Bentley Crewe
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Bentley Crewe, also named the Pyms Lane site after the street it is located on; is the headquarters and design and manufacturing centre of
Bentley Motors Limited Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of luxury cars and SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded as Bentley Motors Limited by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Cricklewood, North ...
on the outskirts of
Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...
,
Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. The site covers an area of , of which is indoors.


History


Rolls-Royce Crewe

In preparation for war, Rolls-Royce and the
British Government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_es ...
searched for a location for a
shadow factory A shadow is a dark area where light from a light source is blocked by an opaque object. It occupies all of the three-dimensional volume behind an object with light in front of it. The cross section of a shadow is a two- dimensional silhouette, ...
to ensure production of aero-engines. Crewe, with its excellent road and rail links, as well as being located in the
northwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...
away from the aerial bombing starting in mainland Europe, was a logical choice. Crewe also had extensive open farming land. Construction of the factory started on a 60-acre area on the
potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...
fields of Merrill's Farm in July 1938, with the first
Rolls-Royce Merlin The Rolls-Royce Merlin is a British liquid-cooled V-12 piston aero engine of 27-litres (1,650  cu in) capacity. Rolls-Royce designed the engine and first ran it in 1933 as a private venture. Initially known as the PV-12, it was later ...
aero-engine rolling off the production line five months later. 25,000 Merlin engines were produced and at its peak, in 1943 during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, the factory employed 10,000 people.


Car production

With the war in Europe over and the general move towards the then new
jet engine A jet engine is a type of reaction engine discharging a fast-moving jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition can include rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and hybrid propulsion, the term ...
s, Rolls-Royce concentrated its aero engine operations at
Derby Derby ( ) is a city and unitary authority area in Derbyshire, England. It lies on the banks of the River Derwent in the south of Derbyshire, which is in the East Midlands Region. It was traditionally the county town of Derbyshire. Derby gai ...
and moved motor car operations to Crewe. In 1946 the factory produced its first motor car, the Ivan Evernden designed Bentley Mark VIAn almost identical body was used some years later for the first standard steel Rolls-Royce, their Silver Wraith which was based on the short lived Bentley Mark V. It was the first Bentley (or Rolls-Royce) with a standard pressed-steel body rather than different bodies designed and made by bespoke coach builders. The Bentley Mark VI was the most successful Bentley ever manufactured: Crewe produced more than 5,000 Mark VIs, which equaled the total number of Bentleys made in the 20 years before World War II. The Derby designed
Bentley R Type The Bentley R Type is the second series of post-war Bentley automobiles, replacing the Mark VI. Essentially a larger-boot version of the Mk VI, the R type is regarded by some as a stop-gap before the introduction of the S series cars in 1955. ...
was produced until 1955 when it was succeeded by the
Bentley S1 The Bentley S1 (originally simply "Bentley S") was a luxury car produced by Bentley Motors Limited from 1955 until 1959. The S1 was derived from Rolls-Royce's complete redesign of its standard production car after World War II, the Silver Clo ...
/
Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud The Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud is a luxury automobile produced by Rolls-Royce Limited from April 1955 to March 1966. It was the core model of the Rolls-Royce range during that period. The Silver Cloud replaced the Silver Dawn and was, in turn, r ...
, the first car wholly designed, developed, and built at Crewe. It was also the last Bentley fitted with a six-cylinder engine. Its successor, the
Bentley S2 The Bentley S2 is a luxury car produced by Bentley from 1959 until 1962. The successor to the S1, it featured the new Rolls-Royce - Bentley L Series V8 engine and improved air conditioning made possible by that engine's increased output. Power ...
, used the Crewe designed and developed 6.25-litre, all-aluminium,
Rolls-Royce V8 engine In the history of Rolls-Royce automobiles, only two distinct series of V8 engines have been produced. The first powered the 1905 "V-8" model and was made in very small numbers. The second was developed in the 1950s and was known internally as th ...
, which has remained in production in various forms ever since.


R-Type and S-Type Bentleys

While the Bentley R-Type and S-Type differed significantly from the corresponding Rolls-Royce models, the 1965 Bentley T-series/
Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow The Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow is a full-sized luxury car produced by British automaker Rolls-Royce in various forms from 1965 to 1980. It was the first of the marque to use unitary body and chassis construction. The Silver Shadow was produced ...
differed only in badges and radiator grills. The Bentley models even used a Rolls-Royce badged engine. As a result, fewer Bentleys were sold, making them more valuable today. The Bentley T-series/
Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow The Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow is a full-sized luxury car produced by British automaker Rolls-Royce in various forms from 1965 to 1980. It was the first of the marque to use unitary body and chassis construction. The Silver Shadow was produced ...
were the first models with
monocoque Monocoque ( ), also called structural skin, is a structural system in which loads are supported by an object's external skin, in a manner similar to an egg shell. The word ''monocoque'' is a French term for "single shell". First used for boats, ...
construction and four-wheel
disc brakes A disc brake is a type of brake that uses the calipers to squeeze pairs of pads against a disc or a "rotor" to create friction. This action slows the rotation of a shaft, such as a vehicle axle, either to reduce its rotational speed or to hol ...
. The 1980 badge engineered Bentley Mulsanne was the last Bentley to undersell its Rolls-Royce sister, in this case the
Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit The Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit is a full-size luxury car produced by Rolls-Royce Motors, in Crewe, England, from 1980 to 1997. It was the first model in the SZ series. The Silver Spur is a long-wheelbase version of the Silver Spirit, produced ...
. When the Rolls-Royce Motor Car division was sold to
Vickers plc Vickers plc was the remainder of Vickers-Armstrongs after the nationalisation of three of its four operating groups: aviation (as a 50% share since 1960 of British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) in 1977), shipbuilding ( Vickers Limited Shipbuilding ...
in 1980, Bentley changed its image, resulting in the Bentley Mulsanne Turbo, nicknamed the "Crewe missile", which accelerated faster than some
Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...
s. After this point, while the two marques looked similar, Bentleys were designed to appeal typically to wealthy businessmen, while Rolls-Royce maintained their appeal to the traditional wealthy. The result was a surge in Bentley sales, which by 1985, had over taken Rolls-Royce sales for the first time since car production moved to Crewe.


Rolls-Royce and Bentley split

1998 brought the launch of the all-new
Bentley Arnage The Bentley Arnage is a full-size luxury car manufactured and marketed by Bentley Motors in Crewe, England, from 1998 to 2009. The Arnage and its Rolls-Royce-branded sibling, the Silver Seraph, were introduced in the spring of 1998. They wer ...
/
Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph The Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph was a large luxury automobile produced by Rolls-Royce Motors from 1998 to 2002. First unveiled on 3 March 1998 at the Geneva Motor Show, it replaced the Silver Spirit, which ended production in 1997. Silver Seraph ...
, the last dual-brand model powered by a BMW 4.5litre twin-turbo V8 engine. In the same year, Vickers announced its intention to sell its car division, which included the Bentley brand and the Crewe factory but not the Rolls-Royce brand which would again be owned by Rolls-Royce in the event of a sale. BMW,
Mercedes Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to as Mercedes and sometimes as Benz, is a German luxury and commercial vehicle automotive brand established in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a Mercedes-Benz Group subsidiary established in 2019) is headquartere ...
, and the
Volkswagen Group Volkswagen AG (), known internationally as the Volkswagen Group, is a German multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. The company designs, manufactures and distributes passenger and commercial ...
expressed interest, but Volkswagen eventually outbid BMW, while Mercedes withdrew, instead deciding to revive the
Maybach Maybach (, ) is a Automotive industry in Germany, German luxury car brand that exists today as a part of Mercedes-Benz. The original company was founded in 1909 by Wilhelm Maybach and his son Karl Maybach, originally as a subsidiary of ''Lufts ...
brand for their luxury cars. However, BMW did buy the Rolls-Royce brand name from Rolls-Royce. They also agreed with the Volkswagen Group a handover plan, which would complete at the end of 2001. In 2000, BMW's new
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited is a British luxury automobile maker which has operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of BMW AG since 2003 – as the exclusive manufacturer of ''Rolls-Royce''-branded motor cars. The company's administrative ...
division announced that they would build a
manufacturing plant A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an Industry (manufacturing), industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with Outline of industrial machinery, machinery, where workers manufacturing, manuf ...
on the historic
Goodwood Estate Goodwood may refer to: Events * Goodwood Festival of Speed, a motorsport event in the United Kingdom * Glorious Goodwood, a horseracing event in the United Kingdom * Goodwood Revival, a historical motorsport event in the United Kingdom Places a ...
in
West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...
.


Present

Having been heavily underinvested for some time, Volkswagen Group invested £500M in the two years after its takeover of the Crewe plant. It also revived development on the Rolls-Royce V8 which it owned the rights to, resulting in the sub-division of the
Bentley Arnage The Bentley Arnage is a full-size luxury car manufactured and marketed by Bentley Motors in Crewe, England, from 1998 to 2009. The Arnage and its Rolls-Royce-branded sibling, the Silver Seraph, were introduced in the spring of 1998. They wer ...
into the Green-label (powered by the BMW V8), and the Red-label (powered by the redeveloped RR V8). Very quickly the Red-label out sold the Green-label, and resulted in Volkswagen further developing the engine. Today's version shares no components with the original version used in the S1, but shares its lineage and is according to director of engineering Dr
Ulrich Eichhorn Ulrich Eichhorn (born 1961) is a German engineer, manager and Automotive design, car designer. Early life and education Eichhorn was born in Obernburg, Germany. He studied Mechanical engineering, mechanical and automotive engineering at Technisc ...
: With the end of production of Rolls-Royce badged cars in 2002, the factory was redeveloped to allow an expansion of the Bentley brand through a series of new models. 2003's introduction of the
Bentley Continental GT The Bentley Continental GT is a grand tourer manufactured and marketed by British automaker Bentley Motors since 2003. It was the first car released by Bentley under Volkswagen AG management, after the company's acquisition in 1998, and the fir ...
was nominally to replace the previous Rolls-Royce-based Continental R and T, but was the first Bentley-only developed vehicle since the merging of the brands in 1931. Equipped with a (6.0 litre)
twin-turbo Twin-turbo (not to be confused with a twincharger setup, which is a combination of a supercharger and a turbocharger) refers to an engine in which two turbochargers work in tandem to compress the intake fuel/air mixture (or intake air, in the case ...
charged
W12 engine A W12 engine is a twelve-cylinder piston engine where three banks of four cylinders are arranged in a W configuration around a common crankshaft. W12 engines with three banks of four cylinders were used by several aircraft engines from 1917 unti ...
, which produces a DIN-rated motive
power Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may a ...
output of at 6,100 
rpm Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...
, and
torque In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational equivalent of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). It represents the capability of a force to produce change in the rotational motion of th ...
of at 1,600 rpm.
Torsen Torsen Torque-Sensing (full name Torsen traction) is a type of limited-slip differential used in automobiles. It was invented by American Vernon Gleasman and manufactured by the Gleason Corporation. Torsen is a portmanteau of Torque-Sensing. ''TO ...
-based permanent
four-wheel drive Four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, refers to a two-axled vehicle drivetrain capable of providing torque to all of its wheels simultaneously. It may be full-time or on-demand, and is typically linked via a transfer case ...
is standard, allowing it to accelerate from in 4.8 seconds, and go on to reach a top speed of . 2005 saw the introduction of the 4 door derived version, the Continental Flying Spur. Due to a lack of capacity at the Crewe upon the car's introduction, some Flying Spurs destined for markets other than the
USA The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
and UK were built at
Volkswagen Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...
's
Transparent Factory The Transparent Factory is a car factory and exhibition space in Dresden, Germany owned by German carmaker Volkswagen and designed by architect Gunter Henn. It originally opened in 2002, producing the Volkswagen Phaeton until 2016. As of 2017 ...
in
Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...
, Germany. This arrangement ended in 2006, when all assembly work reverted to Crewe. Unveiled at the 2009
Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is an automotive charitable event held each year on the Pebble Beach Golf Links in Pebble Beach, California. It is widely considered the pinnacle event of its kind and one of the most prestigious car events in ...
, the Bentley Mulsanne is notable as the first flagship car to be independently designed by Bentley Motors in nearly 80 years; the last being W.O. Bentley's iconic 8 litre model in 1930. Replacing the Arnage, and using a modified V8 to meet
Euro V The European emission standards are vehicle emission standards for pollution from the use of new land surface vehicles sold in the European Union and EEA member states and the UK, and ships in EU waters. The standards are defined in a seri ...
emissions regulations, the car went on sale during 2010.


Note


References

{{British Car Industry
Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. The Crewe built-up area had a total population of 75,556 in 2011, which also covers parts of the adjacent civil parishes of Willaston ...
Motor vehicle assembly plants in the United Kingdom Buildings and structures in Crewe British shadow factories Volkswagen Group factories Manufacturing plants in England