AN ANATOMY OF THE… BENTLEY ARNAGE
As much as this is a history of the birth and evolution of the last Bentley to be designed during the 20th century, it’s also (inevitably) a look at the very public battle between Volkswagen and BMW for ownership of the Bentley and Rolls-Royce names. The car was launched in the middle of the takeover tussle between the two German giants. And when BMW snatched the rights to Rolls-Royce from under VW’s nose – and at a fraction of the price that VW had paid for Bentley – it would have quite radical repercussions for the new Arnage.
However, we’re getting ahead of ourselves, for the origins of the Arnage date back to the days when Vickers was in charge of both marques. The British aviation, defence, marine and engineering conglomerate had acquired Rolls-Royce and Bentley in 1980, and it was under Vickers’ watch that Bentley began to properly re-emerge from the shadow of its parent marque. Restoring a more sporting image to the Flying B, with turbocharged models that looked more than just slightly different to Rolls-Royces, meant that Bentleys rose from representing just 5% of production when Vickers rode in, to 40% by 1986. Five years later it was a 50:50 split between Rolls-Royce and Bentley, with the latter’s share still climbing.
Initial work on successors
