E85 Boondoggle of the Day: "Extreme Bentley"
Bentley is hanging out the greenwashing. Yes, Bentley. Volkswagen-owned uber-luxury marque tasked with somehow meeting new European and now Californian emissions laws, without shovelling 34,746 lithium-ion batteries under bonnet. Or perhaps that is the plan, eventually. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of pol-pleasing auto execs? Meanwhile, Bentley’s asking the autoblogosphere to marvel— marvel I tell you!— at a highly-horsed E85-compatible Bentley Continental GT headed for the Geneva Auto Show. Honestly chaps, I can’t think of a more pathetic attempt to appease your European overlords. I also can’t imagine that a single Bentley customer could or would give a shit that their 600hp Bentley can run on corn juice– especially when they find out that filling-up with E85 gives them fewer mpgs in a vehicle with not a single mpg to spare (especially in 600hp trim). And how exactly does E85-compatibility cut a Bentley’s CO2 emissions on a “well-to-wheel basis?” Apparently, this such an important development for environmentalists that Autobloggreen doesn’t even mention it. Instead… “In any case, a new Bentley’s coming, and it’s fixin’ to open up a plus-sized can of whoop-ass.” So much for trees, then.
More by Robert Farago
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Actually I'd imagine this thing will pack way more than 600 hp. Remember, Ethanol is higher octane. More knock resistance = more boost. More boost = MORE POWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Exactly. If you are into extreme horsepower on the street, E85 is a godsend. Its RON is 105 so you can run boost and compression levels that are just not attainable with ordinary pump gasoline (94 AKI max). The only way you can get comparable octane is with race gas at six bucks a gallon -- and it's not road legal. E85 is cheaper than regular (87 AKI) and makes more power than anything you can buy at the pump.