#I ended up with 2 bentley parallels in the same set

[mizgnomer]

Parallels - Good Omens Seasons One & Two - Part Five

Link to [ Part One ] [ Part Two ] [ Part Three ] [ Part Four ]

[jesusvasser]

By Design: 2019 Rolls-Royce Cullinan

A couple of decades back, somewhat awestruck, I held a simple—primitive, really—wooden car model as old as I was, nothing more than a block of wood that had been sliced longitudinally at an angle on both sides sometime in the late 1930s so its transverse cross section became a symmetrical trapezoid. The block was then jigsawed to a profile that described a hood, windshield, and body to which were appended rough plaster of Paris fender forms. It was Flaminio Bertoni’s own crude, brutal … and astonishingly precise physical description of a car that was subsequently manufactured for nearly half a century in exactly that shape, the legendary Citroën 2CV.

I have never seen a design model for the Rolls-Royce Cullinan, but one can easily imagine a block of wood similarly jigsawed to profile (and slightly narrowed above the waistline) that would be perfectly adequate to define and describe the three-dimensional surface envelope R-R’s design team had to work within to create this ferociously expensive SUV. Nothing is the least bit awesome or particularly imaginative about the Cullinan. But I am nonetheless impressed by the subtlety and, yes, relative elegance of the surface modulations executed within the confines of the few inches between my imagined wooden block’s rough-sawn perimeter and the lavish interior crafted for the enjoyment of the world’s tenth-of-one-percenters who will become owners of this OTT SUV.

Unlike the ancient 2CV, there is nothing at all brutal or crude about the Cullinan. There are even vague hints of voluptuous curvature in the front and rear fender profiles, although there’s only a few millimeters deviation from a dead straight line. In my notes I’ve referred to the Cullinan as the “Rolls-Royce truck,” and indeed that’s what it is, just as history’s longest-lived passenger car model name, Suburban, was first applied to Chevrolet’s panel delivery truck with some windows punched into its sides. If there never has been a production R-R truck, there have indeed been quite a few utilitarian bodies built for placement on Rolls-Royce chassis, in perfect accordance with Sir Henry Royce’s idea that one should be free to interchange bodies at will, depending on need, whim, or just season of the year.

In our modern world of unitized body-chassis units, that long-ago concept is no longer applicable, so it is now necessary to dedicate a specific set of tools to make each separate type of body, even if engine, driveline, and suspension elements can be shared by them. The Cullinan may be seen by some as shamelessly following a popular trend for SUVs, but I don’t think so. This vehicle, with its flawless execution and lavishly appointed interior, is perfectly aligned with the glorious history and respected traditions of the fine old British firm. Rolls-Royce may be German now, but there’s nothing wrong with that. So is the British royal family. Long live Betty Battenberg … and Rolls-Royce.

1. The panel on which the headlamp is mounted is very slightly inset from the fender profile leading edge. The many surface planes on the front end keep the eye from detecting the blunt blockiness of the whole.

2. The radiator grille is not as simple as it might seem. The lower rim is a simple curve in plan, running straight across the front, while the upper rim is nearly two planes intersecting at the centerline, with the curved vertical bars hiding the different origins.

3. The visual interest in the headlamp perimeter derives from having sharp points at the upper inner and lower outer corners and differing radii at the lower inner and upper outer ends of the assembly, and discernible inner lamp elements.

4. The upper surface of the front fenders is quite complex, rising from the outer peak line to a subtle declivity toward the hood cut, all beautifully modeled.

5. Yes, here’s the rear corner of my hypothetical wooden block left very apparent.

6. This crease in the door skins runs into the rear wheel opening but not into the front ones.

7. It was clever to cut the chrome strips short at each end so only two pieces are needed per side rather than four. The eye is carried the length of the side anyway.

8. A shame about this clumsy corner. Well, there’s no such thing as perfection, try as you might.

9. This bar aligns its top edge with the top, not the center, of the side chrome strips. Very nice.

10. It’s not really a skidplate, but it gives you the impression that should the Cullinan bump a stump, there would be no damage. It is relieved in the center portion.

11. The plan view bend in this chrome filler piece is just detectable in this view.

Chauffeur’s Post View

Designing the interior of a Rolls-Royce is not an easy job. Certain things are givens: fine woods and leathers, traditional ventilation elements, round instruments. Some are newly imposed by the current proprietors: making sure all metal aspect elements are actually made of metal, as in the recent Phantom VIII. Others are variable, as in the surprising glass-enclosed diorama section on that same Phantom known as the Gallery, excluded here. This is not a particularly harmonious composition, but it is appropriate to a Rolls-Royce, as it would definitely not be for a Mercedes-Maybach or a Cadillac.

1. This light switch/start-stop panel is delightfully 19th century in aspect, completely up to date technologically, absolutely perfect for Rolls-Royce cars.

2. The severe simplicity of the round ventilation outlets …

3. … and their traditional “organ stop” pull-out command buttons is truly at home in this antique-futuristic environment.

4. The massive hub and the steering wheel rim are not concentric, as is the case with many cars today, but here both are at least perfectly and precisely round, pure geometric circles. As they should be.

5. There are a lot of controls on the wheel, but they are at least logical. No more instrument light rheostat controls hidden inside the glove box on the other side of the car, as found in true-Brit R-R/Bentleys of old.

6. Very good, a parking brake control where it can be found by the driver. More than quite good.

1. There is visual continuity with the chrome band on the lower door skins, even if the elements are quite far apart. Very smoothly done, not at all obvious.

2. OK, it’s not a pure vertical line, but it’s not far off, just a few degrees of rearward lean for the grille, a bit more for the fender leading edges.

3. Even very rich companies are restrained by capital costs, so the Cullinan has to share side marker lines with other R-R models … where they also don’t quite fit.

4. You can see the subtle curving rise of the fender line above the wheel, but the cut line just behind it is parallel to the hood centerline profile, with a slight drop in from the fender peak.

5. Not really rakish but still quite sporting, the windshield angle is a lot less upright than most SUVs.

6. The traditional Rolls-Royce center-opening doors give us this handsome door handle pair about halfway down the body side.

7. The peak of the upper side molding crown is just a bit behind the B-pillar …

8. … while the peak of the lower section, which also is curved upward from front to back, is just about halfway along the rear door.

9. This elaborate trim piece recalls the castings used by Lexus for the LS 460, an especially well-made car that rather shamed Mercedes at the time of its launch. Just right for R-R.

10. The extension of the roof surface improves aerodynamics and picks up a nice hard edge that carries across the whole width of the upper body.

11. As close to the sawn edges of the imaginary wooden block as it’s possible to be, this rear surface is perfectly perpendicular to the road surface, maximizing the interior volume available.

12. The only awkwardness on the exterior are these sharp-cornered color break lines between body paint and the black lower section, worse in back than in front.

1. Notice the slight indentation of the entire roof section.

2. The indentation theme is picked up in the center of the hood, leading the eye to the Flying Lady as observed by the driver and any front-seat passenger.

3. The one wonderfully distinct part of R-R visuals was the strict three-element straight lines of the radiator shell cap. That’s gone now, and this soft curve is dismally generic and undistinguished. Only the strict vertical sides and grille bars save the presentation. But it’s definitely not good in my opinion. I think it’s possible to work with the original, even on a modern shape.

4. These slots are very nice, although we don’t yet know if they have a specific function.

5. This diagonal line at the bottom of the front end provides a sense of stability, a base for the entire structure above.

6. One has the feeling that many sizes and shapes were tried for the Cullinan’s headlamps until the absolutely correct dimensions were established.

7. In none of the photos does one get a clear perception of how severely the front fenders are cut back in plan view. That’s too bad, because it was artfully and skillfully done with an exactitude that suggests that many angles were tried here as well until the perfect one was found.

1. Sorry, the taillights seem a bit small to me. They are nicely shaped and proportioned and are positioned into insets within an overall inset section.

2. More evidence that my supposed block model may have existed after all.

3. The black-painted gusset apparently holding up the transverse spoiler strip is a surprise, but it’s decently unobtrusive.

4. In this view, you get a clear sense of crispness in the front fender profile.

5. These look like truck wheels. As they should; they are truck wheels, nice ones.

6. The incurving part of the door panels below this stamped crease reduces the visual mass of the body sides.

7. This whole lower rear corner is a bit awkward, in that there is a black shelf coming off the transverse chrome strip, its tight corner radius pinches the outer edge of the exhaust outlet, and there is that graceless pointed intersection of body color and underbody black.

8. Not an aerodynamic diffuser, not a skidplate, this broad trim piece is relieved in the center like the front simulated skidplate.

9. I presume this cut line is the bottom of the lift gate and that the panel below it is hinged just above the transverse chrome strip, folding down to the back to make a picnic platform. If not, that’s a really high lift over for luggage. Servants handle that either way.

IFTTT

[eddiejpoplar]

By Design: 2019 Bentley Continental GT

The news release on the Bentley Motors website says “The long wheelbase and short nose lend the car a sense of dynamism, even when viewed at a standstill.” If you believe that, you’re a great deal more gullible than you should be. It’s going to be a good long while before the long hood and tight passenger compartment ceases to be the most desirable look for front-engine performance cars. Look at the last Packard V-12 roadster from 1939, and you know it’s powerful and fast with no need for a vulgar chrome insignia on its flanks telling you how many cylinders are under the hood.

Apart from the copywriter’s unconvincing hyperbole, this is an extremely attractive little coupe. Or at least seemingly so, because there’s nothing little about any German-era Bentley Continental. They’re big cars, and even the least powerful of any built since Volkswagen AG took over is an impressively fast, capable conveyance for four people who will be transported in both comfort and style. But because of that stumpy front end and the giant 22-inch wheels on this new Continental, you get the sense of a tight, compact coupe—more Porsche than Packard. Which, when you think about it, is not a bad thing. Both P-cars are worthy of emulation, and Bentley’s native history is validation enough for anything the firm might do today, whether it conforms to our proportional preconceptions or not.

I find the rather wide (as compared to all the finer trim pieces on the car) chrome band on the side to be both inappropriate and poorly executed, skewed off-datum as it is. But that’s the only part of the styling that clashes with the Bentley tradition of understated quality. From Vanden Plas bodies of the Cricklewood cars in the ’20s to coachbuilt bodies of the first Rolls-Royce Bentleys, there has always been some reserve in shapes and detailing of cars carrying Walter Owen’s name. I am particularly pleased by the subtle undercuts beneath each important styling line. It works well everywhere, but it’s especially effective on the rear fender indication.

What is unequivocally superior about Bentley design today is the interior work. The execution of every single bit of wood, leather, metal, and plastic is faultless in the current generation. Bentley volumes are many times higher than they ever were in the era of the British Empire on which the sun never set. So it is not astonishing that buyers outside the land of rising damp might want to see bright orange paint on their Bentaygas and Flying Spurs. That each and every model can be customized to buyers’ exact requirements means every potential Bentley owner can be assured of personal satisfaction as well as astonishing performance and unquestioned prestige. Even if they don’t really look like they’re going fast “when viewed at a standstill.”

1. It takes a lot of confidence in your precision manufacturing capability to position the gas cap door to cut through complex surfaces. Nice work.

2. The now-traditional small outer lamp is nicely placed on the front of the outer fender surface in such a way as to generate a profile line perfectly recalling the shape of “Olga,” the prototype R-Type Continental from 1951.

3. A complex inner lamp generates an inner bulge that fades away in a short distance, again a sensitive, respectful evocation of a long-term Bentley morphology.

4. The hood centerline peak is slightly more prominent than aesthetically desirable. A flatter line would have been better.

5. Tradition, modernity, evocation of racing Bentleys in the ’20s—the grille is everything it should be on a 21st century Bentley, including the centerline rod.

6. If there is anything a bit questionable on the front end, it would be these angled arms, seemingly more at home on an Italian supercar than on a historically inspired design.

7. The huge corner openings are not philosophically out of place, but you wonder about their gigantic size.

8. Another almost-subliminal indication of the size of the Continental is its door handles, too low on the body side for a small coupe, ergonomically correct for this one.

9. The bottom of the sill droops just a bit before the rear wheel, making the rising chrome strip and the suggestion of a wedge form even more incongruous.

1. The most interesting aspect of the Continental’s body surfaces is the indentation below each styling line, most notably the rear fender profile line.

2. The mirrors are enormous, thus making the whole ensemble look like a small, nimble coupe. It isn’t. It’s a big car—very fast but nothing like a Lotus.

3. The relatively short hood also makes the car look smaller in photographs than it is, and it’s antithetical to the recent Mercedes-Maybach’s hood, which seems twice this long.

4. The wheel design is interesting in that the bright rim is discontinuous, each of five segments starting with a blunt end that doesn’t touch the rim.

5. After looping toward the center, the bright strip becomes part of the rim, tapering to this sharp point just before the next segment.

6. There should be symmetrically opposite wheels on each side of the car, but there are not. This tightest bend of each spoke segment should point forward and not back as it does on the right side of the car. Driver’s side wins here.

7. The huge open area of this 22-inch wheel provides a great view of the enormous brake discs.

8. This hokey chrome bit with its ostentatious cylinder-count announcement suggests the German owners have no comprehension of traditional British understatement. Too bad.

9. The rear of the V-section chrome strip is crimped flat to cross the flat flange around the wheel opening.

10. This crisp line derived from the outer end of the exhaust outlet is comprehensible.

11. This parallel crisp line above the trim strip, derived from no other feature, is not.

1. Camera lens distortion, sure. But these mirrors are really, really big. Good for safety but not for scale.

2. This little separator allows the main door glass to go down. The same constraint existed on the R-Type long ago.

3. Bentley has legitimate access to the Rolls-Royce air-conditioning outlets as seen here. Notice how elegantly the chrome trim beneath the wood aligns with the outlet rib.

4. Almost a novelty in this age, the steering wheel is simply round, with no humps, bumps, or surface-material changes. On the other hand, the hub is definitely off-center. But it looks good and looks like it would feel good.

5. Wood use is discreet and quite welcome.

6. In the age of giant Tesla tablets, the GPS screen seems like a transplanted smartphone face.

7. The organ stop A/C flow controls are another Rolls-Royce carryover idea.

8. These A-pillars are really excessive, blocking far too much view. Bentley should be able to engineer something as strong but not as wide.

9. The center console seems a little too traditional—cluttered and confusing.

10. The “Chairman Mao” diamond quilting is unpleasant and looks cheap to me, though I know that there’s a lot of skilled work that goes into making the seat covers and door panels.

11. These round speaker covers could be made less obtrusive, but perhaps the metal presentation is considered more upscale.

12. This small control panel looks like a mistake. It hangs below the rest of the trim piece, which is elegantly smooth on the cockpit’s passenger side.

1. In this view you get an even more notable sense of the atypical undercut fender profile line.

2. The roof profile line is emphasized by an undercut down to the transverse roof panel.

3. Although the backlight surface is relatively large, the blackout panels painted on the inner surface reduce the transparency to about half the total glass panel area. It’s odd but not uncommon these days.

4. There is a big drop between this spoiler edge and the tapering roof, another element of the surface undercuts prevalent on this coupe.

5. The trunklid is really small, giving the impression that loading baggage will be an unpleasant chore. Presumably even golf bags will fit, pointing out the overall apparent size discrepancy.

6. The very fine chrome trim around the taillights is nicely proportioned …

7. … as is the slightly thicker license recess trim.

8. … whereas the horizontal exhaust outlets are symmetrical, a much nicer shape.

9. Notice the lamp outline sags a bit as compared to the upper profile, which is very pure …

10. The two flat sections of the chrome strip really should have been left off. The main thrust of the V-section trim pieces would have been preserved without breaking up the wheel opening.

11. In publicity pictures, the B at the wheel hub is always presented as though it were on a weighted center, such as a Rolls-Royce or a car sporting dubs. Let it go.

IFTTT

[jonathanbelloblog]

By Design: 2019 Bentley Continental GT

The news release on the Bentley Motors website says “The long wheelbase and short nose lend the car a sense of dynamism, even when viewed at a standstill.” If you believe that, you’re a great deal more gullible than you should be. It’s going to be a good long while before the long hood and tight passenger compartment ceases to be the most desirable look for front-engine performance cars. Look at the last Packard V-12 roadster from 1939, and you know it’s powerful and fast with no need for a vulgar chrome insignia on its flanks telling you how many cylinders are under the hood.

Apart from the copywriter’s unconvincing hyperbole, this is an extremely attractive little coupe. Or at least seemingly so, because there’s nothing little about any German-era Bentley Continental. They’re big cars, and even the least powerful of any built since Volkswagen AG took over is an impressively fast, capable conveyance for four people who will be transported in both comfort and style. But because of that stumpy front end and the giant 22-inch wheels on this new Continental, you get the sense of a tight, compact coupe—more Porsche than Packard. Which, when you think about it, is not a bad thing. Both P-cars are worthy of emulation, and Bentley’s native history is validation enough for anything the firm might do today, whether it conforms to our proportional preconceptions or not.

I find the rather wide (as compared to all the finer trim pieces on the car) chrome band on the side to be both inappropriate and poorly executed, skewed off-datum as it is. But that’s the only part of the styling that clashes with the Bentley tradition of understated quality. From Vanden Plas bodies of the Cricklewood cars in the ’20s to coachbuilt bodies of the first Rolls-Royce Bentleys, there has always been some reserve in shapes and detailing of cars carrying Walter Owen’s name. I am particularly pleased by the subtle undercuts beneath each important styling line. It works well everywhere, but it’s especially effective on the rear fender indication.

What is unequivocally superior about Bentley design today is the interior work. The execution of every single bit of wood, leather, metal, and plastic is faultless in the current generation. Bentley volumes are many times higher than they ever were in the era of the British Empire on which the sun never set. So it is not astonishing that buyers outside the land of rising damp might want to see bright orange paint on their Bentaygas and Flying Spurs. That each and every model can be customized to buyers’ exact requirements means every potential Bentley owner can be assured of personal satisfaction as well as astonishing performance and unquestioned prestige. Even if they don’t really look like they’re going fast “when viewed at a standstill.”

1. It takes a lot of confidence in your precision manufacturing capability to position the gas cap door to cut through complex surfaces. Nice work.

2. The now-traditional small outer lamp is nicely placed on the front of the outer fender surface in such a way as to generate a profile line perfectly recalling the shape of “Olga,” the prototype R-Type Continental from 1951.

3. A complex inner lamp generates an inner bulge that fades away in a short distance, again a sensitive, respectful evocation of a long-term Bentley morphology.

4. The hood centerline peak is slightly more prominent than aesthetically desirable. A flatter line would have been better.

5. Tradition, modernity, evocation of racing Bentleys in the ’20s—the grille is everything it should be on a 21st century Bentley, including the centerline rod.

6. If there is anything a bit questionable on the front end, it would be these angled arms, seemingly more at home on an Italian supercar than on a historically inspired design.

7. The huge corner openings are not philosophically out of place, but you wonder about their gigantic size.

8. Another almost-subliminal indication of the size of the Continental is its door handles, too low on the body side for a small coupe, ergonomically correct for this one.

9. The bottom of the sill droops just a bit before the rear wheel, making the rising chrome strip and the suggestion of a wedge form even more incongruous.

1. The most interesting aspect of the Continental’s body surfaces is the indentation below each styling line, most notably the rear fender profile line.

2. The mirrors are enormous, thus making the whole ensemble look like a small, nimble coupe. It isn’t. It’s a big car—very fast but nothing like a Lotus.

3. The relatively short hood also makes the car look smaller in photographs than it is, and it’s antithetical to the recent Mercedes-Maybach’s hood, which seems twice this long.

4. The wheel design is interesting in that the bright rim is discontinuous, each of five segments starting with a blunt end that doesn’t touch the rim.

5. After looping toward the center, the bright strip becomes part of the rim, tapering to this sharp point just before the next segment.

6. There should be symmetrically opposite wheels on each side of the car, but there are not. This tightest bend of each spoke segment should point forward and not back as it does on the right side of the car. Driver’s side wins here.

7. The huge open area of this 22-inch wheel provides a great view of the enormous brake discs.

8. This hokey chrome bit with its ostentatious cylinder-count announcement suggests the German owners have no comprehension of traditional British understatement. Too bad.

9. The rear of the V-section chrome strip is crimped flat to cross the flat flange around the wheel opening.

10. This crisp line derived from the outer end of the exhaust outlet is comprehensible.

11. This parallel crisp line above the trim strip, derived from no other feature, is not.

1. Camera lens distortion, sure. But these mirrors are really, really big. Good for safety but not for scale.

2. This little separator allows the main door glass to go down. The same constraint existed on the R-Type long ago.

3. Bentley has legitimate access to the Rolls-Royce air-conditioning outlets as seen here. Notice how elegantly the chrome trim beneath the wood aligns with the outlet rib.

4. Almost a novelty in this age, the steering wheel is simply round, with no humps, bumps, or surface-material changes. On the other hand, the hub is definitely off-center. But it looks good and looks like it would feel good.

5. Wood use is discreet and quite welcome.

6. In the age of giant Tesla tablets, the GPS screen seems like a transplanted smartphone face.

7. The organ stop A/C flow controls are another Rolls-Royce carryover idea.

8. These A-pillars are really excessive, blocking far too much view. Bentley should be able to engineer something as strong but not as wide.

9. The center console seems a little too traditional—cluttered and confusing.

10. The “Chairman Mao” diamond quilting is unpleasant and looks cheap to me, though I know that there’s a lot of skilled work that goes into making the seat covers and door panels.

11. These round speaker covers could be made less obtrusive, but perhaps the metal presentation is considered more upscale.

12. This small control panel looks like a mistake. It hangs below the rest of the trim piece, which is elegantly smooth on the cockpit’s passenger side.

1. In this view you get an even more notable sense of the atypical undercut fender profile line.

2. The roof profile line is emphasized by an undercut down to the transverse roof panel.

3. Although the backlight surface is relatively large, the blackout panels painted on the inner surface reduce the transparency to about half the total glass panel area. It’s odd but not uncommon these days.

4. There is a big drop between this spoiler edge and the tapering roof, another element of the surface undercuts prevalent on this coupe.

5. The trunklid is really small, giving the impression that loading baggage will be an unpleasant chore. Presumably even golf bags will fit, pointing out the overall apparent size discrepancy.

6. The very fine chrome trim around the taillights is nicely proportioned …

7. … as is the slightly thicker license recess trim.

8. … whereas the horizontal exhaust outlets are symmetrical, a much nicer shape.

9. Notice the lamp outline sags a bit as compared to the upper profile, which is very pure …

10. The two flat sections of the chrome strip really should have been left off. The main thrust of the V-section trim pieces would have been preserved without breaking up the wheel opening.

11. In publicity pictures, the B at the wheel hub is always presented as though it were on a weighted center, such as a Rolls-Royce or a car sporting dubs. Let it go.

IFTTT