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Indulge your fantasies.

The Mulsanne is the ultimate Bentley sedan, combining tradition, engineering, and luxury. Its aluminum front fenders and composite trunk lid comprise a largely vain effort to save weight, but that hardly matters since there’s a twin-turbo V-8 under the hood sending an incredible 752 lb-ft of torque through an eight-speed automatic transmission. Bentley quotes a top speed of 184 mph, not bad for a 5700-pound sedan lined with your choice of eight wood veneers and twenty-four leather colors. Assembly specialists spend 170 hours handcrafting the interior of each car, and it shows in everything you see, touch, and smell. The infotainment system hides discreetly behind a power-operated veneered wood door. The rear-seat compartment has its own hidden treasures: the new $33,000 iPad package provides twin electrically powered picnic tables that deploy at the touch of a button to reveal two beautifully integrated iPads and Apple wireless keyboards for internet access via the Wi-Fi connection. Another new option is a cooler that stores two champagne bottles in a canted position (to keep two open bottles ready to pour) and three flutes hidden behind a powered glass door. Pile on the options, and the Mulsanne’s $300,000 base price quickly leaps toward the stratosphere, but who cares when you’re indulging your fantasies?

COMPETITORS

Rolls-Royce Phantom

A motor yacht

A small condo in Miami

new for 2013

A moonroof is now standard, a double-iPad package offers on-the-move Wi-Fi, a theater package has a 15.6-inch drop-down monitor and eight-inch headrest screens, and a cooler holds two open bottles of champagne. It’s good to be rich.

SAFETY EQUIPMENT

Front, side, and side curtain air bags; traction and stability control; ABS; a backup camera; and a tire-pressure monitoring system are standard. Precollision warning (part of the active cruise-control system) is optional.

MPG

CITY 11

HWY 18

PRO

Super-exclusive

Stunning build quality

Surprisingly athletic

CON

Stunningly expensive

Sucks gasoline like a 747

Can’t park it just anywhere

Base Price: $302,425

SPECIFICATIONS

DRIVE: Rear-wheel

TRIM LEVEL: Mulsanne

BODY STYLE: Sedan, 5-passenger

ENGINE: 6.8L twin-turbo V-8, 505 hp, 752 lb-ft

TRANSMISSION: 8-speed automatic

PASSENGER VOLUME: N/A

CARGO SPACE: N/A