Bentley & Mulliner: A Historic Partnership

What do you get when you combine the impeccable craftsmanship of the world’s oldest coachbuilder with the visionary luxury automotive heritage of Bentley? The answer is a legendary standard of luxury automotive perfection for the ages.

One cannot fully comprehend the success of the storied Bentley marque without first understanding Bentley’s intimate, intertwined, and ongoing relationship with coachbuilder H. J. Mulliner & Co. 

A Royal Commission Begets the First Mulliner Coaches

This unbroken lineage of Mulliner’s meticulous luxury automotive craftsmanship actually began more than 500 years ago with saddle makers who first plied their trade during the reign of Elizabeth I.

However, we must take up the “modern” story of Mulliner Coachworks two centuries later when, in 1760, Francis Mulliner obtained a lucrative commission to build and maintain carriages for the Royal Mail. A hundred years later in 1870, his son, Robert Bouverie Mulliner, opened a coachbuilding business called Mulliner London Limited.

A Fateful Decision Inaugurates a New Era of Automotive Coachbuilding

As the Industrial Revolution took hold in the latter part of the 19^th Century, the world experienced an unparalleled explosion of new ideas. In 1886, a fellow named Karl Benz shook the foundation of transportation history by inventing the Benz Patent-Motorwagen.

Benz’s innovative mechanized contraption captured the world’s imagination, adding the word “automobile” to the global lexicon. Almost overnight, self-propelled vehicles began sharing the same cobbled streets as familiar horse-drawn carriages. At this pivotal nexus of history, Robert Mulliner’s second son, H.J. Mulliner, made a fateful decision to turn his family company’s attention to crafting custom-made coaches for these groundbreaking new “horseless carriages.” A new era of luxury automotive coachbuilding was born.

The First Mulliner Bentley Debuts

The Roaring Twenties was a time of boundless post-war optimism and social change. H.J. Mulliner & Co. was busy building bespoke coaches for both Rolls-Royce and Bentley. Back then, you would purchase the chassis and engine from either Rolls or Bentley and then work directly with the coachbuilder, who would hand-craft the vehicle’s body and its various appointments to your exact specifications.

The first Bentley/Mulliner collaboration, a three-liter, two-seater Bentley, debuted at the 1923 Olympia Automotive Show in Kensington. Subsequently, Mulliner crafted more than 240 bespoke Bentley coaches, each of them a unique, one-off creation. With its impeccable quality, Mulliner soon became known as the world’s finest luxury automotive coachbuilder.

Mulliner’s Crowning Bentley Achievements

In 1952 Mulliner debuted the first of two magnificent Bentley masterpieces: The iconic Bentley R-Type Continental. As the fastest four-seat luxury sports car of its day, the R-Type Continental became an instant sensation with its flowing lines and graceful beauty. It remains the inspiration for the incredible Continental GT of today. Five years later, Mulliner and Bentley would again collaborate to develop yet another automotive masterpiece: The incomparable, four-passenger S2 Continental Flying Spur.

An Enduring Partnership

1959 was a watershed year for Mulliner and Bentley as the two entities formally joined forces. Mulliner Coachworks set up shop in Bentley’s Engineering Department located at the automaker’s mammoth Crewe manufacturing facility.

To this day, as Bentley’s esteemed in-house bespoke commissioning department, the historic relationship between Bentley and Mulliner continues to set the standard for the ultimate in flawless hand-crafted coachbuilding precision. Mulliner exists to satisfy the most discriminating Bentley owner’s every whim, from the smallest detail to the complete imagining of an owner’s unique vision from drawing board to the driveway.

Bentley’s artisanal collection of these bespoke Mulliner Limited Editions is the ultimate expression of the automaker’s art. Whether cruising beneath the soaring shadow of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, traveling down the broad Avenue des Champs-Élysées, or enjoying Miami’s sun-drenched Biscayne Boulevard, these extraordinary Mulliner bespoke Bentley creations are eagerly sought by the world’s luxury motoring elite.

Introducing the Stunning Bentley Mulliner Bacalar

Mulliner and Bentley have once again collaborated to redefine the boundaries of luxury automotive excellence with the boldly executed new Bentley Mulliner Bacalar. A stunning example of Mulliner’s automotive craftsmanship, this two-seater Bentley sports car is the ultimate expression of al fresco Grand Touring luxury.

Only 12 of these extraordinary vehicles are being crafted and they have already been snapped up by a dozen fortunate buyers willing to pay the approximately $2 million price tag for the opportunity to own one of the world’s most exclusive hyper-luxury sports cars.

5,000-Year-Old Wood Is Just the Beginning

Everything about the brilliant new Bacalar is unique, representing an epic dimension of unparalleled customization. The interior’s distinctive dashboard in its unique wraparound cockpit, for example, features a 5,000-year-old Copper-infused Riverwood veneer preserved from the peat bogs and rivers of East Anglia.

As the rarest two-door Bentley of the modern era, the Bacalar draws its inspiration from the seductively beautiful and award-winning Bentley EXP 100 GT concept. The Bacalar’s underpinnings are based on the athletic Continental GT Speed convertible. It’s powered by the Continental GT Speed’s mighty 6.0-liter, twin-turbo W12 engine mated to an eight-speed, dual-clutch automatic transmission. This prodigious powerplant produces a head-snapping 650 horsepower and 664 lb.-ft. of torque.

Create Your Own Distinctive Mulliner Limited Edition Bentley

Harkening back to a time when every Bentley was a hand-crafted Mulliner Coachworks original, you can still experience that same pride of owning a bespoke Bentley Mulliner Limited Edition with Mulliner’s Personal Commissioning Guide available through Bentley Miami, South Florida’s premier Bentley luxury automotive dealership.

This exclusive program allows you to choose from a unique set of personal commissioning options across the entire spectrum of Bentley models, including the recently added Bentley Mulliner Limited Edition Bentayga SUV. Let our team of Bentley commissioning experts help guide you through the exciting process of creating your own bespoke Mulliner Limited Edition version of the Bentley Continental GT or Bentley Flying Spur.

We’ll show you how the online Bentley Mulliner Visualizer allows you to begin remotely crafting your own personalized Bentley aesthetic, choosing from 27 hide choices, 100 painted veneer options, a curated palette of 26 exterior colors, and a myriad of uniquely personalized individual details such as three-dimensional wood door trims, stone veneers, and even a prestigious Mulliner Tourbillon by Breitling timepiece adorning the dash. The only limit is your imagination.

To begin your journey toward owning your own individual work of Bentley Mulliner Limited Edition luxury automotive art, please contact our Bentley team for a personalized VIP consultation by dialing 786-577-5218. We also invite you to visit our Miami Bentley dealership located at 2060 Biscayne Blvd., Miami, FL 33137.