Car Design News designs a Bentley (with a little help)

"After presenting the new Supersports in Design, we asked CDN if they wanted to co-create their own vehicle," says Andrea Jensen, head of CMF & Bespoke at Bentley Motors. "Naturally, we started with the exterior proposal and immediately capitalised on the new matte paint offering available only to the Supersports program. After a quick visualisation in anthracite and silver, we discussed using the CDN colour palette. 

"Based in Matte Snow Quartz White, we draped - the lightest GT ever produced - in the unique livery available to clients as we created a harmonised blend of the illustrious CDN colours. The Bentley equivalent, Mandarin and Moonbeam Silver were worthy choices from our extensive palate of paint options. 

"The livery, designed to emphasise the rear-wheel-drive powertrain, also helps promote the Supersports branding and dynamic nature of the vehicle. Available to clients in only five set combinations we made an exception for this car and utilised the strong brand identity of CDN as our inspiration. Adding to the drama of the exterior theme we retained all the exposed carbon available and accented the lower parts in a flowing mandarin pinstripe. 

"Finally, the cherry on top was a statement 99 painted onto the main grille to pay homage to the founding year of Car Design News. We floated the idea of this number having a halo of white around the numbers however as the rest of the theme fell into place we stepped back into a single colour as to not be too much fuss on the ‘business end’ of the car. 

"The interior of course follows the same theme, capturing the same three primary colours to create a driver focused interior colour split. Utilising Mandarin, Stratos and Arctic White hides we highlight the driver’s seat in Mandrin and the passengers in Stratos – Both embellished with white accents complimenting the shape of the new sports seats. 

"The most nuanced details reveal themselves in the form of contrast stitching throughout the interior using the same three colour as the hides – Mandarin stitching adorns Stratos hide, Arctic White on Mandarin Hide and finally Stratos on Arctic White hide.We of course have the Bentley wings embroidery, high and proud on the headrest and the Supersports branding dressing the new carbon tub that supports the overall weight saving and sporting credentials. 

"Beyond the soft trim areas, we pair dark tinted chrome metal work with two-by-two twill carbon fibre veneer to compliment lightweight and sporting DNA deeply rooted into this car. To elevate the dark tinted pieces and continue the art of nuance, we added small pops of painted colour to the bezels within air vents and dials across the dashboard.

"The final stamp of approval is trusted in part to the vanity number plate, but primarily the chrome CDN overlay carefully encased under layers of hand-finished lacquer on the lid of the cup holder, which was an idea of Hugo Chizlett, the bespoke designer who co-created the car together with James and Abel.

The result as we see here was a quite quick and fantastic journey, to create a unique specification with the CDN Team. The car is well balanced for both the vehicle itself but also the brand’s it represents,"

"After delivering the images of the Bentley Supersports the CDN team asked our honest opinion about the result….the commission was a great example of how the team work closely with individual customers who have a general idea of colours and expression but their dreams are enhanced by the professional bespoke designers who take their theme and create a well-balanced blend of colour materials and feature specification to make a truly amazing one off Bentley," concludes Jensen. (Thanks, Andrea. Too kind – Ed.)

Robin Page, head of Bentley Design added: “The result is an awesome one-off Bentley Supersports specification to match the CDN theme, all we need now is a makeover on James and Abel to match the car.” Well said, Robin, but that level of work would truly bust the budget.