The most powerful W12-engined Bentley – the highly exclusive Batur Convertible – has begun its final suite of sign-off testing. Created by Mulliner, Bentley’s in house bespoke division and the longest standing coachbuilder in the world, the Batur Convertible is the third car in Mulliner’s Coachbuilt family, following the Bacalar barchetta and the Batur coupe. Strictly limited to just 16 units, the Batur Convertible is the most powerful W12-powered drop-top Grand Tourer in Bentley’s history.
Bentley announced the retirement of the W12 engine earlier this year, with the last engine leaving the production line in July. The 16 customer examples of the Batur Convertible will be among the recipients of the final W12 engines, each producing 750 PS as the most powerful iteration of the engine ever developed.
The validation activities include durability for both the engine and whole vehicle, environmental compatibility and sunlight simulation, high speed stability, aerodynamics, noise and vibration, and driving dynamics. More than 120 individual tests in all cover everything from the quality of the surface finish of the gold “organ stop” ventilation controls to the new W12 engine hardware and software. Over 58 weeks of vehicle validation have been scheduled across a pair of pre-series cars – Batur Convertible Car Zero and the Batur Convertible Engineering Car.
The real-world testing campaign started with an extensive 3,000 kilometre , five-country drive across Europe to simulate real world conditions. The route left Germany and travelled through Italy, France and Spain, across mountains, highways and cities, with the cars pausing briefly for an afternoon in Monaco for photography before continuing their journey to Idiada in Spain, where high speed testing will begin on private test tracks.
