{"id":239401,"date":"2023-02-23T13:28:41","date_gmt":"2023-02-23T18:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=239401"},"modified":"2023-02-23T13:28:51","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T18:28:51","slug":"bentleys-newest-w12-is-its-most-powerful-ever-and-its-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2023\/02\/bentleys-newest-w12-is-its-most-powerful-ever-and-its-last\/","title":{"rendered":"Bentley\u2019s Newest W12 is Its Most Powerful Ever \u2014 And its Last"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Bentley is ready to roll out the most powerful 12-cylinder engine in its history, using it to motivate the limited-run Batur supercar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Batur
The new Bentley Batur supercar will be powered by the marque’s last W12 engine.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s likely to come as bittersweet news for fans of 12-cylinder powertrain technology, Bentley also announcing that it will end production of its W12 engine come April 2024. It joins a growing list of luxury brands, such as Lamborghini, phasing out powerful yet fuel-thirsty 12-cylinder engines in favor of more efficient technology \u2014 including hybrids and all-electric drivetrains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The engine that Bentley \u201chas created for the Batur marks the end of a development journey of which our engineering and manufacturing colleagues should be extremely proud,\u201d said the brand\u2019s CEO and chairman, Adrian Hallmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also promised that Bentley plans to “retrain and redeploy all of the skilled craftspeople who still build each engine by hand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A long history<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Bentley has long offered V-12 engines in its most exclusive products. After the brand was acquired by Volkswagen it adopted an unusual, \u201cW\u201d layout for its 12-cylinder powertrains. More than 100,000 of them have been produced at its engine plant in Crewe, England since 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Batur
Bentley’s W12 engine has powered several of the brand’s most memorable vehicles.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The current version of the W12 will continue to be used in vehicles like the Bentley Flying Spur and Continental. That 6.0-liter twin-turbocharged engine was first introduced in 2015. Since then, upgrades have boosted horsepower by 37%, torque by 54%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The version going into the Bentley Batur takes things up another big step, the engine upgraded to produce 740 horsepower and 740 pound-feet of torque.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It gets significantly upgraded turbochargers, larger charge-air coolers, and a \u201cheavily revised\u201d engine calibration \u201cto liberate the extra torque available.” The package is complemented by a new transmission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hand-built Batur<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The upgraded drivetrain will power the hand-built Bentley Mulliner Batur, which was revealed last August. The name comes from Lake Batur, a volcanic crater lake in Kintamani, on the island of Bali, Indonesia, contributing editor Larry Printz noted in his story<\/a><\/span><\/strong> on the exotic coupe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Batur is meant to be a bridge vehicle for Bentley, introducing a new design language that will be used for the marque\u2019s first battery-electric vehicle due out in 2028. Bentley plans to go 100% electric by 2030 as part of its Beyond100 strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Replacing the equally exclusive Bacalar convertible, Bentley plans to produce just 18 copies of the Batur, all with the modified W12 engine. Each will cost about $2 million \u2014 and all already have been spoken for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Continental
The Bentley Continental GT Speed was perhaps the best known of the W12-powered beasts.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Everyone \u201cshould own a 12 before they die\u201d<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Twelve-cylinder engines have been around for more than a century, the 1915 Packard Twin Six among the earliest and most sought after by collectors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legendary automotive journalist and publisher David E. Davis was a huge fan, once penning an editorial that said, “I firmly believe that anyone, who is worth anything at all should own a 12-cylinder car before they die … because there’s nothing else like it … It will take your breath away!!!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last of a breed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

But the opportunity to do so is fast fading away, at least with something fresh out of the factory. BMW announced it was ending production of its own V-12 a year ago. And the list of brands that have either dropped or plan to end 12-cylinder production reads like a who\u2019s who of the luxury and sports car segments, including Mercedes-Benz, Aston Martin and Lamborghini.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 2022, the Italian marque unveiled its own long-term strategy, the \u201cDirezione Cor Tauri,\u201d program. It will begin migrating this year to hybrids, with the first all-electric Lamborghini due out in 2024. Launched two years ago, the Lamborghini Aventador LP 780-4 Ultimae is the last of the brand\u2019s products to rely solely on internal combustion power. The twelve will have a short life in hybrid form and then fade away, perhaps becoming the last of its kind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bentley is ready to roll out the most powerful 12-cylinder engine in its history, using it to motivate the limited-run Batur supercar. Find out more about the last 12-cylinder Bentley at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239407,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5,905,2648,1347,9],"tags":[9900,9899,9901,9898,4609],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239401"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239401"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":239412,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239401\/revisions\/239412"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239401"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=239401"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=239401"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=239401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}