Bentley Mulliner division: When regular high-end luxury isn’t enough

Many people know of Bentley, a British car maker famous for creating sumptuous – and very expensive! – luxury vehicles. But the company's personal commissioning division, Mulliner, is lesser known... and that's the way they like it.

Speaking with motoring.com.au during the first Aussie drive of the new 320kW, 900Nm Bentley Bentayga V8 diesel recently, Bentley Mulliner’s head of technical operations, Uday Senapati, explained what the "bespoke" division does within Bentley.

Simply put, the high-end off-shoot can produce anything you can dream of – assuming you've got deep enough pockets.

Senapati said over the years some customers have shelled out millions for a single car to be customised, often to excruciating levels of detail and function.

"If you look at the last 30-odd years of what we've done, some customers spend up to around £5 million per car."

That works out to around $8.2 million in local currency. Most people won't even spend that on their house.
But creating extensive customisations for Bentley vehicles is not the biggest challenge, says the Mulliner technical boss. Beyond the stone veneers, the special timber inlays and reconfigured interiors, the company also has to manage customer privacy.

"The biggest problem I face is confidentiality. That's what people want, that's what they pay for. And that's the challenge.

"We have some cars that potentially look very different too. Bentayga is not the first Bentley SUV," he revealed.

"Mulliner did a very, very small run of SUVs, a good 25 years ago now. Just a handful, for one special client who will never be named, and those cars will never be seen."

One of the more memorable Mulliner creations that went public in recent times was the "Master Tackle Station". A fly-fisherman's dream, the custom Bentley Bentayga vehicle contained an intricate storage system to stow all the gear required for fly fishing, including waders, rods, nets, flies and even a refreshment cabinet with metal flasks china tableware.

Senapati said developing a marketable (read: for more than one customer) Mulliner vehicle can be tricky.
"Fly fishing was one. Normally it's a balancing act between what people want and what we would like to do in our cars.

"In two weeks' time we're launching another vehicle, which is on the lines of falconry," he revealed, observing that the Bentayga is very popular in the Middle East and that it's also one of the biggest markets for the brand and "especially for bespoke business".

"In the Middle East it's the biggest royal sport. The falcons are hunting birds, and they groomed by rich people, royals, and you won't believe it but a bird can be priced at up to $5million dollars.

That's a little more expensive than your average parakeet and you can bet your bottom dollar that the customised Bentley Bentayga "Falcon wagon" will be add another couple of hundred thousand dollars to the $400,000 asking price.

How exactly will it work? Senapati clearly wanted to save some of the secrets until the vehicle's release, but we're hoping there's some roof-mounted fold-out trickery at work.
Senapati instead left us with one carefully-worded answer.

"They take these birds out to the desert and the falcons go and hunt. So how do you do that from the back of a car?" he grinned.