Who doesn’t love a mashup? In which Bentley takes two of its greatest hits and, by virtue of an extended mix, creates a third. You’ll be Hung Up on this one…
Words Darren Styles
At the height of their pop superstardom, ABBA’s Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson were asked the secret of their song-writing success.
Sometimes, they revealed, they’d simply play two old songs over the top of one another to create a new one, the combination creating a previously unheard set of melodies, or a hook from which they could build.
In modern parlance this would be called a mash-up, and the resultant sampling has any number of benefits — not least of which is an easy familiarity with the blended outcome. And if you doubt that works, see what happened when Madonna extracted 30 seconds of intro from ABBA’s own ‘Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)’ to kick-start ‘Hung Up’, which went to number one in a record 41 countries and sold more than five million copies worldwide.
Witness, then, the Bentley Bentayga Extended Wheelbase (or EWB) pictured here. Less an all-new track, and more a rework of two of the Crewe-based carmaker’s greatest hits: the best-selling, go-anywhere Bentayga SUV and the voluminous luxury of super-sized saloons for which the marque is historically lauded. It’s the same, only different.
It’s the same in that the base architecture of the upscale 4x4 is as you were — super-smooth V8 and V6 hybrid powertrains, a bluff, imposing façade, wheels the size of the moon and a beautifully appointed cabin awash with Bentley hallmarks that include quilted stitching upon finest leathers, open-pore veneers and hewn-from-solid switchgear. But it’s different in that aft of the front passengers is an additional 180mm (around seven inches) of extra legroom which — perhaps surprisingly given that doesn’t sound so much — lifts the already ample business-level accommodation to the giddying heights of first class.
And lest you should doubt the analogy, know that as an option in place of the regular, three-seat rear bench you can specify two spectacular airline-style seats that adjust in all directions and can lie almost flat, should the travails of the outside world prove too much.
So, a mash-up it is — a luxury limo with all-weather capability and a vantage point from which to look down on the world. Best, undoubtedly, experienced from a passenger perspective than that of a driver.
I mooted this much on a flying trip to France’s Burgund
