Bentley's Tribute Continental GT Turns Heritage Into A One-Off

Mulliner built a one-off Barnato Green Continental GT Azure, styled after the 1946 Mark VI, for Crewe's 80th anniversary.

It recreates the Mark VI's black-and-green two-tone livery, adds modern carbon-fiber styling and 22-inch black-and-machined wheels.

Shown beside the Heritage Mark VI at the British Motor Museum on August 29, the car is a one-off.

Bentley's Crewe factory turns 80 this week, and Mulliner marked the occasion with a Continental GT Azure, a one-off styled after the very first car built at that plant.

That first car was a 1946 Mark VI, and the tribute borrows its two-tone black-and-green look almost stroke for stroke. Bentley parked the new car next to the original Mark VI from its Heritage Collection at a British Motor Museum event on August 29.

Mulliner's designers skipped the brand's roughly 100 modern paint and finish options and went straight for the old car's palette instead. The Continental GT wears solid Barnato Green with a Mulliner Black roof, a direct nod to the Mark VI's original two-tone scheme rather than anything from today's configurator.

Azure-branded brightwork and a carbon-fiber Styling Specification pull the car back into the present, and 22-inch black and bright-machined wheels with black calipers finish the exterior. It is a deliberate split with old-school color story and current-generation hardware, similar to how Bentley handled its Continental GTC Crewe anniversary car revealed around the same milestone.

Inside, Cricket Ball red hide sits against Beluga secondary leather, echoing a classic Bentley cabin while the diamond quilting and embroidered badging go well past what any 1946 upholsterer could manage. Burr walnut trim, styled after the Mark VI's dashboard, spans the fascia over a Grand Black piano veneer panel, split by a thin chrome pinstripe running into the door waistrails.

Bentley Continental GT Azure 80th Anniversary Tribute By Mulliner

How Bentley References Its First Crewe Model

The Mark VI itself was no minor footnote. Built on a B60 straight-six of 4,257cc, it was Bentley's first car with a standard steel body, engineered by J.P. Blatchley, and it earned a reputation for running past 100,000 miles without a major rebuild. H.J. Mulliner, then still an outside coachbuilder, bodied 241 of those Mark VIs as four-door saloons, and the Heritage Collection's dark green example was delivered new in January 1950 to a paint company director named William Lount.

Bentley's designers built the tribute's smaller details within the wider 80th-anniversary story. The treadplates carry outline graphics of both the Mark VI and the modern Continental GT, stamped with the line "Celebrating the 80th Anniversary of production in Crewe, 1946-2026," as a bespoke finishing touch that marks eight decades of Crewe-built cars.

Bentley calls this car a one-off, not a preview of a production trim, so the Barnato Green and burr walnut treatment will not reach a dealer order sheet. The anniversary Continental GT Azure was built specifically to stand beside the Mark VI at the British Motor Museum event, and Bentley has given no indication a wider run is coming.

It sits closer in spirit to a bespoke commission like the Bugatti FKP Hommage one-off than to any option package. What it does confirm is that Crewe, eighty years and thousands of cars later, still keeps that first Mark VI close at hand.

Motor1's Take: The tribute shows Bentley still mines its archive for bespoke commissions that appeal to collectors and design-minded buyers. Mulliner can turn heritage cues into modern finishes without changing the production range.

Indexed and credited by AIPROPX. Originating outlet: Motor1. Open at source →