New small Bentley to tempt James Bond away from an Aston Martin considered, as Britain's luxury car makers push ahead

 A new ‘baby’ Bentley fit for a 21st century James Bond is being drawn up in secret by the British luxury car company, its bosses revealed today.  

The idea of a new smaller Bentley has been raised as Britain’s luxury car makers staged a further push in Geneva, with Rolls Royce and McLaren promoting new cars and Jaguar revealing the first official image of its new BMW 3 Series rival, the XE. 

Volkswagen-owned Bentley is already looking to ramp up production by 50 per cent by 2018, having made a record number of cars last year.  

Flying: Bentley is on a roll having sold a record number of cars last year and has substantial expansion plans. A new smaller car is on the cards to fit below the pictured.

A smaller but just as sporty and prestigious Bentley would be designed to take on the likes of Aston Martin, with whom agent 007 has been associated during his 50 years on the big screen. 

Bentley bosses are setting out to create just the car to tempt him away from those Aston Martins, including the classic DB5 from Goldfinger and other outings, and put him back with his original first love. In the Ian Fleming books Bond drove a powerful ‘blowers’ Bentley with a supercharged engine.  

A new smaller Bentley would also take aim at Italy’s sexy Maserati range, as well as the steely attraction of some of Germany’s top luxury vehicles.

The new British ‘baby’ Bentley is destined to be the fifth model in the range built at Crewe which employs 3,700 people, of whom 400 have been recently recruited.  

It will sit behind the current £230,000 Bentley Mulsanne, the £155,000 Flying Spur, the Continental coupes and convertibles costing between £130,000 and £173,000, and a forthcoming new sports utility vehicle set to cost up to £130,000 when it goes on sale in 2016. 

 

Bentley chairman and chief executive Dr Wolfgang Schreiber told This is Money and MailOnline during an interview marking the start of the Geneva international motor show: ‘I could in principle imagine going in that direction - to offer in the future a smaller car.’  

The most likely options are a small sporty coupe, or convertible, or a small four-door, he suggested.  

Bentley director Kevin Rose confirmed his bosses’ masterplan noting that after the current four-model line-up: ‘There’s a lot we could do. The idea of a fifth line is attractive. We seriously are not short of ideas but a small car could be something we could do.’  

‘It’s an interesting idea. We’re working up different things we could do.’  

But he noted: ’The advantage of a smaller car is that it would enable us to have something to go up against Aston Martin or Maserati.’  

However, small does not mean cheap, as prices would most likely start with six figures. 

Iconic: James Bond returned to his legendary Aston Martin in the latest film Skyfall.

Asked directly about getting Bond back into his Bentley, Mr Rose said: ‘Emotionally for an Englishman it’s fascinatingly attractive. And we’ve got a very good Bond at the moment in Daniel Craig.  

‘It would a take a lot of years to get him to defect from Aston Martin. But we’re working on it. And there’s nothing to say James Bond might not drive a sports utility vehicle.’  

Bentley bosses are already planning £800m of new investment over the next three years which will see car production at the Crewe factory in Cheshire soar by around 50 per cent to 15,000 cars a year by 2018. 

 

At least 3,000 of the 5,000 additional vehicles will comprise Bentley’s eagerly awaited new 4X4 which is set to hit showrooms in 2016 and has been redesigned from top to bottom following complaints that the original concept car was pug-ugly.  

The new Bentley ‘Chelsea Tractor’ will create 400 direct factory jobs and around 100 more staff will be taken on as part of the wider general expansion. There will be a further 600 jobs with suppliers. The car-maker currently employs around 3,700.  

But pressure on production will also mean building some Flying Spur models in the east German city of Dresden, which was incinerated by RAF bombers during the last war.  

Last year Bentley built a record 10,120 cars, which itself represents a 10 per cent rise on the previous year and is the highest number sold in Bentley’s 95 year history.  

Sales have also been boosted by the ‘Wills and Kate effect’ as potential buyers – particularly in China - are inspired by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge taking delivery recently of a new £250,000 Flying Spur, admit bosses at Bentley which is part of the giant German Volkswagen group.

Supercar: McLaren promoted its new 650S in Geneva, which will cost £195,000-plus

In a further boost for high-end British car making F1 racing boss Ron Dennis took the wraps off British supercar firm McLaren’s 200mph stunner.  

The McLaren 650S Coupe and open-topped Spider, with an electrically-retractable hard-top, made their global debuts at the show.  

The first of the new McLaren 650S Coupes rolled off the line at the hi-tech McLaren Production Centre in Woking, Surrey, this week – just in time for the new ‘14’ plate change.  

The coupe is priced from £195,250 on the road – which will barely get you a one-bedroomed flat in the area – but is arguably more fun. The wind-in-the hair McLaren 650S Spider starts at £215,250.  

And it’s no slouch, accelerating from rest to 62mph in just 3.0 seconds and powering on to 124mph – where legally permitted such as test tracks and German de-restricted Autobahns - in just 8.4 seconds. It’ll hit 186mph in 25.4 seconds.  

Top speed is 207 mph – or nearly three times the legal UK motorway speed limit - and it will cover standing quarter mile (400m) in a mere 10.5 seconds, or just long enough to lose your licence. 

Rolls-Royce also celebrated its 110th anniversary year in Geneva by unveiling the second generation of its own ‘baby’ limousine – the Ghost.  

The luxury car-maker delivered a record 3,630 cars to its super-rich customers in 2013.  

As part of its own expansion plans, the luxury car-maker is to create 100 new jobs at its bespoke factory in the grounds of Goodwood, in West Sussex, owned by the Earl of March who was also at the Geneva Show. This is addition to 100 new jobs announced in July by the firm owned by Germany’s BMW Group.  

culled from Daily Mail UK