Bentley in the Salon & On Ice

So at the Geneva show Bentley exhibited a concept, the EXP 10 Speed 6:

There is another relevant number to add to the 10 and the 6: it has two seats. Quilted sport seats. Seats that are separated by a slim center console that has at an end a 12-inch touch screen with a curved surface that’s housed in an aluminum frame.

And while on the subject of materials, there one throughout that’s not ordinarily found in cars outside of things like wiring harnesses: copper. There are copper accents throughout, and the material is paired with various others, like steel for the control knobs with the knurled outer diameters that are so characteristic of Bentley.

The gear lever is finished in copper, aluminum and cherry wood.

The door trim has 3D “quilting” that’s milled into cherry wood. At the center of each “quilted” diamond there is a copper center. The headlamps are also “quilted.”

And speaking of things with three-dimensions the EXP 10 Speed 6 designers and developers used 3D metal printing to create the grille mesh, exhausts, door handles, and side vents.

Shortly after being in the sophisticated setting of Geneva, Bentley did what it does on an annual basis and headed from the temperate climes of Crewe and headed north to Finland. There, the “Power on Ice” charitable event took place, where people were given the opportunity to blast over the surface of a lake—which was frozen over with ice six-feet thick—in cars including the Mulsanne Speed, GT3-R and other Bentley models, all of which feature all-wheel-drive.

The Bentley Continental GT3-R in Finland. Only 300 of these are manufactured in Crewe. It has a 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 that produces 572 hp and 518 ft-lb- of torque.

Clearly, this is a company on the move.