Bentley Prepping An Epic Farewell For Its Iconic W12 Before April 2024 Discontinuation

We need to embrace the era of electrification, thanks to stringent emission norms, net zero carbon neutrality and so on… As a result, luxury marquees are discontinuing their flagship engines with downsized and more fuel-efficient electrified options. Joining this clan is Bentley, who has announced that its iconic creamy smooth six-litre W12 engine will be no more from April 2024.

That being said, Bentley, like other carmakers discontinuing their gas-guzzling performance monsters, has prepared an epic farewell for its top-of-the-line powertrain. And it’s rather a simple farewell: squeeze as much horsepower from it as possible! The end result is a mammoth 750PS at 5500rpm, and a monstrous 1000Nm of torque from 1750 to 5000rpm. 

This iteration of the engine will be plonked in the exclusively handbuilt limited Batur. Commenting on the farewell, Bentley’s Chairman and Chief Executive, Adrian Hallmark, said, “Our progressive journey towards sustainable luxury mobility means making changes to every area of Bentley Motors. When we first launched the W12 back in 2003, we knew we had a mighty engine that would propel both our cars and the brand forwards at speed. 20 years and more than 100,000 W12s later, the time has come to retire this now-iconic powertrain as we take strides towards electrification – but not without giving it the best send-off possible, with the most powerful version of the engine ever created.”

Also Read: Meet The Batur: Most POWERFUL Bentley Ever Made!

Bentley’s six-litre W12 engine was released in 2003 and is carefully handcrafted by 30 skilled engineers at its facility in Crewe, England. It will have over one lakh engines delivered by the end of this year, which marks its 20th anniversary. Over the period, the engine has seen a 37 percent increase in power, 54 percent rise in torque and a 25 percent decrease in emissions. During the engine’s tenure, Bentley implemented more tech such as twin-scroll turbocharging, cylinder deactivation tech and twin-scroll turbos. 

Obviously, the next question that needs addressing is what’s next? It’s no doubt that Bentley needs to embrace stringent emission regulations; and going forward, the luxury marque will focus on hybridised V8 and V6 powertrains. It’ll also deploy all the 30 engineers who worked on the W12 to focus on developing the downsized powertrains. 

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That said, if you still want to own one of the masterpieces in engineering, the opportunity is still there, as the luxury marque said there are limited slots available. So if you’ve had your eyes on one, get in touch with Bentley immediately.