When Bentley’s director of design Stefan Sielaff stated that the luxury marque is increasingly focused on connecting with digital natives – read future customers – during a recent Future of Luxury exposition in London, he was not underestimating the scope of its lens.
Today, the prestige British car brand, has released a groundbreaking image of its new Mulsanne Extended Wheelbase, shot on San Francisco’s iconic Golden Gate Bridge, using a panoramic ‘Gigapixel’ camera.
The image was created with NASA-developed technology, originally deployed to enable Mars rovers to take exploratory panoramic photography. The shot, which is 4,425 times larger than your average iPhone snap, is made up of 53 billion pixels (aka 53,000 megapixels), and was created by taking 700 individual shots, which were then stitched together digitally. (If reproduced in standard print format it would take up the size of a football field.) The result allows viewers to zoom from 700 metres out, all the way inside the car to see the 4,500 individual stitches embroidered in the ‘Winged B’ on the hand-upholstered seat.
‘We wanted to commission this shot to capture both the exquisite detailing of the Mulsanne and the epic scale of our brand’s ambitions,’ says Bentley’s board member for sales and marketing Kevin Rose.
The Mulsanne Extended Wheelbase has been designed for unparalleled rear passenger comfort; crafted for a client who prefers to leave the driving to someone else. The 250mm extension of the car’s wheelbase benefits its inhabitants’ legroom considerably. Configured to channel first-class aircraft travel, the roomier rear cabin represents the pinnacle of luxury limousine driving for the most discerning of passengers.
And to make the most of this unparalleled interior space, Bentley has developed airline-style, electronic leg rests, retractable seat tables – made up of 671 precision engineered parts – electronic privacy curtains, and a large-format rear cabin sunroof offering an uninterrupted view of the journey. This refined ride also boasts a touch screen entertainment system with a pair of 10.2” Android-powered tablets integrated into the backs of the front seats. In short this exceptionally powerful car is now also tremendously comfortable.
Similarly, in true Bentley style, all of the motorcar’s top-of-the-line, artisanal components are entirely customisable from the Alcantara sunblind’s black or champagne lining, to the veneer of the backseat’s centre console, equipped with a state-of-the-art entertainment system. Now courtesy of the Gigapixel image you’ll never get a better window into the highest echelon of luxury motoring.