Bentley’s Batur Convertible arrives not with a whisper but a wink. The first customer car, coachbuilt by Mulliner, is less a grand tourer with a folding roof than a rolling thesis on how to make the final chapters of the W12 era feel personal, theatrical and just a bit mischievous.
It’s a one-off, yes, but also a signpost: a reminder that in the age of algorithms, craft still matters. After a dynamic debut at Goodwood, it heads to Monterey Car Week, precisely the kind of stage where a car like this earns its applause.
Design
Opalite paint sets the mood: a shimmering, silvery hue that reads rich rather than loud. Then Mulliner draws a line, literally, down the car. A gloss Beluga racing stripe, edged with Mandarin pinstripes, slices from the matrix grille over the bonnet and “airbridge” fairing, picks up again across the rear deck, and reconnects via bespoke embroidery on the tonneau. It’s a bold, motorsport-inflected gesture on a coachbuilt Bentley; purists will debate it, which is part of the fun.
The grille is finished in black with Mandarin accents, echoed on five-spoke alloys. In profile, the car is all long-bonnet poise and contained muscle. There’s a confidence to the surfacing, taught rather than taut, that suits a limited-run flagship. Importantly, it still reads as a Bentley at ten paces; the drama doesn’t overwhelm the dignity.
Interior
Inside is where the Batur Convertible earns its “One plus One” name. The cabin is literally split: driver in Beluga black, passenger in Linen, stitched together, metaphorically and visually, by Mandarin highlights. It’s a clever riff on the idea of a driver’s car that doesn’t ignore the person enjoying the view.
The driver’s side gets Beluga hide and Alcantara with a band of Mandarin sweeping from the console across the fascia and into the door cap. The passenger lounges in Linen hide and Alcantara, the same Batur pattern reversing the palette. Even the luggage area, key cases and seat belts follow the two-sided brief. It could have felt like a gimmick; instead it comes across as considered theatre.
Look closer and the material choices are satisfyingly tactile. Satin black engine-turning on the fascia and door tops. Gloss Beluga veneer on the console. Light titanium dial faces ringed in black. The steering wheel wears a machined titanium marker at top dead centre, with matching titanium paddles, organ-stop vents and rotary controls. It’s not minimal, this is a Bentley. Not a monk’s cell, but it is meticulously edited.
Performance
Under the skin sits the headline: Bentley’s 6.0-litre twin-turbo W12, tuned to 740hp. It makes the Batur Convertible the most powerful W12-powered drop-top in the company’s history. Numbers matter less here than sensation: the elastic surge of torque, the underplayed bass of the exhaust, the way big power delivered with good manners feels more luxurious than loudness ever could.
There’s a pleasing contradiction to a racing stripe on a car that will spend much of its life gliding between hotels and horizon lines, roof down, conversation easy. But the Batur Convertible can do the theatre when asked, its engineering development “Car Zero” showed as much storming the Goodwood hill before heading to Monterey in a Vermilion duo-tone. This is muscle in evening wear.
Market context
The Batur Convertible is the third act in Mulliner’s modern coachbuilt trilogy, after the Bacalar barchetta and Batur coupé. Each build is a co-creation, with clients shaping colour, materials and detail through a dedicated visualiser, a collaborative process that’s become as important as the finished car. Production is strictly limited; scarcity is part of the value proposition, but so is authorship.
It also lands at a cultural inflection point. Bentley’s future is electric by strategy, and the W12 is on its sign-off lap. That gives this car a certain gravity. As rivals chase their own bespoke commissions and ultra-low-volume statements, the Batur Convertible reads as Bentley doing Bentley, craft, tactility, and pace, one last time with twelve cylinders and the sky for a headliner.
Verdict
Is the split-cabin “One plus One” concept for everyone? No, and that’s the point. The first Batur Convertible doesn’t try to please the room; it courts the individual. The exterior stripe will divide opinion, but the execution is beautiful, the detailing obsessive, and the overall character unmistakably Bentley: powerful, poised, and quietly playful.
As a send-off for the W12 and a showcase for Mulliner’s coachbuilt prowess, it works. As a grand tourer for people who think of cars as objects to be made as well as driven, it’s irresistible. Two voices, one song, and a strong final chorus for twelve cylinders.
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