Bentley

I had considered starting a fund on this blog for all of you to contribute to the purchase of my dream car…the Bentley Continental GTC.

However, my tact and decorum got the better of me, and I decided instead to just blog about it, work smarter at my day job, and save my hard-earned shekels.

How long would it take anyway to gather upwards of $150,000-200,000 of PayPal donations? How many people would it take? It would probably take ten lifetimes to accumulate that much wealth by blogging!

Given the fact that Bentleys are meticulously hand-crafted and weigh a couple of tons, I see a valid reason for them to cost double and triple what a Mercedes costs.

Here are the GTC’s specifics, per the Bentley Motors site…

On the interior:
“Traditional features like the bulls-eye air vents and the organ stop controls are exquisitely framed by wood veneers. Premium grade leather hide is also employed to soft surfaces, including the trim around the sporting gear selector and hand-stitched steering wheel. Knurled brightware controls and a choice of premium wood veneers exemplify the craftsman’s touch.

GTC Interior

On its veneers:
In the two weeks that it takes to prepare the wood for the interior, the veneers are given five coats of lacquer and three days of curing time before being wax polished by hand. Bentley uses no bleaching; the rich colour of the wood veneers is entirely natural.

Bentley is the only coachbuilder to use mirror patterns when applying wood veneers, placing four successive leaves end to end to make a symmetrical pattern across the fascia, a process known as book matching.

Each leaf of veneer can be traced back to the tree it came from. Each tree felled for veneer is replaced with another, and great care is taken never to use endangered wood species.

Regarding the GTC’s leather hides:
To avoid any variation in texture between the different hides, they are selected and cut at the same time. Even something as slight as an insect bite will cause a hide to be rejected. Which is why our hides are selected from Northern Europe, renowned for their remarkable scarcity of imperfections.

Steering wheels are double-stitched by hand using one continuous piece of thread, taking approximately five hours to cover one steering wheel.”

Hey - I’m sold, I’m sold! Say no more…just tell me where to sign!