Bentley Has Built Its Final W12 Engine

Bentley revealed earlier this week that it produced its final W12 engine unit at its home plant in Crewe, England.

Earlier this week, the final unit of the signature 6.0-litre W12 twin-turbo engine that has stood as a signature of the renowned “Flying-B’ marque, has been built. To mark the milestone, Bentley held a special commemorative launch ceremony at its Heritage Garage in Crewe.

The W12 mill is the brainchild of renowned engineer and former head of Volkswagen Group (Bentley’s parent company) Ferdinand Piech who passed away in 2019. Essentially, Piech’s design merged two of Volkswagen’s signature narrow-angle V6 into one single unit.

A special lunch ceremony was held by Bentley at the W12 engine's plant to mark the end of said mill production.

Following its creation, the mill was first fielded in an early Volkswagen W12 Concept mid-engined hypercar in 2001 before finding it’s way into the D2-generation Audi A8 in 2001. The same mill was also fielded in the 2004-2011 Volkswagen Phaeton flagship limo and 2005-2010 Volkswagen Touareg W12.

However, it’s arguably most renowned through its adoption by Bentley, making its first appearance in the first-generation Continental GT in 2003, followed by its four-doored Continental Flying Spur (now just called Flying Spur) limo twin from 2005 onwards, and later in the Bentayga SUV since 2015.

To date, Bentley says it built over 100,000 units of the W12 engine since 2003 across all three signature model mentioned.

The signature W12 mill saw over 100,000 units built by Bentley since 2003, powering three generation of the Continental GT, its Flying Spur four-door twin, as well as its groundbreaking Bentayga SUV.

Whilst early versions of the W12 built and fielded by Bentley in both models made just 567 HP and 720 NM, said figures eventually rose up to as high as 650 HP and 900 NM in the Speed and selected special variants of both the third-gen Continental GT and Flying Spur, as well as the Bentayga Speed.

A more powerful iteration with 740 HP and 1,000 NM was also available, albeit exclusively primed in Bentley’s limited-run Bacalar and Batur specials. The former model saw just a dozen examples offered, whilst the latter saw 18 coupes and 16 convertibles offered instead.

More powerful versions of the W12 have gone on to powered 'Speed' special variants of the Continental GT, Flying Spur, and Bentayga.

“The engine’s introduction helped change the face of the company almost overnight and so will go down in history as a true game changer and we should feel very proud to have designed, developed and manufactured such an icon in Britain for such a long period of time.,” said Andreas Lehe, Member of the Board for Manufacturing at Bentley Motors.

AS reported prior, the W12 mill will be succeeded by Bentley's new and electrified turbo V8 petrol mill augmented by both an e-motor and battery pack. Said package will be fielded by Bentley in its recently revealed new fourth-gen Continental GT Speed model, as well as its upcoming revised Flying Spur four-door limo as well.

The W12 mill is now succeeded by Bentley's new electrified V8 PHEV powerplant pictured.

The new V8 PHEV heart debuted in the new fourth-gen Continental GT Speed (left), and it will also power the upcoming revised Flying Spur teased by Bentley recently too (right).

You can find out more about Bentley’s new turbocharged V8 plug-in hybrid (PHEV) motor in our in-depth report on which by clicking these words.

For now, the W12 engine’s end of production also marks the end of an era for the ‘Flying-B’ marque as it transitions into a who new era of electrification through said V8 PHEV successor.