We’re amazed it didn’t fall over on the way up, frankly.
British marque Bentley has, amazingly, clinched a title at the recent Pikes Peak hillclimb, where they entered their enormous Bentayga SUV with a W12 biturbo petrol mill up front. With a Rhys Miller installed in the drivers seat, the Bentayga managed to complete the climb in just 10-minutes 49.9-seconds.
With no mechanical changes and little more than a rollcage and other minor safety modifications, the Bentayga W12 used for the run was stock-standard, which says a lot about the actual performance capabilities of an SUV that is seriously enormous, and heavy at that. But since it somehow managed to complete the Race to the Clouds in under 11-minutes, Bentley wants to celebrate. With 10 special editions.
The Bentley Bentayga Pikes Peak will be a very limited run of just 10-cars, marking the 10-minutes the car needed to get up the hill (don’t be pedantic and ask about the 49.9-seconds okay). Tweaked by Mulliner, the Pikes Peak edition cars will be offered in either Beluga black or Radium green, with unique 22-inch alloys in a bespoke two-tone finish combining the two aforementioned hues.
Making the exterior pop is the standard inclusion of the Black Specification, replacing all the chrome exterior trim with gloss-black items, as well as the inclusion of several carbon fibre bits (notably the front splitter, side-skirts, diffuser, and spoiler). There’s also a Pikes Peak motif ahead of the front wheel arches, in case a bright-green Bentayga isn’t enough to tip off passing motorists that it’s a limited-run model.
The inside of the Bentayga Pikes Peak hasn’t been left alone by Mulliner, naturally. You’ll find Beluga black leather covering nearly everything, with Alcantara inserts and coverings for the steering wheel and gear lever, while the headlining uses Eliade cloth. In case that and the lime-green accents around the upholstery aren’t enough to remind you you’re in a special, the numbered tread plates on the door sills and the Pikes Peak logo on the dash should do the trick.
No mechanical changes were made to the competition car, so the same treatment’s been afforded to the special. As such, you’ll find the same 447kW biturbo W12 mill under the bonnet as standard, as well as the same eight-speed ZF automatic gearbox, sending power to all-four wheels.
The special edition does at least get the Bentayga Sports Exhaust and Touring Specification packages as standard, which will go some way into justifying the premium that it’ll laud over the standard Bentayga W12’s heady $420k… Not that we’re getting one at all: Offerings will be limited to the US and Europe only.
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