New Bentley Is Fastest & Cleanest Ever - Utilizes "Green" Technology

Autopia from Wired.com

Bentley is teasing us with a lone picture of the biofuel burner it promises will be the fastest, most powerful and cleanest car the company has ever built.

The biofuel Bentley the crew from Crewe will unveil at the Geneva Motor Show in March marks the first big step toward the automaker's goal of getting the average CO2 emissions of its entire fleet to a Toyota Yaris-like 120 grams per kilometer, and it should have gearheads rejoicing at the prospect that going green doesn't mean going serene.

Bentley isn't saying much about the car — the press release was literally 54 words — dubbed the "extreme Bentley," but considering the Speed versions of the Continental coupe and sedan produce 600 horsepower, we're eager to see what Bentley's cooked up this time.

We do know the new model will ride on the D1 platform underpinning the Continental GT and Continental Flying Spur. Look for one of the ginormous 6-liter twin-turbo 12-cylinder engines used across the Continental range. Bentley isn't saying how much CO2
the car will emit, but anything would be an improvement on the nearly 400 g/km the 2008 Continental coupe and sedan spit out.

As much as we'd like to see a diesel under the hood — we love the idea of running used veggie oil in a Bentley — it's almost certainly gonna be a flex-fuel car running on gasoline, ethanol or a combination of the two. Buyers in North American and Asia, Bentley’s most important markets, don’t want to hear any clatter under the hood, and Bentley probably figures that if biofuel is good enough for the queen of England, it's good enough for more plebeian types.

Based on the heavily shadowed teaser photo Bentley provided, it's impossible to say whether the extreme Bentley will be a four-door sedan based on the Continental Flying Spur or a two-door coupe based on the Continental GT. We'd like to see flex-fuel versions of both because the more the merrier. Obvious design departures from the Bentleys currently in showrooms include those big vertical intakes at either end of the fascia and the vents on the hood. The black mesh lends a menacing touch.

If you're interested, here's Bentley's press release:

On March 3rd at the 2009 International Geneva Motor Show, Bentley will reveal its fastest, most powerful production car ever. Delivering supercar performance, this new model is very much the extreme Bentley.
Importantly it will run on biofuel, delivering stage one of Bentley's
environmental commitment and pioneering the use of this fuel in the
luxury sector.