Bentley’s wicked new paint scheme is wickedly expensive

The Ombré by Mulliner fading paint colour takes two technicians 60 hours to complete by hand.

Bentley Flying Spur in Topaz Blue to Windsor Blue colourway — *The Ombré by Mulliner paint job appears on the Bentley Flying Spur. – Bentley Motors photo*

It’s not uncommon for automakers to leave out the price tag when they launch expensive vehicles or features, but Bentley Motors is not pulling any such “call for price” tricks with its latest unveiling.

The company unveiled a new colour scheme called Ombré by Mulliner, which combines two separate colours and fades them over the length of the car.

It’s a wicked cool new feature but it also happens to be wickedly expensive.

The price tag? $68,000 U.S. That works out to about $93,890 of your Canadian loonies.

To put that into perspective, that’s enough coin to buy you a brand-new Audi A6, another luxury vehicle from the Volkswagen Group, the parent company of both brands. And, you’d still have some cash leftover for at least a year’s worth of gasoline.

What is Ombré by Mulliner

The good news is, if there’s one brand whose customers don’t need to worry about high price tags, it’s probably Bentley – after all, it’s what helps create an exclusive brand.

In the case of the new fading colour scheme, the process takes nearly 60 hours for two skilled paint technicians to complete.

The technicians spray the individual colours at the front and rear of the body, then the colours go through a transition across the centre of the car.

The transition colours are applied in stages, using paint that’s been tinted, and the technicians must take care that the transition is symmetrical across the car.

Side of Bentley Flying Spur in Topaz Blue to Windsor Blue colourway — *Bentley says each car with the fading colour scheme will be unique but will look perfect to the naked eye. – Bentley Motors photo*

Available colours schemes

Ombré by Mulliner currently includes three colourways. They include Sunburst Gold to Orange Flame, Tungsten to Onyx, and the one you see in these photos, Topaz Blue to Windsor Blue.

Bentley said it is limiting the options to these three, for now, because of the complexity of combining two colours. For example, the automaker wants to prevent the unintentional appearance of a third colour during the transition, such as if you were to combine blue and yellow, at some point the colour green would appear.

“Each paint colour behaves differently on application, and so the skill lies in how the paint technicians respond to the reaction during spraying. This means each car will be unique, but will look perfect to the naked eye – thanks to the skill of the technicians,” Bentley said in a news release.

Ombré by Mulliner is launching on the Flying Spur sedan.

Bentley said more colour combinations will be added in the future.

To learn more, visit the Bentley website.