Development
Following the uplift in sales for all of Rolls-Royce, and resurgence of the Bentley marque, the then-owner, Vickers, set about preparing a new model to replace the derivatives of the Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit/Bentley Mulsanne which it had been selling since 1980. In a complete switch from tradition, these new cars would have bodies built at the Crewe factory, with its internal combustion engines built elsewhere.
A number of potential engines were examined, including the GM Premium V engine, and a Mercedes-Benz V8 engine, before Vickers selected a pair of BMW powerplants. It was decided that the Rolls-Royce model, to be called the Silver Seraph, would use BMW's naturally aspirated V12 engine while the more-sporting Bentley model would use a special twin-turbo version of the 4.4 litre BMW V8, which was developed by Vickers subsidiary, Cosworth Engineering.
On its introduction in the spring of 1998, the Arnage was available as a single model with this 4,398 cubic centimetres (268.4 cu in) BMW V8 engine, with twin turbochargers, developing some 354 metric horsepower (260 kW; 349 bhp) and 420 lb·ft (569 N·m) of torque.
The basic BMW V8 Arnage was renamed the Arnage Green Label in 2000, its last model year.
Read more about this topic: Bentley Arnage
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