Few weeks ago, I had the chance to see the Bentley Continental GT3 R and latest Lamborghini, Huracan. Where I saw them? Not in front the Doncaster Hotel, I saw in Birmingham. Bentley and Lamborghini dealer of Birmingham hold an event last week at NEC. It was a unique opportunity to see these two new cars at the same time.
The event took at NEC but not inside the venue, it was outside but inside a inflatable marquee. Actually, it was a very unique technology. The marquee was made from a special fibre similar to airbags and filled with air. The advantage of this material is the opportunity to colour with a light source.
The other interesting thing was the ice sculptures. Actually, when I first saw them, I thought they were made from plastic but they were real ice. By a cooling system the ice sculptures were able to stand still without melting during the whole event and created a very sophisticated atmosphere.
Bentley GT3 R? It is based on the Continental but lighter, more powerful and faster. Actually, I liked GT3 R more than the traditional Continental GT. GT3 R offers the Le Mans feeling. Unfortunately, GT3 R is a very limited edition and will not available to mass production. Actually, GT3 R would offer a unique taste to Continental family and capture a new type of customers. Porsche 911 offers GT3 version and not limited. I think Bentley should consider this option in future.
Lamborghini Huracan, it is here to replaced the aging Gallordo. And similar to Gallardo, Huracan’s deisng does not offer very bold and distinctive lines. Similar to Gallordo, it is not a huge car and easier to get inside than an Aventador. The Huracan has two new party piece; first one the lots of buttons on steering wheel. It is obvious that, Lamborghini followed the footsteps of Ferrari while placing on functions on the steering wheel. Personally, I am not fan of this. Placing many buttons on the steering wheel may increase the sportive character but in daily traffic, it can be quite hard to control all these functions. But still, I would love to try it.
Another nice thing with the Huracan is the high definition, instrument panel. Unfortunately, automotive industry is moving towards to full digital instrument panel and removing all analog dials. This provides more room to place information on the instrument panel and customised them more easily. I still like the old dials. I can see that Lamborghini decided to design the Huracan for every day use. For the VW, Lamborghinis were only be driven if you are planning to go forward and never reverse! However, those days are gone people want to drive their supercar to everywhere. And this it the answer to market! Also Huracan is a all-wheel drive car, if you replace the tyres with winter tyres, you can drive the Huracan all year long.
Huracan definitely offers a unique alternative to Ferrari 458. And still all Lamborghinis are built by hand, there are no robots during the manufacturing process. The main reason for this, Lamborghini does not manufacture thounsands of car. So, it is more profitable to manufacture this way and enables to keep the exquisite soul of Lamborghini.
And thanks to Violent Blondes for the great DJ performance for the whole night.
