Geneva 2009 - Biofuel Bentley Bows

The Geneva previews continue to roll in.  In an undeniable sign that "Green Fever" is spreading and there's nothing we can do to stop it, Bentley released teaser images and sparse details of their next upcoming model.

It's obviously based upon the Continental GT, looking at the teaser shot.  The front fascia has been modified for what looks like increased cooling capacity - check out those deep intakes on the sides - and it looks like Bentley's going for the monochromatic look with white bodywork and matte black grilles/headlight surrounds.  Quite menacing.

Bentley's proclaiming it as their first flex-fuel vehicle, as well as the most powerful and fastest production Bentley ever.  Considering that the current fastest, most power Bentley is the 604-horsepower, 200+mph Continental GT Speed, that's quite some claim.  However, it's not all that outrageous.

The most likely guess is that this BioBentley will be a Continental GT Speed, converted to run on Bioethanol.  Considering that standard-grade E85 bioethanol has a Research Octane Number (RON) equivalent to 103, it's not really surprising that a biofuel Bentley would be faster than a petrol-pusher.  With greater detonation resistance comes greater headroom for timing advance, boost, and fuel trims.  It's old hot-rod science brought up to date - instead of lowering the compression ratio to compensate for more boost, why not just raise the octane level to prevent pinging?

I'm not fooled by this "green cred" move.  Bentley isn't even the first company to pretend to switch to ethanol for green reasons, when really they just want more power.  Koenigsegg's CCXR is a variant of the Swedish company's mentalist CCX supercar.  The CCXR uses the same twin-supercharged V8, and produces an identical 806(!) horsepower on pump gas... but is also set up to run E85 or E100 ethanol.  Which bumps the power up to 1,018(!!) horsepower.

Saab also has a strong tradition with ethanol, especially in their home market, where biofuel versions of the 9-3 and 9-5 offer increased performance and fuel economy with a small carbon footprint.  So while the concept of a "green" Bentley strikes me as faintly absurd, I certainly won't be complaining about more power and better efficiency!

The biofuel Bentley concept will debut at the Geneva auto show in March.  More details are forthcoming on this monster Bentley, so stay tuned.