Volkswagen Group Operating Profits Soar 86 Percent in the First 9 Months of 2011

Whereas the rest of the European carmakers such as PSA Peugeot and Citroen and the Fiat Group are facing troubled times, the German auto industry is enjoying one of its most prosperous eras ever.

On Thursday, Europe's largest automaker, the Volkswagen Group, announced that it has earned more in the first nine months of 2011 than in the whole of 2010.

The company's operating profit surged to €9.0 billion (US$12.5 billion) from January through September, up from €7.1 billion in fiscal 2010 and €4.8 billion in the same period last year, which represents a staggering 86 percent increase.

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Imperium Automotive Presents New Bentley Continental GT Audentia

Headquartered in the historic city of Edinburgh in Scotland, Imperium Automotive is a high-end design house that focuses on the Bentley and Bugatti brands.

Their latest offering is a new limited-edition styling package for the recently updated Bentley Continental GT Coupe named ‘Audentia’, which is said to be a direct Latin translation for ‘boldness and courage’.

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Report: Bentley Boss Says New SUV to be powered by W12 Petrol and V12 Diesel Engines, Due in 2015

[The above photo is a rendering from the Xenatec Group]

After Porsche launched the Cayenne in 2002, it changed the sport carmakers’ way of thinking. If the world wants a premium SUV by a top brand, why stick to the past and not ride the wave, increasing production volume and profitability?

After all, despite the initial outcry, it is primarily the Cayenne’s success that we have to thank for the continued existence and evolution of the 911.

At the Pebble Beach festival, Bentley’s CEO, Wolfgang Duerheimer, confirmed that the British luxury carmaker will indeed build an SUV. And he recently replaced chief engineer Ulrich Eichhorn with Porsche’s Rolf Frech who has also worked on the Cayenne.

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Bentley Launches China-Only Continental Flying Spur "Linley" Special Edition

China is quickly becoming the ideal place to launch bespoke (…and higher-priced) special edition versions for luxury carmakers. The latest example is Bentley, which will sell just 10 Continental Flying Spurs created in cooperation with British design company Linley.

The Linley limited edition will only be available in what is now Bentley’s biggest market in the world. According to the British carmaker, it “incorporates signature Linley elements that will appeal to customers who value pedigree, lineage, handcrafted quality and peerless design”.

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IAA 2011: Bentley’s New Continental GTC offers Open-Top Luxury Cruising

The convertible version of the updated Continental GT luxury coupe was Bentley’s main attraction at the 64th Frankfurt Motor Show. The heavily refreshed Continental GTC is naturally based on its fixed-roof sibling, with its lines being more sculpted than the outgoing model and the front featuring a new grille and headlights. Read more »

Bentley Motors to Auction Unique Collector's Items Including a Table Made from the Mulsanne's V8

An array of one-off items created by artisans from the tooling, woodshop and styling teams at Bentley Motors are heading to the auction block to raise money for The Prince’s Trust, which is a youth charity that provides practical and financial support to 14 to 30-year-olds.

The graduates from Bentley Motors have handcrafted a variety of collector's items ranging from display objects such as a chess-set with pieces tooled from aluminium set on a veneered board, to an impressive table created from a polished V8 engine from the Mulsanne and a cutlery-set engraved with the Bentley emblem commissioned by Robert Welch.

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Bentley CEO Confirms SUV and Smaller Four-Seat Sports Car

The above photo is not the actual Bentley SUV but a rendering from the Xenatec Group

At the recent Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance event in Monterey, California, Bentley boss Wolfgang Duerheimer told reporters that the British luxury carmaker is indeed looking to add an SUV model to its range, confirming earlier reports.

Duerheimer went into more details revealing that the crossover model would utilize the platform architecture as well as other hardware from the Porsche Cayenne and Audi Q7 models.

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Privé London Dining Club Receives a Splash of Bentley Style

Mosimann’s, an exclusive dining club located in the heart of Belgravia in central London, has opened the doors to a new privé room inspired by, and dedicated to, luxury British carmaker Bentley.

The dining room for the rich but not necessarily famous, blends traditional British styling with unique Bentley accents. It is the work of Caulder Moore, which also designed the Bentley Living Room at the company’s headquarters in Crewe, in 2010, and can seat 14 people with standing room for 28.

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SPIED: 2012 Bentley Continental GTC Speed

The upcoming 2012 Bentley Continental GTC Speed continues its…European tour as the British firm’s engineers have left the Alps and headed down to the Nurburgring racetrack for some high-speed tests. Read more »

Bentley Defies Crisis with a 20% Increase in Global Sales

Crisis? What crisis? For you and me, perhaps, but not for Bentley buyers. The VW-owned British luxury carmaker announced today a 20% increase in global sales for the first half of 2011 with 2,978 cars delivered to customers, the best start for the company since 2008. Read more »

2012 Bentley Continental GTC Speed Scooped in the Alps

Back in May, we saw Bentley trying out the drop-top version of its subtly evolved 2011 Continental GT, the GTC, at the Nurburgring racetrack. Now, our spies have spotted Bentley’s people working on the more athletic GTC Speed in the Alps.

Like the standard Continental GTC, the Speed shares the sharper styling cues of the coupe model launched last year adding a more aggressively designed front bumper with new openings, hood air vents and a discreet boot lid spoiler along with larger alloy wheels to the mix.

The GTC Speed will benefit from the revisions we saw on the coupe and which include a redesigned dashboard with an updated instrument panel and a new touch-screen interface plus new seats and trim materials.

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Bentley Launches Mulliner Styling Pack for Continental GT

Bentley’s new Continental GT is, without question, a coupe with imposing road presence. But the British firm wishes to offer its customers the opportunity to make their cars even more unique by launching a range of styling options named Mulliner Styling Specification Classic Pack.

This styling package consists of a front splitter, strakes integrated in the front intake grilles, side extension blades and a rear diffuser, all made from glossy black carbon-fibre.

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Investigators Uncover Multi-Million Pound Tax Scam in India; European Exotics, Foreign Diplomats and Bollywood Actors Involved

In what sounds more like the plot of a The Fast and the Furious movie than real life, investigators at India’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence office (a.k.a. India’s IRS) have uncovered a massive exotic car smuggling operation in the nation’s capital of New Dehli. It all has to do with India’s notorious 100% import tax on new luxury vehicles.

It began with one New Dehli luxury car dealer, Sumit Walia, importing brand new luxury cars on forged invoices. These invoices listed the cars as second-hand, which saved Walia – and his customers – some 40% on import tax. Some of the cars – which included Porsches, Bentleys and Aston Martins – were found to have been stolen from the streets of Britain, France, Singapore and Japan.

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Take that Goodwood: Vilner’s Mini Cooper S Inspired by Bentley

The BMW Group’s decision to launch a new posh version of the Mini hatch called “Mini Inspired by Goodwood” motivated Bulgarian design studio Vilner to develop its own luxed-up variant of the British supermini. However, while the Goodwood model received the Rolls Royce touch, Vilner’s proposal tries to emulate a Bentley – at least in the interior.

Even though Vilner has baptized the car “The Italian Job” as homage to the famous movie, for obvious reasons, a more appropriate name would have been “Mini Inspired by Crewe”. The Bulgarian company has dressed the Mini hatchback’s interior with fine materials such as brown Nappa leather and Alcantara, with parts of the seats, door panels, dashboard and roof lining featuring a diamond shape theme. In addition, the doors have gained elements of black leather while the original plastic was re-sprayed in a sparkling gray finish.

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China Becomes Bentley's No. 2 Market after Record Breaking Q1 Sales

Bentley Motors sold 396 cars in Mainland China (excluding Hong Kong and Macau) in the first four months of 2011, an all-time record result for the Asian market. With this number, Bentley broke its previous record set just last year, by an amazing 66 percent increase in sales.

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SCOOP: 2012 Bentley Continental GTC Convertible Facelift Spotted Testing at the Nurburgring

We knew that Bentley was working on a revised version of its Continental GTC drop-top model after the introduction of the facelifted Continental GT coupe, and these fresh-from-the-Nurburgring spy shots are here to prove it.

Following the example of its coupe sibling that was unveiled in facelifted form at last year’s Paris Motor Show, the 2012 Conti convertible receives a styling makeover. The changes include newly shaped body panels all around and a more prominent front end with Mulsanne-inspired quad headlamps featuring inner lamps powered by xenon on low beam and LED on high beam.

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Bentley Joins Celebrations for New James Bond Book with Collector’s Edition

In celebration of the upcoming release of Carte Blanche, the new James Bond book by Jeffery Deaver, publisher Hodder & Stoughton has joined forces with Bentley Motors to create an exclusive special edition that will be available in a strictly limited number of 500 copies. These are available for order from today, Tuesday 26 April 2011, exactly a month before the book reaches retailers' shelves. Read more »

Amari Design Crafts Supercharged Bentley Continental GT with 760-Horsepower

A new company in the tuning scene called Amari Design has presented its take on the Bentley Continental GT through the release of two teaser photos. The UK-based firm’s upgrade package includes a body kit, interior revisions and a variety of modifications under the hood.

By adding a supercharger, a sports exhaust system and a new ECU, Amani Design says output is lifted to 750-horsepower. The car also rides on beefier alloy wheels and tires, though the tuner has not yet released specific details.

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Bentley Celebrates Ice Speed Record with New Special Edition Supersports Convertible

To celebrate the 205.5mph (330.7km/h) world ice-speed record that was set two weeks ago by Finland’s four-time world rally champion Juha Kankkunen in a Continental Supersports convertible, Bentley has unveiled a new special edition version of its drop-top model that will be built in a limited run of 100 units.

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Kankkunen Breaks World Ice Speed Record with Bentley Continental SuperSports

In 2007, four-time world rally champion Juha Kankkunen shattered the world ice speed record by achieving an average two way speed on a 1000m long straight on the frozen waters of the Baltic Sea, off the coast of Finland, of 199.86 mph (321.6 km/h) in a Bentley Continental GT. Fast forward to 2011, and Kankkunen has done it again breaking his own record at the same location with a Bentley Continental Supersports Convertible. This time, Kankkunen surpassed the 200mph mark reaching a top speed of 205.48 mph (330.695 km/h).

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