Bentley's Mulliner division has built 12 Continental GTs as the Olympia Collection, a numbered special edition whose centrepiece is a two-tone green gradient that takes 56 hours to apply to each car. The collection commemorates 100 years since the Bentley 6½ Litre was presented as a complete coachbuilt car at the 1926 Olympia Motor Show.
Each car begins as a Continental GT and passes through Mulliner's coachbuilding operation. The changes are confined to finish and materials: Bentley has announced no powertrain revisions, no performance figures and no pricing for the collection.
The paint is the engineering story
The finish, called Ombré by Mulliner, blends Verdant green at the front of the car into Midnight Emerald toward the rear. Bentley says its paint technicians need 56 hours to complete the gradient on each car, well beyond what a standard colour coat requires, because carrying two distinct greens across every body panel without a visible seam means repeated passes and hand correction.
Bentley has not broken down how those 56 hours divide between masking, layering and polishing. The figure covers paint alone, before the interior work begins.
Heritage detailing inside and out
The cabin pairs Coach Green and Cumbrian Green leather in a bespoke split, set against a heritage-patinated finish intended to look worn. Black-stained open-pore crown-cut walnut veneer, diamond-knurled controls and Champagne Gold accents complete the trim.
Each of the 12 cars comes with a matching car cover, a commemorative book, a handover box and an individually numbered Brooklands watch whose strap is cut from the same Coach Green leather used in the cabin.
Bentley framed the commission around continuity of craft: "The uncompromising drive for excellence epitomised by W.O.'s Lyon to Dieppe spirited drive can still be found in Crewe's Dream Factory today," the company said in a statement accompanying the reveal.
Why the 6½ Litre name carries weight
W.O. Bentley's first car, the 3 Litre, launched in 1921, and the larger 6½ Litre was his answer to the heavier coachwork being fitted to that chassis. It was previewed as a bare chassis at Olympia in 1925 and shown as a complete car a year later.
The 6½ Litre proved itself at Brooklands before its engine was combined with a more performance-focused chassis for the separate Speed Six, which won Le Mans in 1929 and 1930. The Olympia Collection's detailing echoes that history while leaving the mechanical package untouched.
This is familiar ground for Mulliner, which has previously marked 80 years at Crewe and built a one-off Barnato Green Continental GT around a single colour and a specific anniversary date. The pattern is clear: these commissions are collectible objects built around a finish and a date, not performance upgrades, which suits buyers who already own the standard car and want something no one else can order.
What Bentley has not said
Pricing, the markets that will receive the cars and any region-specific allocation have not been disclosed. With 12 cars built and individually numbered, the collection is presented as a special edition defined by craftsmanship and paint rather than by any change under the bonnet.
