2007 Bentley Arnage T

2007 Bentley Arnage T 2007 Bentley Arnage T
First Drive Review

The Arnage T's traction-control system is programmed such that, per Bentley, "you can drift the car with some wheelspin, but it never lets you get in any trouble." Attaching this statement to a 5700-pound, nearly 18-foot-long cache of burled wood, Connolly leather, and handcrafted pomp is reason enough to make us like it.

Bentley's sales have increased sixfold in the past three years, due largely to the success of the new Continental, a car sold mostly to first-time Bentley buyers. "Old" Bentley buyers, however, are less interested in a 198-mph top speed than in an ownership experience similar to that of their father and father's father. The Arnage remains the classic Bentley sedan, available as the "standard" 450-hp R, the long-wheelbase RL, or the more-spirited 500-hp T.

The T starts at $250,985, but if you throw in a champagne cooler and choose custom interior and exterior hues and perhaps some factory grenade proofing, plan on fiddling with the number in the leftmost column. If it helps paint the picture, whereas the average Continental buyer possesses a net worth of $3 million, the average Arnage buyer is worth some $30 million, and a popular option in the Queen's country are sill plates emblazoned with the family crest.

Getting Along in Years

The nearly decade-old platform does show its age, especially when you hop from the T into the ultramodern and capable Continental GT, but regardless, Bentley will sell each and every example it builds. An all-new Arnage is coming sometime before 2010. We can assume it will have a stiffer chassis, brakes with shorter travel, more precise steering, and a better integrated electronics experience. But we hope the new car will still carry the old-world charm of the Viagra-fied Arnage T.

Nearly all Arnages are built to order. Bentley's Mulliner coachwork division is able to handle just about any request, and the options list is so comprehensive that few duplicate cars are produced. Our T was swathed in quilted, rich brown leather; the interior is comely in a comforting way if your youth was spent exploring the drawing rooms, overstuffed chairs, and servants' quarters of a Park Avenue or Mayfair residence. Think polished, knurled, burnished, and conditioned.

The huge chromed aluminum dash vents, which rotate 360 degrees in their sockets, are of such mass that they could, in a pinch, be used as mortar rounds. Through these vents, the whoosh of conditioned air assumes three distinct tones for no good reason that we're aware of other than whimsy, which is reason enough.

A single lot of wood is reserved for the matched book-end veneer that lines the interior of each Arnage. The remaining pieces do not go into other cars but are marked and placed in a giant humidor so the wood will match perfectly if repairs need to be made, a feat that would otherwise be an impossibility.