The 1998 split between Rolls-Royce and Bentley allowed both marques to press a reset button and reinvent themselves for the new century. Despite the famous drama of VW out-bidding BMW for Rolls-Royce and Bentley, only to miss the Rolls-Royce branding rights that BMW snapped up, the two German giants sorted out their differences amicably enough. Volkswagen continued to build both Rolls-Royces and Bentleys at Crewe up to 2003, which allowed BMW to build a new factory at Goodwood in West Sussex and come up with a completely new Rolls-Royce model sporting the Spirit of Ecstasy and the Palladian grille. The result was the new Phantom, or Phantom VII.
Knowing that BMW was introducing an entirely new Rolls-Royce in 2003 practically dictated that Volkswagen had to do something similar for Bentley. Although the marque's mainstream Arnage model had only been launched in 1998, it was clearly a vestige of the past, with a shape that was strongly evolved from previous Rolls-Royces and Bentleys and (thanks to a sudden need to drop BMW powerplants) the traditional 6.75-litre L-series V8 engine that dated back to the 1950s. If Rolls-Royce had something fresh to showcase the benefits of its BMW ownership, then Bentley had to at least try and steal some of its thunder with a new machine that made the most of everything that VW could bring to the table. The result was the technologically advanced and very potent Continental GT.
The Continental
