Dramatic Mulliner Batur revealed as the most powerful production Bentley ever made

Said to represent the future of its styling language, Bentley has used the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in Monterey to unveil a bespoke coupe, the Mulliner Batur.

Named after the Lake Batur crater on the island of Bali, the Mulliner Batur, as evident by the prefix in its name, is the result of Bentley’s in-house coachbuilding division and replacement for the limited-run Bacalar as only 18 examples have been confirmed for production.

While based on the same platform as the Continental GT, the Batur adopts a comparatively more compact appearance highlighted not only by the sloping roof and rounded rear facia, seemingly inspired by that of the Ferrari Roma, but by a sharper front-end comprising angular LED headlights, a smaller bonnet and a new interpretation of the corporate matrix grille.

Mounted on unique 22-inch polished Black Crystal alloy wheels wrapped in Pirelli tyres, the Batur incorporates a number of sporty touches unlikely to be offered on the standard Continental GT.

These include carbon fibre door sills, a carbon front splitter, carbon rear diffuser finished in Black Crystal and an otherwise hidden deployable spoiler integrated into the boot.

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Completing the exterior is a Gloss Dark Titanium finish for the grille, contrasted by what Bentley calls Hyperactive Orange accents.

As with the Bacalar, each Batur will be customised to buyer preference, with the selection of unspecified colours including the Bonneville Pearlescent Silver resplendent on the Monterey show car.

Unlike its exterior, the Batur’s interior is largely identical to that of the Continental GT and Bacalar despite Bentley calling it “a cabin of sustainable bespoke beauty”.

In this regard, the Batur offers three sustainable material options; dinamica micro-fibres, tannage leather in five colours sourced from Italy and so-called low carbon leather from Scotland rather than the United Kingdom.

For the rest of the interior, the Batur receives gloss black veneers and inserts, anodised black aluminium and satin titanium bright work and a specific black, red and orange colour.

As with the material choices, buyers can choose from three hides substituting for the traditional leather; Beluga, Hotspur and Hyperactive with 18 carat gold finishes on the Dynamic Drive Selector and 12 o’clock steering wheel marking rounding the interior off.

Underneath, Bentley has also fiddled with the Batur chassis by equipping each model not only with the 48-volt mild-hybrid active anti-roll system, but also torque vectoring, an electronic limited slip differential and rear-wheel steering.

Stopping power comes from a carbon silicone brake setup utilising a ten-piston caliper setup at the front and four-piston at the rear, with the discs measuring 440 mm and 410 mm respectively.

With Bentley having announced a move towards complete electrification by 2030, motivation comes from the venerable twin-turbo 6.0 TSI W12 described by Crewe as entering its “twilight years”.

Matched to the eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox with drive going to all four wheels, the unit that debuted back in 2002 has been revised with a new intake system, turbochargers and sports exhaust made out of titanium for a final output of 544kW/1 000Nm.

Despite Bentley not divulging any performance details, it did confirm the outputs as being more than that of the Continental GT Speed, therefore making the Batur it’s most powerful production model ever made.

Although set to go on-sale early next year, all 18 examples have already been accounted for at a price tag of £1.6-million (R32-million) each.