Vehicle Story
Replacing the Turbo R, the Bentley Arnage got caught up in one of the most bizarre buyouts in British industrial history. As a result, you could have one with a German engine designed in the 1990s, or an English engine designed in the 1950s. And of course, the earlier cars came with the later engine, and vice-versa.
Confused? You should be – but not as confused as Volkswagen, who thought they’d bought Rolls Royce, only to discover that BMW had – or important bits of it anyway – leaving the Wolfsburg firm building Bentleys with engines built by a rival manufacturer. What a sorry mess. How on earth did we get here? Well…
Rolls Royce Motors owners, Vickers, decided to sell in 1998, and the leading bidder was German automotive giant, BMW. However, at the eleventh hour BMW’s £340m bid was trounced by VW’s, whose clever money men just transposed the first two digits and offered £430m instead. Crafty.
But not quite crafty enough, because although the deal included the historic Crewe factory, the famous Spirit of Ecstasy mascot and the instantly recognisable radiator grille shape, VW’s lawyers missed the fact the Rolls Royce brand name and logo were still under the control of the aero engine manufacturer, which promptly licensed them to BMW for a paltry (everything’s relative) £40m.
Eventually the two German firms did a deal that allowed Volkswagen to make Bentleys and BMW to produce Rolls Royces. The deal included a provision that meant the Arnage could continue to be powered by BMW’s M62 quad-cam V8, with its Cosworth engineered twin turbo setup for another couple of years, after which the 1950s designed Rolls Royce L Series V8 was fitted with one large turbo, just as it had been in the Turbo R.
A final twist of this uniquely farcical deal was that the Arnage was on sale with a choice of either engine for a year, the BMW powered cars gaining the name of Green Label, alongside the Rolls V8 engined variety’s Red. Both cars received stiffened shells and uprated brakes, necessitated by the L Series V8’s considerable extra weight (well, it was nearly 50 years old).
It’s hard to think of any parallels for this. In some ways it’s like retro-fitting an Avro Vulcan with four Merlin engines, but then the delta wing would have ceased to be a nuclear deterrent as it would never have lifted from the runway, whereas the Arnage lost no performance at all. In fact some prefer the later car (with its earlier engine).
Younger drivers may prefer the BMW powered cars as the power delivery feels younger – the engine needs to rev to really lift up its skirts, whereas the L Series cars provide an almost electric-mimicking power delivery – torque by the bucketful from low revs and effortless performance as a result. Horses for courses.
The Green label was available for just one year, 2000, with the Red label continuing until 2002. However, a BMW powered example, the Birkin, continued until 2001, after which only Rolls Royce L Series V8 engines were fitted. At this point a long wheelbase variant was added to the Bentley brochure, offering 250mm more space, with larger front and rear doors.
Also in 2001, Bentley marked its return to Le Mans with the Arnage Le Mans, of which just 153 were built. The cars sported wider wheel arches, different bumpers and a unique quad tailpipe arrangement, plus five-spoke alloy wheels and ‘Le Mans Series’ badges on the front quarter panels.
The following year saw the two distinct trim levels standardised. The Arnage R made do with the 450bhp spec engine, while the T boasted 500, and also had more sporting seats and split rim alloy wheels. The power hike allowed the T to make the dash to 60mph in just 5.5 seconds, which is still impressive today – doubly so for a hefty four door saloon.
The Arnage received a facelift in 2005, with the result that its front end now shared the styling of the new Continental GT.
