All those fat cats out there might buying their Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Paganis or whatever they fancy but, let’s face it, these supercars are not really that practical to drive day in, day out. In fact, most of the privileged of this world don’t even get to drive on a regular basis like the rest of us do: they are chauffeured.
Motor Trend’s Jonny Lieberman says that the one thing the rich don’t have is time – so whatever free time they get, like when being in the back seat of their car, they want it to be special.
Lieberman dressed up so as not to look out of place sitting in, or even next to, the fabulously opulent Bentley Mulsanne. He had a problem though: what to compare it with.
A Rolls-Royce Phantom would be the obvious answer but they declined the offer. Then he asked Mercedes-Benz if they had anything suitable. With the insult against good taste that was the Maybach being (thankfully) dead and buried, the next candidate was the S-Class.
The S600 was too cheap so the range-topping S65 AMG was brought in. Although the Bentley starts a bit under US$300K and the Merc is nearly 90K cheaper, the two cars have some things in common.
Both sport a hand-built engine with lots of power and torque. Even though the Mulsanne’s 505HP may be notably less than the 621 horses that the S65 V12 churns out, its 6.75-liter V8’s 752 lb-ft of peak torque beats the Mercedes’ 738 lb-ft.
Would the rich and famous really care about a tenth of acceleration here or there? We guess not. It is things like finesse and craftsmanship and, of course, all the latest toys that matter the most.
One of them costs a whooping US$33,000 in the Bentley. You’ll have to find out what it is, along with which of the two luxury saloons wins this twin test by watching the video that follows after the jump.
By Andrew Tsaousis
VIDEO