Bentley Mulsanne

Start with what the Bentley Mulsanne is: a 4-door saloon with 6.75&nbsp, built from 1980 to 1992, in the age of turbocharging and the first electronic engine management. What it meant takes a little longer.

The story

The Bentley Mulsanne is a large (performance) luxury saloon produced by Bentley Motors from 1980 until 1992, though derivative models including the Continental T and Azure continued in production into the 2000s.

Contrary to its predecessors, the Bentley Mulsanne was given an actual name instead of a letter, but otherwise started as another standard rebadged Rolls-Royce, the Silver Spirit. However, with the launch of the 'Brooklands' version, and the 1982 Mulsanne Turbo – with 50 percent more horsepower – the Mulsanne began the rebuild of an appealing individual Bentley brand image.

What is underneath

The engine is 6.75  other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. Drive goes through a 3-speed THM 400 automatic. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 120.5 in / 124.5 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.

Its place in the line

In the Bentley line-up the Bentley Mulsanne has a clear place: it replaced the Bentley T2; it handed the line to the Bentley Brooklands (Mulsanne S) / Bentley Turbo R (Mulsanne Turbo); the factory was Crewe (Bentley Crewe), United Kingdom. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Dodge Ram, the Audi Quattro, the Lancia Delta. Nearby in the Bentley catalogue sit the Armoured Arnage and the Bentley 3 Litre.

Owning one today

MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Bentley Mulsanne has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.