Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Automotive News
  • Automobilwoche
  • Automotive News Canada
  • Automotive News Mexico
Subscribe
  • Subscribe
  • Newsletters
  • Login
  • HOME
  • News
    • Photos
    • Automakers
    • Suppliers
    • Sales By Market
    • Environment/Emissions
    • Latest Launches
    • Sales and Retail
    • Car Cutaways
    • On The Move
    • China's Baoneng boosts stake in Qoros
      Citroen says Ami One two-seater is a new concept for affordable mobility
      EU, Japan back automatic braking regulation
      German auto jobs at risk from hard Brexit
    • Lidar sector moves at light speed
      Europe's first lithium mine looks to automakers for investment
      Driv spinoff to build smart suspension systems
      Faurecia hopes to outperform uncertain market
    • Porsche, Alfa Romeo and Nissan take big hits as European sales fall 5% in January
      Russia sales rise nearly 1% in January despite VAT increase
      Audi, Fiat, BMW among losers as Spanish sales fall 8% in January
      Volvo, VW gain sales in UK market down nearly 2% in January as diesel plunge continues
    • Volvo blurs the wagon/SUV line with the V60 Cross Country
      view gallery
      7 photos
      New Range Rover Evoque designed for the 'urban jungle'
      Range Rover Evoque gets hybrid tech to cut emissions
      Tarraco gives Seat a flagship SUV to help retain wealthy buyers
    • Ferrari will unveil V-8 hybrid supercar this year
      Mercedes outsold Audi in China last month on sedan demand
      Tesla's Musk visits Norway to review delivery delays
      Europe's minicar segment to shrink as VW, PSA mull axing their smallest cars
    • Suppliers to the new Porsche Panamera
      Suppliers to the new Peugeot 5008
      Suppliers to the new Seat Ibiza
      Suppliers to the new VW Touareg
    • Ford names new chief government relations officer
      Daimler appoints Airbus exec as finance chief
      VW China CEO to join VW brand's management board
      Mini USA names marketing veteran McKenna head of product planning
    • Geneva Photo Gallery
    • Beijing Photo Gallery
    • Frankfurt Photo Gallery
    • Paris Photo Gallery
    • Shanghai Photo Gallery
  • Auto Shows
    • Geneva Auto Show
    • Frankfurt Auto Show
    • Paris Auto Show
    • Beijing Auto Show
    • Shanghai Auto Show
    • Smart to showcase latest mobility services in Geneva show car
      Seat's Cupra Formentor concept focuses on sporty performance
      Peugeot's 508-based Geneva concept previews new range of high-performance electrified vehicles.
      Aston Martin teases new hypercar ahead of Geneva debut
    • Bugatti considers four-door model for 2024
      Frankfurt photo booth
      Frankfurt's best and wurst
      Merkel says German car industry must work to rebuild trust
    • Vietnam's first automaker now has names for first sedan, SUV
      Bugatti mulls SUV as part of broader model range
      Ferrari Monza supercars will earn $755 million in revenue
      China's GAC likely to debut in Europe with an EV
    • VW will launch SOL EV brand in China with subcompact crossover
      view gallery
      9 photos
      BMW's iX3 concept heralds electric expansion
      view gallery
      9 photos
      BMW will export iX3 electric SUV to Europe, U.S. from China
      view gallery
      15 photos
      Mercedes-Maybach is betting on a hybrid SUV-sedan look
    • view gallery
      7 photos
      Jeep finds green groove with plug-in hybrid SUV concept
      Foreign automakers embrace China as EV development hub
      China lands Chevy Volt in a Buick wrapper
      Ferrari, Aston Martin, Maserati sales soar in China as rich snub austerity push
  • Opinion
    • Blogs
    • Luca Ciferri
    • Douglas A. Bolduc
    • Paul McVeigh
    • Is Honda's UK plant closure the beginning of a Japanese Brexit?
      Ford's 'redesign' for Europe emphasizes SUVs, LCVs
      Russia's Google, Yandex, impresses with its self-driving tech
      Renault Twizy gets new life in Korea as motorcycle replacement
    • Is Honda's UK plant closure the beginning of a Japanese Brexit?
      Ford's 'redesign' for Europe emphasizes SUVs, LCVs
      Russia's Google, Yandex, impresses with its self-driving tech
      Renault Twizy gets new life in Korea as motorcycle replacement
    • Lidar sector moves at light speed
      Is Honda's UK plant closure the beginning of a Japanese Brexit?
      Ford's 'redesign' for Europe emphasizes SUVs, LCVs
      Russia's Google, Yandex, impresses with its self-driving tech
    • Is Honda's UK plant closure the beginning of a Japanese Brexit?
      Ford's 'redesign' for Europe emphasizes SUVs, LCVs
      Russia's Google, Yandex, impresses with its self-driving tech
      Renault Twizy gets new life in Korea as motorcycle replacement
  • Maps
    • E-Car & Component Map of Europe
    • Powertrain Map of Europe
    • Assembly Plant Map of Europe
  • Supplements
    • Connected Car
    • Talk From The Top
    • BMW 100
    • Car Cutaways
  • EVENTS & AWARDS
    • Automotive News Europe Congress
    • Rising Stars
    • Eurostars
    • Leading Women
  • E-MAGAZINE
    • Read the latest issue
    • Download the app
    • Subscribe
  • More
    • E-Magazine
    • Contact Us
    • 2019 Media Kit
    • About Us
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. Automotive News Europe
October 11, 1999 01:00 AM

How Bentley engineers beat their deadline

Bradford Wernle
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print

    For engineer Steve Moore, the most difficult days of the Bentley Red Label Arnage test program came late last March. The problems began when the ice began to melt during a premature spring thaw in Arjeplog, Sweden.

    Moore, a development engineer for chassis systems and test driver for Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motor Cars Ltd., needed firm ice on the frozen lakes to finish cold weather testing of the prototype of the Red Label Arnage sedan. If the lakes thawed too soon, Moore couldn't take the prototype vehicle out to finish the second and final cold weather validations. Then Bentley would have had to wait for another winter for final testing. That would have meant the car missing its scheduled world debut at the Frankfurt auto show last month.

    'We were really up against it,' Moore said. 'We did really worry. You'd contact people back at Crewe (Rolls-Royce/Bentley headquarters), but it was hard to get them to understand how the lakes melt. It's on the nature programs, and it's really true.'

    Fortunately, the cold weather lingered so Moore could get the car back out on the frozen lakes early in the morning to finish the tests.

    It was a nerve-wracking finish to a very intense few months for Moore and a team of engineers at Rolls-Royce and Bentley, Robert Bosch GmbH and Zyteck Automotive Ltd.

    When Bentley engineers received approval to retrofit the 40-year-old 6.75-liter V-8 engine into the Arnage sedan last October, they knew they had a challenge on their hands.

    The big V-8, also used in Bentley two-door models, was too high, too low and too long for the Arnage engine bay. The bay had been designed to accommodate the 4.5-liter BMW engine which until now has powered the range.

    That BMW engine had been hailed as the Bentley engine of the future when it was introduced less than two years ago. But that was before Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motor Cars Ltd. was sold to Volkswagen in summer 1998 and before the Rolls-Royce marque was acquired by BMW after a series of legal maneuvers.

    VW Chairman Ferdinand Piëch, senior VW officials and Bentley management felt the BMW engine did not have enough torque to satisfy some Bentley customers. And poor initial sales in some key areas, most crucially Bentley's home UK market, seemed to support that view.

    The Bentley engine of the future, known as the W16, would not be ready for several years, so stop-gap measures were necessary. Backed by VW's engineering resources, they decided they might be able to use the old pushrod V-8 after all.

    Perhaps the most challenging task engineers faced had to do with the electronics needed to make the engine talk to the rest of the car, most importantly the traction control system. The Arnage's communications architecture network was designed by Bosch to talk to the Bosch engine management system on the original 4.5-liter BMW engine. But the engine management on the 6.75-liter engine was supplied by Zyteck, a company in Sutton Coldfield, England. That meant engineers had to make two incompatible engine computer systems talk to each other - and do it in about half the usual time.

    'We did not have two winters available to us,' said John McCallum, project director for the Bentley Arnage and Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph.

    The risk was that the system would not work with the heavier, more powerful 6.75-liter engine, thus delaying the project or causing it to be cancelled altogether.

    'They had a lion to tame,' said McCallum, describing the big 400hp engine.

    Traction control was the trickiest piece of the puzzle. What engineers needed was a system that would allow the enthusiast Bentley driver to drive the car hard, but that would also help keep the big sedan out of trouble in an emergency or in winter conditions, said Moore.

    'The important thing was to make sure car systems could communicate and still be controlled,' said McCallum.

    To get it right, they needed to go where the weather was cold. A prototype was built and taken to the frozen lakes around Arjeplog.

    After initial calibrations, the car was then taken to Germany for more tests at Bosch's test track in Boxberg. There, a secondary throttle, operated by a servo motor, was installed to take over control of the engine when the traction control kicked in.

    The white test car then returned to Arjeplog for another month of cold weather testing and calibration. Final dry pavement testing was done on mountainous public roads around Corvara, Italy, in the Dolomites.

    VW and Bentley management signed off the car in Wolfsburg last August. The Red Label Arnage made its scheduled appearance in Frankfurt as planned, much to the relief of Steve Moore who remembers all too well the thaw that almost stopped the big car in its tracks.

    Monthly E-Magazine
    Thumbnail
    View latest issue
    See our archive
    Sign up for free newsletters
    EMAIL ADDRESS

    Please enter a valid email address.

    Please enter your email address.

    Please select at least one newsletter to subscribe.

    You can unsubscribe at any time through links in these emails. For more information, see our Privacy Policy.

    Get Free Newsletters

    Sign up and get the best of Automotive News Europe delivered straight to your email inbox, free of charge. Choose your news – we will deliver.

    You can unsubscribe at any time through links in these emails. For more information, see our Privacy Policy.

    Automotive News Europe Monthly E-Magazine

    Sign up to receive your free link to each monthly issue of Automotive News Europe as soon as it's published.

    GET THE E-MAGAZINE
    Connect with Us
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Instagram

    Founded in 1996, Automotive News Europe is the preferred information source for decision-makers and opinion leaders operating in Europe.

    Contact Us

    1155 Gratiot Avenue
    Detroit MI  48207-2997
    Tel: +1 877-812-1584


    Email Us

    Resources
    • About us
    • Contact Us
    • 2019 Media Kit
    • Advertise with Us
    • Ad Choices Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Awards
    • Rising Stars
    • Eurostars
    • Leading Women
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    Copyright © 1996-2019. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • HOME
    • News
      • Photos
        • Geneva Photo Gallery
        • Beijing Photo Gallery
        • Frankfurt Photo Gallery
        • Paris Photo Gallery
        • Shanghai Photo Gallery
      • Automakers
      • Suppliers
      • Sales By Market
      • Environment/Emissions
      • Latest Launches
      • Sales and Retail
      • Car Cutaways
      • On The Move
    • Auto Shows
      • Geneva Auto Show
      • Frankfurt Auto Show
      • Paris Auto Show
      • Beijing Auto Show
      • Shanghai Auto Show
    • Opinion
      • Blogs
      • Luca Ciferri
      • Douglas A. Bolduc
      • Paul McVeigh
    • Maps
      • E-Car & Component Map of Europe
      • Powertrain Map of Europe
      • Assembly Plant Map of Europe
    • Supplements
      • Connected Car
      • Talk From The Top
      • BMW 100
      • Car Cutaways
    • EVENTS & AWARDS
      • Automotive News Europe Congress
      • Rising Stars
      • Eurostars
      • Leading Women
    • E-MAGAZINE
      • Read the latest issue
      • Download the app
      • Subscribe
    • More
      • E-Magazine
      • Contact Us
      • 2019 Media Kit
      • About Us