Bentley Hybrid? Good God Man! Are You Serious?
It's not such horrible news dear boy. It's not as if Bentley's sticking that frightfully underpowered Prius' Synergy Drive into the Arnage. Leftlane News tells me The Bentley Boys plan to hybridize their Eisenhower-era 6.75-liter V8 engine to keep the old girl kosher under the European Union's more stringent emissions laws. The historic powerplant stays. Huzzah! (I'll be sending the boffins some fine port when I get a minute.) While I'm thrilled– thrilled I tell you– that Bentley will use battery power to keep its rolling cathedrals motive, it's a shame they have to meet green laws. I mean, the idea that Bentley's limited production could somehow impact global temperatures is as preposterous as asking their owners to join the Peace Corps. If it was in this writer's hands, so long as Bentley makes cars with more torque than a Peterbilt, they're good to go. Shove a Bugatti Veyron's quad-turbo W16 in there? Why not old bean; why not?
Immensely bored law student. I've also got 3 dogs.
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I'm of the opinion that almost any car benefits from adding a hybrid engine. Less pollution, less gas usage, quieter, less wear and tear on the gas engine and conventional brakes, more reliabile (because of less wear and tear on the gas engine and conventional brakes). Other than the added cost of the electric engine (not really a factor in a Bentley), what's not to like?
What a hoot! To the third world, every individual North American is as rich and consumes as much proportionately as the Bentley driver does to us. Perhaps more. But we are blind to it. I'm sure the Bentley owner is as highly uninterested in you or me and our personal travails as we are in the plight of the average Mongol.
There again, a nice fat gas tax would solve all those issues all at once, without requiring more laws, amendments, and other complications. But then, our dear lawmakers would get bored, wouldn't they?
@AKM: Heaven forbid we make people pay for what they use, and not what they don't. Make Bentley pay fines, and the rich guy who buys one will still burn tons (tonnes, I suppose) of gas and pollute up our pristine air. At least make rich man pay for it, rather than poor old Bentley. Geotpf: What's not to like, unfortunately, is that a hybrid Bentley is sorta not a Bentley. Bentley cars aren't about mileage, better emissions, or even reliability. Efficiency? Bah! They are about taking an extremely heavy vehicle to enormous speeds with a tremendous old-school engine. Also, I'd hate to think of what all those NiMH batteries from the used Bentley hybrids will do to our poor environment. Alas, I kid, I kid.