If you can get beyond the impossible name – EXP10 Speed 6 – you’ll see that Bentley’s concept car has terrific design. It clearly hints at the future of Bentley’s design ambitions. Muscular, athletic and aerodynamic, this may just be what the doctor ordered to redefine the luxury sports car segment.
It’s still a concept car. But it’s a Bentley like no other model the British luxury carmaker has built so far. One look at it is enough to make you want to get into the driver’s seat of this coupe, step on the gas, and scorch the road. It’s a car that will draw either envy or appreciation from onlookers. When it comes to looks, none of the current Bentley models turn heads like the EXP 10 Speed ??6 concept.
Bentley’s design has almost become repetitive. Until now, it’s been unable to find a new language – ??even in designing a unique product like the Bentayga SUV, which, in its first appearance as a concept car at the Geneva Motor Show in 2012, stirred up every feeling possible except admiration. Today, the Bentley SUV has been redesigned – and they’re quite certain it’s beautiful now.
Compared to the lack of admiration at the Bentagaya concept’s unveiling, the EXP 10 is drawing rave reviews. The EXP 10 has made a statement from the word go. It virtually says that Bentley’s Continental coupe is no longer enough, and that there’s still room for a compact coupe in the British brand’s range. Bentley says the EXP 10 is the British interpretation of the pinnacle of a luxurious, high performance two-seater sports car.
FAITHFUL TO ITS DNA
Bentley’s classic DNA is stamped all over the EXP 10, but it’s extremely modern at the same time — and that makes a stunning combination. “The grid is consistent with our tradition. Although, placed lower down, at the end of a slender bonnet, it appears less massive. In the front, we find the four headlights that are an exclusive Bentley heritage – no one else has them, but on the EXP they are placed in a cool and new way,” says Sangyup Lee, Head of Exterior Design at Bentley.
“The two main headlights, if you look at them from the front, appear round. However, if you move to the side, they reveal their irregular shape – oval. Inside the parable, we wanted to recreate the facets of an antique crystal glass – and the same graphics are used in the cockpit for the leather upholstery, on the seats and the doors.”
The references and continuity of this concept is visible at the back too, where the clusters are a re-interpretation of those used in existing models – the overlapping elliptical lights, for instance, are contained within a rectangular shell. “Here, we have decided to release them – giving the rear a more lightweight look,” says Lee.
The EXP 10, which, according to CEO Wolfgang Dürheimer, “expresses the vision of the future of the brand,” and is rooted in a far away “yesterday,” seeking inspiration even among the Bentley Boys – that group of gentlemen drivers who, in the 1920s, led in the racing arena with the cars of the ‘winged brand.’ But, more than the past, the fans are interested in the future. And what they really want to know is whether or not the EXP 10 will actually go into production?
The Volkswagen group, which owns Bentley, doesn’t believe in ‘wasting’ concept cars. But even if it doesn’t go directly from its current stage to the assembly line, the EXP 10 certainly tells us one thing – that, under the design direction of Luc Donckerwolke, many things will certainly change at Crewe.
The secret of the grace of the EXP 10 Speed ??6 is in its proportions – a two-seater compact and streamlined coupe, with a long hood and the cabin set back – closer to an Aston Martin or a Jaguar than the current Bentley models
Play of light: With this, the Bentley designers, under the leadership of Luc Donckerwolke (ex-Lamborghini and Seat), have interpreted the classical forms of the headlights in a new way
The profile of the concept displays the typical curves of a Bentley, and gives it a sophisticated overall appeal
The interiors almost seem too opulent, with all that leather of the same colour. However, it’s very British – and forms a nice counterpoint to the freshness and the modernity of the exterior
THE CONSERVATIVE PRESENT
Bentley’s current line-up of models is not as old as their looks seem to suggest. Ironically, the oldest of the lot, the Continental GT 2+2 coupe, looks the most modern. The Mulsanne, weighed down by a heavy look, is the youngest of the range. It came just six years ago, as Bentley’s replacement of a more ‘historic’ car – the Arnage of 1998.
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