It seems hard to believe, but Bentley’s famed 6.75-liter V-8 engine has been around for 57 years. Over the years, the engine has been upgraded to comply with ever-increasing emissions and fuel economy standards that brought the aging power plant into the world of fuel injection, camshaft phasing, and stronger internal components. The engine hasn’t exactly exceeded its life expectancy yet, as Bentley could bring things like direct fuel injection of cam-in-cam technology, but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen.
Despite the fact that Bentley could continue to upgrade and morph the 6.75-liter to continue complying with current standards, Car and Driver reports that Bentley has chosen not to continue dumping money into the constantly aging engine. Apparently, Wolfgang Durheimer – the CEO of Bentley – said that the V-8 has found its “final home” and indicated that Bentley’s next flagship model will be powered by a 12-cylinder engine.
This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise considering that BMW tried to kill off the L-Series engine in the late 90s when it introduced the 4.4-liter V-8. Of course, shortly after that Volkswagen took over and reintroduced the L-Series engine. Since then, the engine has been continuously upgraded, but as it goes in life – all good things eventually come to an end. Keep in mind that the 6.75-liter will still be around for at least a few years. Durheimer didn’t supply any timetable as to when it will unleash what is sure to be a beast of a 12-cylinder, and the Mulsanne was just updated for 2017, so Bentley has some time to develop its big power plant.
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