Special Bentley Bentayga marks 1000 Mulliner creations

Bentley has pulled the drapes off its 1000th Mulliner creation – a special Bentley Bentyaga that was built for an unnamed European customer.

Featuring an Oliver Ash wood that was once used in the discontinued Mulsanne limo, the one-off Bentley Bentayga gets a unique twin-stitch finish for the tan leather seat uppers and door cards.

Outside, Mulliner sourced a unique aubergine paint for the owner that's combined with black accents.

Back in 2014, the bespoke division's inaugural project was a 15-unit run of Bentley Flying Spur Serenity limos that featured redesigned rear seats and head restraints that maximised comfort for VIP passengers.

As part of the exclusive upgrades, Mulliner created a diamond-quilted leather pattern that became so popular it remains available as an option on the Bentley Continental GT Mulliner.

Since that first run of 15 cars, Mulliner's designers, engineers and other specialists have pushed the envelope much further to the point where they've even introduced stone veneers that required intricate sourcing and production techniques to shave a sheet of stone down to less than a millimetre thick.

As well as resurrecting the famous Blower Bentley for an ultra-limited run of continuation models, Mulliner also created the roofless Bacalar roadster for a run of 12 cars.

Commenting on Mulliner's milestone, head of Bentley bespoke Paul Williams said: "Since 2014, our Mulliner Design team has averaged three customer commissions a week, showing just how popular bespoke Bentleys are becoming.

"The team has worked on everything from Continental GT3 liveries all the way up to the specifications and details of the 12 cars of the Blower Continuation Series.

"The only thing all of those designs have in common is that they are for individual customers – apart from that, each one is as unique as the rest."

Boosting the bespoke department's popularity, Williams claims, is a dedicated Mulliner configurator that allows customers and fans alike to choose the colour and trim of their cars with photorealistic results.