Bentley Mulsanne (1980-1992)

The Bentley Mulsanne of 1980 to 1992 was a large, performance-oriented luxury saloon built by Bentley Motors. It replaced the Bentley T-series and began as a Bentley-badged equivalent of the Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit, but unlike earlier Bentleys of its kind it was given a name instead of a letter, taken from the Mulsanne straight at the Circuit de la Sarthe, a nod to the marque's Le Mans victories between 1924 and 1930. It used the 6.75 litre Rolls-Royce V8, carburetted at first and fitted with Bosch fuel injection from 1986, with a three-speed automatic gearbox. The 1982 Mulsanne Turbo, with about half as much power again, started the rebuilding of a distinct Bentley image, and derivatives such as the Continental T and the Azure stayed in production into the 2000s.