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 on the outskirts of
Crewe
Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the parish had a population of 55,318 and the built-up area had a population of 74,120. ...
,
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...
,
England
England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
. The site covers an area of , of which is indoors.
History
Rolls-Royce Crewe
In preparation for
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, Rolls-Royce and the
British government
His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. searched for a location for a
shadow factory 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— ...
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 tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...
fields of Merrill's Farm in July 1938, with the first
Rolls-Royce Merlin
The Rolls-Royce Merlin is a British Coolant#Liquids, liquid-cooled V12 engine, V-12 Reciprocating engine, piston aero engine of 27-litre (1,650 cu in) Engine displacement, capacity. Rolls-Royce Limited, Rolls-Royce designed the engine an ...
aero-engine rolling off the production line five months later. A total 25,000 Merlin engines were produced, employing 10,000 people at its peak in 1943.
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 (fluid), jet of heated gas (usually air) that generates thrust by jet propulsion. While this broad definition may include Rocket engine, rocket, Pump-jet, water jet, and ...
s, Rolls-Royce concentrated its aero engine operations at
Derby
Derby ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area on the River Derwent, Derbyshire, River Derwent in Derbyshire, England. Derbyshire is named after Derby, which was its original co ...
and moved motor car operations to Crewe.
In 1946 the factory produced its first motor car, the Ivan Evernden designed
Bentley Mark VI[An 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 was produced until 1955 when it was succeeded by the
Bentley S1/
Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud, 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, used the Crewe designed and developed 6.25-litre, all-aluminium,
Rolls-Royce V8 engine, 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
The Bentley T-series is a luxury automobile produced by Bentley Motors Limited in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwe ...
/
Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow 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
The Bentley T-series is a luxury automobile produced by Bentley Motors Limited in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwe ...
/
Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow were the first models with
monocoque construction and four-wheel
disc brakes.
The 1980 badge engineered
Bentley Mulsanne was the last Bentley to undersell its Rolls-Royce sister, in this case the
Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit. When the Rolls-Royce Motor Car division was sold to
Vickers plc 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. Founded in 1939 by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988), the company built Auto Avio Costruzioni 815, its first car in 1940, adopted its current name in 1945, and be ...
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/
Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph, the last dual-brand model, powered by a
BMW
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...
4.4 litre twin-turbo V8 engine. 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 return to Rolls-Royce Group in the event of a sale.
BMW,
Mercedes-Benz
Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to simply as Mercedes and occasionally as Benz, is a German automotive brand that was founded in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz Group, established in 2019) is based in Stuttgart, ...
, and the
Volkswagen Group expressed interest, but Volkswagen eventually outbid BMW, while Mercedes withdrew, instead deciding to revive the
Maybach 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 that has operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of BMW, BMW AG since 2003 – as the exclusive manufacturer of ''Rolls-Royce''-branded motor cars. The company's administra ...
division announced that they would build a
new manufacturing plant at the historic
Goodwood Estate in
West Sussex
West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...
.
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 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:
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 touring car manufactured and marketed by the British company Bentley Motors since 2003. A two-door coupé or convertible, and has four seats, it was the first new Bentley released after the company's acqui ...
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-turbocharged
W12 engine, which produces a
DIN-rated motive
power output of at 6,100
rpm, and
torque
In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational analogue of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). The symbol for torque is typically \boldsymbol\tau, the lowercase Greek letter ''tau''. Wh ...
of at 1,600 rpm.
Torsen-based permanent
four-wheel drive
A four-wheel drive, also called 4×4 ("four by four") or 4WD, is 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 pr ...
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 and
UK were built at
Volkswagen
Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...
's
Transparent Factory in
Dresden
Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
, Germany. This arrangement ended in 2006, when all assembly work reverted to Crewe.
Unveiled at the 2009
Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, 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 emissions regulations, the car went on sale during 2010.
Since 2015, the
Bentley Bentayga has been assembled at the factory.
Note
References
{{Automotive industry in the United Kingdom
Crewe
Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the parish had a population of 55,318 and the built-up area had a population of 74,120. ...
Motor vehicle assembly plants in the United Kingdom
Buildings and structures in Crewe
British shadow factories
Volkswagen Group factories
Manufacturing plants in England