NotoriousLuxury: Bentley Mulsanne L Limousine
…….here is another fine example of Bentley heritage
The Bentley Mulsanne L was a special edition limousine from 1984-1988, only 2 were made
Here is more interesting Bentley history
All Bentleys produced from 1931 to 2004 shared Rolls Royce chassis, adapted Rolls Royce engines and drive trains which makes it a “badge-engineered Rolls Royce” – A Bentley was its own make beginning in January 1919 founded by W.O. Bentley. Walter Owen Bentley built cars with durability that earned wide-spread acclaim. Financial issues forced Bentley to partner with an investor Woolf “Babe” Barnato, one of the formidable Bentley Boys who eventually became the CEO of Bentley. Then….there was that nasty 1929 Wall Street Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression that reduced the demand for the brand…….putting the company in a financial crisis.
To make a sneaky-long-story-short, Bentley was acquired by an entity known as the “British Central Equitable Trust”….no one knew the secret identity of this new kid on the block until the deal was signed, sealed, and delivered. An entirely new company WHOLLY owned by Rolls Royce was formed by the name of “Bentley Motors (1931) Ltd.” These are the sequence of events that led to the disinterest in the Bentley brand. New life has been injected into the brand by the Volkswagen Group putting the new Bentley Mulsanne neck-to-neck in the ultra-luxury market segment. Read the editorial I wrote “The Showdown: The Rolls Royce Phantom vs the Bentley Mulsanne.” I put them side by side and they are equally impressive holding their own each refusing to let the other win….viciously!
The Bentley Mulsanne “L” was manufactured from 1984-1988 and only two were ever produced. It was a large front engine rear drive saloon built upon a long wheelbase platform. The name “Mulsanne” comes from the five Bentley victories on the stretch of the LeMans NOTORIOUS for vehicles reaching their highest speeds…the formidable “Mulsanne Straight.” The Mulsanne “L” was a limousine.
The Mulsanne series all shared the same normally aspirated 6.75 litre alloy V8 as RR. Bentleys made after 1986 had a Bosch fuel injection system replacing the old SU carburetors. All Mulsannes used a three-speed GM based automatic transmission.
The cabin was trimmed in Executive style Connolly hand stitched leather with the traditional hand polished wood veneers. Hand tufted wool carpets with lamb’s wool rugs were under foot. There were no available automobile multi-media systems in the 1980s like the sophisticated computerized versions of today.
The Bentley motorcar with all of its understated luxury will always be a legend. I didn’t realize until recently, there is very little available in the form of Bentley heritage, none of the automotive journalists (except me) have even bothered to address the archived superlatives. I have had readers to write to me thanking me for the really “rare stuff” they refer to. This is the very essence of NotoriousLuxury….you will see the rarest of the rare in existence….the ones that no one else thought about bringing back to the spotlights. Some of us like a variety, this is why I am posting everything, if it has wheels and it is ultra-luxuriously-outrageous, then it will be publicized in NotoriousLuxury! Enjoy these photos, there is only one other example of the Mulsanne L series……….
………more Bentley heritage to come
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The wheelbase makes it one but using the ‘Limousine’ moniker on a car without a division is as lost as those grotesque US spec Headlamps.
Cars like this do not need a division. The wheelbase must be longer to accommodate such, besides, they way you are looking at it is passe…this type of vehicle has been used for decades throughout Europe. Look at the short wheelbase Mercedes-Benz models used as limousines. The Mercedes E320 is used as a limousine as well as the 220 Strich 8 and it is a tiny saloon but is considered a limousine. Those were used all over the world in their day as limousines. Look at the Mercedes that Princess Diana lost her life in…it was a W140 and was considered a limousine. So you see, there are many types of limousines in TODAY’s world, besides, the Nouveau riche do not rely on the pomp and splendor of that type of long wheelbase limo any more…it’s all a matter of taste. A Bentley saloon IS considered a limo in ANY four-door variation…do your homework!