1999 Bentley Arnage

First DriveDesigned to be "the world's most exhilarating four-door driving experience," the all-new Bentley Arnage is the first model in nearly 60 years with a powerplant uniquely developed for the marque, the first in Bentley's 94-year history to have a body assembled "in-house" at the Crewe factory of parent company Rolls-Royce, and the last to be brought to market before Rolls and Bentley were bought by BMW.

The Arnage is the first truly new Bentley in 18 years. Its predecessors, the Brooklands R and Turbo RT, relied on a GM-derived V-8 whose origins go back much further than that (the current two-door Continental coupe remains in production). As Rolls Chief Executive Graham Morris candidly confesses, "We've not improved our standards as fast as we would have liked, but with our new products and new facilities, we have a fighting chance of re-establishing ourselves."

A $260 million modernization program over the last three years has netted a new body plant, production line, and paint shop. Development of the Arnage and its more sedate sister, the new Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph, cost another $66 million. But whereas the Seraph uses a near-stock 5.4-liter BMW V-12, the Arnage's BMW-sourced 4.4-liter V-8 is so extensively reworked it wears a Bentley badge. The biggest performance gains are drawn from twin low-inertia water-cooled turbochargers, close-coupled to the exhaust manifold for maximum exhaust energy and minimum throttle lag.

During a brief and restrained test drive across rural France to the 24 Hours of Le Mans circuit-home of Arnage corner and five famous Bentley victories-"turbo lag" didn't even enter the conversation. With the DOHC V-8 churning out 413 pound-feet of torque all the way from 2500 to 4200 rpm, and output towering to 350 horsepower at 5500 rpm, throttle response is unfailingly keen. Catapulting from standstill to 60 mph in a claimed 6.2 seconds or blasting from 30 to 70 mph in 5.7 seconds is impressive in a lightweight no-frills sportster; but the Bentley gives you all this, plus the sumptuous cabin refinements of a luxury cruiser.

The Arnage's new fully galvanized monocoque steel bodyshell is 65 percent stiffer than before; the independent wishbone front and rear suspension (with automatically adaptive electro-hydraulic dampers) is better controlled; the rack-and-pinion steering is now directly mounted to the front subframe and perceptibly more rigid; and the old ship-at-sea corkscrew motion over bumps is gone.

Complementing the inherent integrity of the new chassis are bigger, stronger brakes, a smoother-shifting five-speed automatic transmission, even a newfangled device called Automatic Stability Control. It's significant that this traction-maxxing device-also BMW-supplied-can be switched on or off from the cockpit: Unlikely though it may seem at first appearance, the Bentley Arnage really is a driver's car.

New Porsche Turbo - SpiedProduction cars are still more than a year away, but this early proto version of the next 911 Turbo was recently spotted testing in Europe. Promising to be even more potent than its predecessor, the next-generation T-charger will allegedly make in excess of 500 horsepower from its liquid-cooled 3.2-liter/24-valve twin-sequentially turbocharged/intercooled flat-six engine. Helping channel this motive force to all wheels will be a suitably beefed-up Carrera 4 driveline with an enhanced stability control feature linked to either a conventional six-speed manual gearbox or a new sequential shifter with activator buttons mounted on the steering wheel.

Performance of Porsche's ultimate 911 package should be scintillating, to say the least, with 0-60 mph projected in 3.5 seconds and a top end near 190 mph. Stopping power promises to be equally formidable, courtesy of a huge vented disc at each corner working in concert with massive Brembo calipers, all controlled by a five-channel ABS package.