Bentley Stretches the Limits of Paint Effects
When a luxury sedan starts to look more like the subject of a cosmetics commercial than a motoring launch, you can be fairly certain Bentley’s Mulliner division is at work.
The marque has unveiled its latest exercise in craftsmanship, and this time the focus is not on horsepower or gadgetry but on paint itself. The Flying Spur becomes the first sedan to wear what Bentley calls an Ombré finish—a painstaking gradient that blends two colours across the bodywork. According to Crewe, the process demands nearly 60 hours of hand-spraying in its so-called Dream Factory. In other words, the act of shifting hues has become headline news on par with a new powertrain.
The debut example sees the sedan’s nose bathed in vivid Topaz Blue, which gradually dissolves into a darker Windsor Blue at the rear. Two further combinations will be offered: a sweep from gold to orange and another from silver to black. Bentley insists these pairings have been “curated” to avoid awkward intermediate shades—no customer, for instance, will suffer the indignity of commissioning a blue-yellow blend that strays into unintended green.
The Ombré technique first appeared on a Continental GT shown at Monterey’s luxury gatherings. Now, the four-door Flying Spur version will be unveiled at the Southampton International Boat Show, an arena more accustomed to the floating must-haves of the millionaire set.
Grandly billed as an “artistic technique,” the effect in practice amounts to a substantial surcharge for what might resemble an Instagram experiment from a startup carmaker. Yet Bentley knows its clientele. For buyers eager to broadcast their individuality within the confines of curated taste, Mulliner now offers the assurance that every car will be unique—even if the colour fade follows the same carefully scripted arc.
