Car and Driver: Groove Is in the Heart: Sir Peter Blake Designs a Bentley for Charity

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Last summer, Bentley’s erstwhile twin Rolls-Royce announced the Wraith Inspired by Music, a vehicle which appropriated the wildman heritage of former RR owners and sold it as a fancy one-of-one bauble. To put it bluntly, we felt the car came off rather icky and misguided. Bentley’s gone down a similar path with its latest one-off Continental, but unlike the gauche Monster by Mulliner series, we find this latest effort cheeky, fun, and best of all, done in the name of a good cause.

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Sir Peter Blake.

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Crewe commissioned British artist Sir Peter Blake—perhaps best known as the guy who came up with the cover art for the Beatles’ landmark Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band—to gin up a pop-art–style color scheme for this Continental GT V8 S convertible. The resultant machine will be auctioned off at Bonhams’ event during the Goodwood Festival of Speed, with the proceeds benefiting the Care2Save Charitable Trust, an organization that provides hospice and palliative care around the world.

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Hospice is not glamorous work. It doesn’t save anybody’s life; the best result anybody can hope for is a peaceful and painless transition from life to death. But it doesn’t mean the work is necessarily a grim or joyless endeavor. Blake’s take on the Continental is lively and outré, reminiscent of Bentley parent Volkswagen’s goofy, charming Harlequin Mark II Golfs.

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Blake’s vision includes a hot pink grille surround, a yellow hood with a big red heart, blue fenders, doors, quarter panels, and decklid, with the lower body finished in British Racing Green. It’s a kid’s fantasy come to life, a big, brutish open fun machine slathered in whimsy. And the irreverence carries through to the interior. Each of the four seats is upholstered in a different color of leather, while the multicolor steering wheel and pink shifter tie it all together.

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If, as we asserted last year, the Wraith Inspired by Music conspired to kill rock ’n’ roll, and the Monster by Mulliner pandered to baser instincts than we feel a Bentley should, this fabulously ludicrous machine takes the much-discussed spirit of the summer of 1967 and does something joyful and positive with it. Good show, Bentley. Good show.

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