Take that Goodwood: Vilner’s Mini Cooper S Inspired by Bentley

The BMW Group’s decision to launch a new posh version of the Mini hatch called “Mini Inspired by Goodwood” motivated Bulgarian design studio Vilner to develop its own luxed-up variant of the British supermini. However, while the Goodwood model received the Rolls Royce touch, Vilner’s proposal tries to emulate a Bentley – at least in the interior.

Even though Vilner has baptized the car “The Italian Job” as homage to the famous movie, for obvious reasons, a more appropriate name would have been “Mini Inspired by Crewe”. The Bulgarian company has dressed the Mini hatchback’s interior with fine materials such as brown Nappa leather and Alcantara, with parts of the seats, door panels, dashboard and roof lining featuring a diamond shape theme. In addition, the doors have gained elements of black leather while the original plastic was re-sprayed in a sparkling gray finish.

Vilner also took care of the Mini Cooper S’ exterior which sports a grey matte foil-wrap with contrasting black racing stripes and a matching color roof along with new 18-inch alloy wheels.

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China Becomes Bentley's No. 2 Market after Record Breaking Q1 Sales

Bentley Motors sold 396 cars in Mainland China (excluding Hong Kong and Macau) in the first four months of 2011, an all-time record result for the Asian market. With this number, Bentley broke its previous record set just last year, by an amazing 66 percent increase in sales.

In 2010, Bentley delivered fewer than 1,000 cars in China, almost double than in 2009, with China becoming the third most important market for the luxury carmaker. But the results so far in 2011 mean China has outsold the United Kingdom for the first time in history, making the Asian country Bentley's second most important market after the United States. In fact, one in four Bentleys sold globally goes to China.

The sales record has largely been achieved before the arrival in China of the new Continental GT and Mulsanne, which means there is a lot of room for Bentley to improve its sales. Around 50 of the 396 cars sold in China were spoken for during the Shanghai auto show, with 25 of those being Continental GT models.

“Our Chinese customers, like the rest of the world, value Bentley’s history and our emphasis on the finest luxury, craftsmanship and automotive excellence. Although China has traditionally been a market for four-door cars such as the Mulsanne and the Continental Flying Spur, there is growing interest in the excitement, adrenalin and sheer fun of driving high performance sports car,” said Alasdair Stewart, Bentley's board member for sales and marketing.

To acknowledge China's importance to Bentley, the company is hosting its Worldwide Dealer Conference in Beijing, the first time that Bentley has held such an important event in Asia.

By Dan Mihalascu

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Bentley Silver Wings Design Study for a Bugatti Veyron Rival

At the 1999 Geneva Motorshow, Volkswagen Group-owned British carmaker Bentley showed a W16 powered supercar concept called the Hunaudières. It was a sleek, cab-forward design finished in British Racing Green and with more chrome than Ludacris' Escalade.

Like so many concept cars, the Hunaudières never made it past being a one-off and Bentley consigned itself once more to making cars for wealthy Brits and Paris Hilton.

Now, two industrial design students from China's Tainjin Academy of Fine Arts, Shawn Wood and Guohua Cheng, have resurrected the Hunaudières in the form of a design study called the Bentley Silver [Filver in one pic, but we guess that was a mistake] Wings.

It's the usual hodgepodge of design elements from Aston Martin, Zonda, Saleen and Bentley of course, but it still has a certain charm about it.

I especially like the Eurofighter-esque foreplanes where the wing mirrors should be and the wheel arches / side profile that emulates the Bentley Speed 8 Le Mans car. It's not a hideous design by any means, just...more of the same.

Mr. Wood and Mr. Cheng have recently graduated and are looking for work; Subaru: you may want to take note.

By Tristan Hankins

Source: Carbodydesign

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