For the Rockefellers and Vanderbilts, who raise their noses up at the Continental GT (with a sticker price around $200K), we found your car at the LA auto show. The Bentley Azure T at $350K (yes, dollars). We are way beyond Mercedes Benz, BMW, and Audi now, and we are talking old money, and lots of it. The Azure T is beautiful with the burled wood, natural cowhide leather, thick strips of aluminum and a 6.75 Litre twin turbo with 500 brake horsepower. Whoa Nellie! It’s nice to know somebody still believes in authentic build materials, over engineering and unadulterated opulence. How else can four adults indulge in this kind of open top motoring?
Some news I didn’t anticipate during the preview was the fact that Bentley has a fuel efficiency and emissions agenda. I didn’t think anyone is this class really worried about fuel efficiency or greenhouse gases. Guess I was wrong. Bentley plans on implementing flex fuel availability across the range, but without a drop in performance. The first flex fuels are due out next year.
The Arnage Final Weries, which includes the Azure (convertible) and Brooklands (coupe) are works of art and represent a bygone era. When we sometimes say, “They don’t make ‘em like that anymore,” we are wrong. We’re just priced out of the segment.
The Azure T debuted with twenty-inch two-piece wheels, a dark grille, an engine turned dash, back face gauges, best in-car audio and is available in 42 different exterior colors and 9 tones of wood veneer.
The T in Bentley Azure T has always stood for the most extreme Bentley versions/trim levels, but when I asked what the “T” meant, ‘touring’, ‘turbo’, or what? Bentley personnel could NOT answer the question. Before you knew it there were three Bentley executives who had passed me along to their colleagues with that question unanswered. The final story that I heard was that they had “never formally speculated what it means… never defined it”. We were informed however that R typically stands for comfort and T stands for sport model.
No matter what the letter, we are talking serious cash for rolling artwork, and find it wonderful there are some beauties like this out there to aspire to, or more accurately, dream of.
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