Bentley had high hopes for their EXP 9 F Concept, which made its official debut at the Geneva Motor Show. But following massive disapproval, it didn’t take long before Bentley started working on a redesigned version of the SUV.
From this point of view, it’s quite ironic that Bentley choose this SUV over a sports car which should take on the Porsche 911. The design team had already styled and built this sports car, which is even more remarkable. This sports car is supposedly not only more sportive and smaller than the Continental GT, but this model was also viable for production.
When current CEO Wolfgang Dürheimer entered office, he immediately drew up plans to expand the line-up of the British manufacturer of luxurious automobiles. One of the options Dürheimer and his team explored was the Porsche 911 competitor, the other was the SUV which resulted in the EXP 9 F Concept.
In an interview with Motor Trend, Dürheimer revealed the designers very enthusiastic about the sports car. According to the executive, the model of the sports car sits still outside the office of Dirk van Braeckel, who is currently head of design at Bentley. Dürheimer also said:
In the end the SUV was a better idea. It sits above all its competition. The sports car would have had the Porsche 911 Turbo as opposition.
This might surprise some people, but remember that the especially the Cayenne is driving Porsche’s growth. And considering the fact that Dürheimer was until 2011 responsible for the research and design development of Porsche’s vehicles ‒ he was the one behind the Porsche Cayenne ‒ than this sheds some light on his choice for the SUV.
Sadly though the first attempt was a failure, but the Bentley designers have already gone back to the drawing board to redesign the EXP 9F. Dürheimer also doesn’t rule out a new sports car for Bentley, so after all the future of Bentley surely looks better than they presented in Geneva.
[Via Motor Trend and Autoblog.nl]
