New Bentley Mulsanne (2010) - Video + new pictures

The new Bentley Mulsanne - new pictures and video

The 2010 Bentley Mulsanne was fully revealed at Frankfurt. Here we have an updated photo gallery and video of the new Mulsanne.

We had the tease. Something special is coming. The new ‘Grand’ Bentley. Pretentious? A little. But with the heritage of Bentley it was a game they could play and get away with. After all, the Arnage was in a league of its own as a performance super-saloon, despite its ancient – and Rolls Royce, at that – foundations.

The 2010 Bentley Mulsanne was finally rolled out at Pebble Beach last month. But we didn’t get much detail on the oily bits. That was saved for the Mulsanne launch at Frankfurt last week. So now we know that the new Mulsanne offers a very healthy 505bhp, but more importantly it has the huge lump of torque we expect from a big Bentley – 752lb/ft.

The styling didn’t debut to universal praise. But we like it. It’s what a big Bentley should look like. It draws inspiration from Bentley’s history without being a pastiche. It doesn’t look like a clone of other super saloons. And it has presence. Especially in the flesh. It sports a completely new chassis, developed just for the Mulsanne (although we’re convinced the Mulsanne underpins the Bugatti Galibier).

And it’s technically clever too. It gets a number of firsts – for Bentley and the sector – including cam phasing to control performance and fuel efficiency, and valve displacement which shuts down a cylinder or three at cruising speeds to reduce fuel consumption.

And the Mulsanne story won’t end with the saloon. It’s a certainty that we will see the Mulsanne Coupe and the Mulsanne DHC in the next few years. After all, it works for Rolls Royce (the Ghost will spawn a Coupe and a DHC – just like the Phantom). We’ll also see new engines for the Mulsanne. The completely re-worked 6.75 litre V8 in the Mulsanne is just the start. A Hybrid is almost a certainty and we believe there’s every chance that the big Bentley will get a de-tuned version of the Bugatti lump at some point.

But for now the focus is on the new Mulsanne. So we’ve added a video of the Mulsanne out driving to give you more perspective, and we’ve topped up the Mulsanne photo gallery with some new images.

And if you want all the gen, check out the Mulsanne Press Release.

We’d have one.