres use fine Nappa leather, while the carpets are beluga diamond-carved overmats with Moss Green binding and stitching.
Open Pore Riverwood over Gloss Black veneer with unique satin bronze detailing flows across the cockpit into the doors and behind the front seats, creating a circle of 5,000-year-old veneer. The details of the cabin are truly special, with:
Bronze finishes to the steering wheel and headrest bezels, upper ventilation bullseye vents and accent rings
A satin nickel finish to the clock and Bentley Rotating Display dial faces
Black anodised interior brightware
Bright chrome Bentley wings
Gloss black finishing to the speaker grilles
Bespoke Bacalar luggage, that fits behind the front seats, crafted in Beluga hide with contrast Bentley embroidered emblems and Bacalar quilting pattern in Moss Green with Beluga fine Nappa leather piping.
Finally, the key for Bacalar Car One will be presented to the customer in a bespoke key box, trimmed in Beluga hide with Moss Green stitching to match the car. The key itself also features gloss Moss Green to the sides, with a special Bacalar knurled finish.
Both Blower Car One and Bacalar Car One now shortly begin their journeys to their respective owners, while the Mulliner build team continue work on the next three cars in both series – each one as special and unique to their owners as these first examples.
Monterey Car Week buyers snap-up remaining Venom F5 models
Two production vehicles on display at The Quail and Pebble Beach Concours help secure final sales of the 300+ mph hypercar
“Selling out is just the beginning of the F5 journey” – Founder and CEO John Hennessey
Sales allocation for each of the 24 bespoke $2.1M hypercars from Hennessey Performance is now complete
High-performance vehicle creator, Hennessey Special Vehicles has announced it has sold all its Venom F5 hypercars.
The Texas-based company showed a pair of Venom F5 customer cars at Monterey Car week where orders were confirmed for the remaining models of the 24-vehicle run.
The F5 pair were shown at The Quail – A Motorsports Gathering, the Pebble Beach Concours and McCall’s Motorworks Revival at the week-long celebration of all things automotive in California. Tens of thousands of fans joined Hennessey customers in admiring the ‘performance follows function’ form of the F5 along with its luxurious, driver-focused interior.
John Hennessey, company founder and CEO: “Showing two of the latest F5 models at The Quail and Pebble Beach alongside the likes of Bugatti, Lamborghini and Koenigsegg was an honor for the whole Hennessey team. The fact that we secured orders from customers who saw the cars at the events is testament to the quality our team has achieved… and we’re yet to reach the vehicle’s full potential!”
Hennessey’s $2.1M twin-turbocharged, 6.6-liter V8 hypercar boasts 1,817 hp and 1,193 lb-ft of torque making it the most powerful hypercar ever made. Hennessey’s team focused on quality of workmanship, and simplicity of design and engineering to deliver a hypercar without peers.
With the show season drawing to a close, the engineering team may return to final validation testing on roads and racing circuits. The final phase of testing will see the team refine the car’s full-power acceleration, high-speed stability and braking. Once the engineering team signs-off this final development phase, Hennessey has its sights set on a top speed surpassing 311 mph (500 kph).
John Hennessey: “Selling out is just the beginning of the F5 journey for us, our customers and our fans. Production has already begun, with customer deliveries starting this year and continuing through 2023. That’s not all, as we’ve saved a few more surprises for the F5, including the Track Pack enhancements, plus something else that’s literally out of this world!”
Salon Privé goes ‘live on the drive’ with demonstration runs on Sunday 5 September
Legendary rally cars will be in action at Blenheim Palace
60 years of the Jaguar E-type celebrated
Prestige automotive lifestyle clubs
Latest Super & Hypercar Debuts
The Red Collection
Tickets available on the gate at just £45
The grand finale to this year’s Salon Privé Week and the only day fully open to the general public, Salon Privé Classic & Supercar on Sunday 5 September is sure to set the pulses racing as the event doubles in size spreading across both the North & South Lawns of Blenheim Palace.
For the first time in the event’s history, enthusiasts of all ages can see and hear the very latest super and hypercars in action as they take to the hill for the inaugural Salon Privé Hill Sprint. With special model anniversaries being celebrated, food concessions, bars and live entertainment, it’s a day for the whole family to enjoy.
It won’t just be static displays that people will be able to revel in. Up until the late 1990s, Blenheim Palace regularly hosted a stage of the RAC Rally, and those sights and sounds are set to return thanks to a magnificent collection of Group A, Group B and WRC machinery that will tackle a course running from the North Gates down to the Great Vanbrugh Bridge.
Salon Privé week will feature a curated display of Richard Burn’s rally cars celebrating the 20th anniversary of the late Englishman’s World Rally Championship triumph which he dramatically won in a final-round showdown. A selection of Richard’s cars will be on display at Salon Privé, depicting his rise to World Rally Champion, one of which is the unrestored Impreza that took Richard to victory on the 2000 Network Q Rally, preserved exactly as it crossed the finish line. Alongside the Impreza will be a Peugeot 206 WRC that Richard campaigned in 2002 and was also driven by two other World Champions – Marcus Grönholm and Didier Auriol.
Alongside the celebration of Richard’s triumph, Salon Privé will also be acknowledging Colin McRae who won his World Rally Championship 25 years ago last year, but due to Covid any celebration was not possible and we are delighted to be displaying a selection of his cars on the Croquet Lawn at Blenheim Palace to mark the occasion.
To add to the Super & Hypercar sprint action, Sunday then sees an additional curated display entitled ‘World Rally Champions’, featuring 30 rarely seen cars driven in period by rallying greats during their illustrious careers. The line-up will include Stig Blomqvist’s Saab 99 Turbo which he won the 1979 Swedish rally, and Petter Solberg’s Subaru Impreza WRC from 2002 which is one of only 4 genuine cars used by the factory team that year. They will be joined by the 1999 Subaru Impreza in which four-time champion Juha Kankkunen won that year’s Rally Finland – his final victory at the highest level.
The awe-inspiring Group B era of the 1980s will be represented by an ex-Hannu Mikkola Audi Sport Quattro S1 which competed on the 1985 Lombard RAC Rally and a Peugeot 205 T16 that was campaigned in period by 1985 World Rally Champion Timo Salonen. There will also be a Citroën ZX Rallye Raid Evo 1 that Vatanen later used on the Paris-Dakar Rally.
Tommi Mäkinen and Colin McRae had some memorable battles during the 1990s, and a number of their cars will be present too, from Mäkinen’s Subaru Impreza WRC the final car he drove, to Colin McRae’s Rothmans sponsored Subaru Legacy RS GpA which has not been seen in public since 1995.
Both displays will provide an eye watering selection of cars never- before assembled in the UK in one place.
There will be automotive beauty at every turn thanks to the introduction of a brand-new feature for Salon Privé Week. The Red Collection will be presented on the hallowed cricket pitch, and the exclusive curated display of a dozen cars is set to include the 1933 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Monza Spider that won Best of Show in the 2020 Salon Privé Concours d’Elégance. The collection will be kept under wraps until its unveiling on Wednesday 1 September – the opening day of this year’s Concours d’Elégance presented by Aviva.
Elsewhere on the South Lawn, guests can experience a spectacular collection of new cars on display as well as several debuts including the Touring Arese RH95 from Italy which makes its World Debut at the event. Luxury brands of all shapes and sizes surround the lawn and this year also sees the exciting launch of Salon Privé TIME, the luxury watch fair which presents some of the world’s leading watch brands.
‘Salon Privé Week features the same electric atmosphere throughout,’ said Director David Bagley, ‘but each day has its own distinct character. Sunday should be very special this year, thanks not only to the supercars and classics on the South Lawn, but also the iconic rally cars that will be in action on the hill. We’re very grateful to Mark Constanduros and Steve Davies of Ralli22 for curating such a spectacular group of cars, and to see rally machinery let loose at Blenheim Palace will be unforgettable.’
The traditional curtain-raiser is the Salon Privé Concours d’Elégance presented by Aviva on Wednesday 1 September. That’s followed by Salon Privé Ladies’ Day presented by Boodles on Friday, the Salon Privé Club Trophy presented by Lockton on Saturday, and Sunday’s Classic and Supercar event. Add Salon Privé TIME – which will feature the world’s leading watchmakers – and the first-class hospitality for which the event is globally renowned, and it’s shaping up to be another unmissable Salon Privé Week.
Salon Privé Week 2021 1 September – Salon Privé Concours d’Elégance presented by Aviva 2 September – Salon Privé Concours d’Elégance presented by Aviva 3 September – Salon Privé Ladies’ Day presented by Boodles 4 September – Salon Privé Club Trophy presented by Lockton 5 September – Salon Privé Classic & Supercar
Tickets can be purchased via the website www.salonpriveconcours.com or by calling the Ticket Hotline: 0808 100 2205.
Charity Partner Salon Privé is proud to once again have Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity as its charity partner. The organisation provides emotional and practical support to families who have a child with a life-threatening or terminal illness, and thanks to the generation donations of guests and Concours entrants, the event has so far raised in excess of £1.1 million for these great causes.
Comprehensive programme of events in the US sees the Automobili Pininfarina Battista make its production-specification debut at Monterey Car Week
The event also saw the first public appearance of the exclusive Battista Anniversario in the US, presented at The Quail and Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance
Monterey Car Week gave clients the first chance to experience Battista’s bespoke exterior soundscape, which takes inspiration from the organic sound of its electric motors
Automobili Pininfarina announced its new partnership with BOVET 1822, with an exclusive preview of a unique timepiece to be revealed later this year
The Battista was lined up alongside beautiful historic Pininfarina-designed icons in celebration of more than 90 years of exquisite, elegant design heritage
During one of the busiest and most significant periods yet in the life of Automobili Pininfarina, the production-specification of the Battista hyper GT made its world debut at Monterey Car Week on the roads of California as part of a series of events in the US.
The ultimate illustration of sustainable luxury and peerless design, the Battista’s dynamic debut also gave clients the first opportunity to experience its tailor-made exterior soundscape at the high-profile and exclusive showcase.
Automobili Pininfarina’s US programme of events additionally saw the exclusive Battista Anniversario make its US premiere, and the launch of a new partnership between the maker of the world’s first pure-electric luxury hyper GT and BOVET 1822.
Per Svantesson, CEO of Automobili Pininfarina, said: “The first production-specification Battista hit the ground running on its arrival in the US, not only with the overwhelmingly positive reactions from our clients, who were impressed by the exquisite and intricate detailing of the hyper GT, but quite literally as the car made its dynamic debut on the beautiful Californian roads. We’re proud of what we’ve achieved here in the US, honouring Pininfarina’s rich history, and Automobili Pininfarina’s bright, exciting future. We’re looking forward to making the first deliveries later this year, where our clients will enjoy the definitive expression of sustainability, luxury and exclusivity.”
BATTISTA MAKES ITS ON-ROAD DEBUT IN THE US The first production-spec Battista made its dynamic debut on the roads of California ahead of its arrival at Monterey Car Week. With Black Exposed Signature Carbon bodywork and Impulso forged aluminium alloy wheels, as well as a striking interior featuring optional Pilota seats finished in sustainable black leather and quilted Iconica Blu Alcantara upholstery, it took full advantage of Automobili Pininfarina’s recently announced bespoke personalisation service, which allows every Battista to be uniquely configured.
The final steps on the road to delivering the world’s first pure-electric hyper GT will continue later this month when a group of select clients will have the opportunity to drive the production-form Battista, experiencing the most powerful road-legal Italian car ever built both on track and on the road.
EXCLUSIVE SOUND OF BATTISTA UNVEILED The unique exterior soundscape and ‘Pure Sound’ philosophy of the Battista was also revealed to clients. Curated for emotion and excitement while enhancing safety and driveability, the soundscape amplifies organic frequencies from the electric motors for an enthralling experience for both driver and onlookers.
The soundscape is inspired by the work of the Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi, in a similar way the Battista’s looks to Pininfarina’s Italian design heritage. The soundscape has a core frequency of 54 Hz which is a multiple of 432 Hz, known as ‘Verdi’s A,’ and is said to provide greater clarity and is easier on the ears than other frequencies. This delivers a pure sound that complements the Battista’s pure, elegant design philosophy.
BATTISTA ANNIVERSARIO MAKES SUCCESSFUL US PREMIERE The Battista Anniversario, an exclusive model limited to just five units worldwide, also made its US premiere at The Quail and Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
This ultra-rare model featured a bi-colour tinted Furiosa Pack comprising of a front splitter, side blades and rear diffuser, and caught the eyes of guests at the prestigious car show as it showcased the modern interpretation and result of Pininfarina’s heritage and innovation.
AUTOMOBILI PININFARINA ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH BOVET 1822 At an exclusive event during Monterey Car Week, Automobili Pininfarina and BOVET 1822 confirmed a new partnership which will see a ground-breaking timepiece unveiled later this year, in celebration of the Battista. The first image of the timepiece’s design was teased, showing the case back’s intricate detailing that mirrors the sculpted lines and body of the Battista when it is viewed from above.
The two luxury brands recognise shared values of precision, design, and handcraftsmanship, working together to magnify the legendary past of each House while proposing a shared vision of a more sustainable future.
THE PEBBLE BEACH CONCOURS D’ELEGANCE WINNERS REVEALED At the 70th Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on 15 August, four special judging classes showcased and celebrated Pininfarina’s 91 years of iconic Italian design heritage. The exceptionally elegant pre-war Italian 1938 Lancia Astura Pinin Farina Cabriolet won the ‘Pinin Farina Prewar’ category, with the 1953 Lancia Aurelia Pinin Farina PF200 C Spider taking home first place in the ‘Pininfarina Postwar’ class with its iconic pronounced oval grille.
The winner of the ‘Pinin Farina Ferrari Early’ class was the 1953 Ferrari 375 America Pinin Farina Coupe, and the 1966 Ferrari 365 P Pininfarina Berlinetta Speciale, Ferrari’s first mid-engined V12 presented by Pininfarina, was named winner in the ‘Pininfarina Ferrari Late’ category.
Renowned Pininfarina designs also excelled within the event’s overall awards classes, including the aforementioned 1966 Ferrari 365 P Pininfarina Berlinetta Speciale also being recognised as one of three 2021 Best of Show Nominees.
The 1936 Lancia Astura Series III Tipo Bocca Pinin Farina Cabriolet also won ‘Most Elegant Convertible,’ with the classic 1956 Ferrari 410 Superamerica Superfast Pinin Farina Coupe Speciale being honoured the ‘Enzo Ferrari Trophy.’
Proud of the design legacy that inspired the hand-built Battista, Automobili Pininfarina Chief Design Officer, Luca Borgogno, joined the honorary panel of experts to judge the other classes at the event.
Luca Borgogno said: “Seeing the iconic Pininfarina designs of the past come together with the pure-electric Battista on the lawn of the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance at a pivotal moment for Automobili Pininfarina, marked by the first drive of the production-spec Battista, was extraordinary. It’s clear that both old and new knowledge, from design to electric technology, have been combined to produce the hypercar of the future, the Battista, which is set to be the fastest and most powerful Italian sports car ever made, and that Automobili Pininfarina’s appearance at Monterey Car Week marked a revolution in automotive performance, design, technical collaboration and luxury.”
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