Bentley Arnage

Gentlemen, if you could step this way please... announces the company spokesman. Champagne glasses are set carefully down and we stroll out into a cool, early spring night to await the new Bentley motor car; the new, British, Bentley motor car.

There are no vehicles in the floodlit driveway of the French chateau, but it is not deserted. Four ghostly figures stand, stone still, dressed in white 1920's racing overalls. As the spokesman begins to speak, the eerie quartet produce saxophones and strike up a lively backing track. No one bats an eyelid, but we all listen intently. The speech is a good one. It's not your usual car launch stuff, no market analysis or post-millennium profitability projecting, just a tale of something that happened a very long time ago.

It's Le Mans 1928, and Tim Birkin is leading the race in his 41⁄2-litre Bentley, explains the spokesman. Then an ancient 41⁄2-litre comes bellowing out of the darkness behind us, a white- boilersuited driver hunched over the wheel. Long after it's gone, the noise reverberates across the countryside.

Seventy years ago Birkin's Bentley struck trouble, continues the spokesman. A punctured tyre melted around the brake drums and Birkin was forced to stop to cut it free. With no jack on board to change the wheel, he had to continue on the bare rim at speeds of up to 80mph until it finally collapsed on a bend by the village of Arnage. Birkin ran three miles back to the pits where he arrived exhausted. His team-mate Chassagne slung a jack over his shoulder and ran back to the car, which was repaired and went on to cross the finishing line.

And now, in 1998, here comes the new car, gliding up the driveway to the strains of the saxophone quartet. It's too far off to see clearly but we now know its name - Bentley Arnage.

No other car company continues to so successfully milk sporting victories from so long ago. Bentley last won Le Mans in 1930. The next year it went bust and was taken over by Rolls-Royce.

When the Arnage finally pulls into the pool of light by the chateau it looks very like the new Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph. In fact, the body shape is the same but the difference is in the detailing. There's less chrome on the bumpers and the Arnage has massive 17-inch five-spoke alloy wheels. The best bit is definitely the grille, a huge aggressive cheese-grater of a thing, which seems to change shape as you view it from different angles.

It's behind that laser-cut stainless-steel grille, though, where the greatest difference between the Arnage and the Seraph is found. Instead of the BMW V12 engine fitted to the Rolls, the Bentley gets the German company's V8, as found in the BMW 540i. Unlike the V12 engine, which produces the same amount of power - 322bhp - in the Seraph as in a BMW, the V8 has been modified somewhat. Modified that is, by the addition of two Garret turbochargers which raise the power from 286bhp to 350bhp. Peak torque is 413lb ft, and that's from 2,500rpm. Strictly speaking the V8's cubic capacity is 4,398cc, but Bentley couldn't resist giving the car a 41⁄2-litre tag, linking it with the racers of old.

That's enough history, though. While we've had a thoroughly pleasant day lashing through the countryside with members of the Bentley Drivers' Club in a range of elderly machinery, day two belongs to the Arnage.

We travel four-up plus luggage, but the Arnage swallows the lot with ease. Inside the cabin there's no questioning the quality of the fit and finish, although the two-tone steering wheel and gear lever are another matter. But never mind - these days you can commission your Bentley to your own individual taste, so such details could be ruled out at the pre-birth stage.

Turn the key and the engine immediately comes to life, although ever so quietly. If there's one major criticism of this car it's that it doesn't make as loud as roar as you want it to. Even later, when we watch eight of them drive past on a high-speed formation lap of Le Mans, they sound disappointingly subdued, although the noise is as loud as current regulations allow.

In terms of performance, Bentley quotes a marginally slower 0-60mph time for the Arnage than for the out-going, more powerful, 400bhp Turbo RT. It's negligible, though; 6.2 seconds as opposed to 6.1. The new car certainly feels fast enough, especially up at the top end where the speed just keeps building and building. That's not to hint that little happens low down, for with 413lb ft of torque from 2,500rpm and the turbochargers running at peak boost from an even lower 2,000rpm it has heaps of solid, smooth power right through the rev range.

The five-speed adaptive automatic gearbox gives a near-unnoticeable change when you're cruising. But, fortunately, the 'Sport' mode button isn't there merely for decoration. The response is there when needed; other road users are passed with a gusto quite incredible for a car 17ft 8.2inches (5,390mm) long and weighing 2.7 tons (2,752kg) fully laden.

On the right road it would reach a top speed of 150mph and more with the electronic limiter disengaged. Hurtling through France at those sort of speeds in something this big, you might think that the white cliffs of Dover would be in sight before you could bring the Arnage to a halt. Not true of course, for the brakes, with 334mm vented discs at the front and 328mm at the rear, are even bigger than those fitted to the Seraph and slow the car as easily as you'd like.

Like the Seraph, the Bentley has independent double wishbone suspension with computer-controlled adaptive damping, although the Arnage has stiffer spring rates. Even so, the ride is supremely comfortable. You simply don't feel bumps and ruts in the road. You do feel the road, though, for Bentley has set the steering up so that it requires 20 per cent more effort on the driver's behalf than in the Seraph. That, coupled with impressive body control, gives the big car remarkable agility. It definitely feels like a driver's car to do the Bentley badge proud. The company's other claim is that it is 'the most exhilarating four-door driving experience' in the world. We'd probably agree, but we'll need the car for a week's test to make sure, of course.

As Bentley Drivers' Club president Ray Wiltshire puts it: It's a very more-ish motor car. If you have around £155,000, you can buy one. As for all that tradition and history, you simply can't buy it. Unless you own BMW.