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Volkswagen Group names Paefgen head of classics program

You may remember the name Franz-Josef Paefgen. Until recently, the German engineer and executive was head of both Bentley and Bugatti. Before that he was chief executive of Audi, after working for several years at Ford. He technically "retired" earlier this year, but like the cars he helped create, an executive like Paefgen could never really retire. So it should come as little surprise that the Volkswagen Group has named Dr. Paefgen head of its Classic program.
In his new capacity, Paefgen will oversee the historic automobile activities of the entire VW Group, including those of Volkswagen, Seat, Skoda, Audi, Lamborghini, and of course Bentley and Bugatti. It strikes us as a suitable semi-retirement for the man responsible in no small part for the Bugatti Veyron and Bentley Mulsanne, to name just two, and who was decorated in 2006 by the ACO as the "Spirit of Le Mans" for his contribution to endurance racing. Read the official announcement after the break.

Bentley Continental GT3-R is a limited-edition racer for the street

Limited to just 300 examples worldwide, Bentley's new GT3-R is set to bring a bit of the brand's motorsports pedigree to the street. After all, the Flying B recently took the win at the Blancpain Endurance Series at Silverstone with its new Continental GT3, less than one year after the big racer's debut.
Like the road-going Conti GT, the GT3-R uses a twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8, tuned in this application to 572 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque - increases of 51 hp and 14 lb-ft from the already potent GT V8 S. That's enough to get the 4,839-pound Bentley to 60 miles per hour in just 3.6 seconds, on its way to a top end of 170 mph.
To make the GT3-R more hardcore than standard Continentals, the air suspension has been retuned, the brakes have been upgraded with carbon silicon discs, and there's a titanium exhaust that's good for 15 pounds of weight-savings - in all, the GT3-R is some 200 pounds lighter than a comparable GT V8 S.

Baby Bentley studied for 2020, but it might not be cheaper

Bentley may step down a segment with a new, smaller luxury car that it hopes to have ready by 2019. The British luxury marque's fifth model line, assuming that its SUV ever makes it to market, though, is still in the earliest planning stages.
Kevin Rose, Bentley's head of sales and marketing, spoke with Autocar at the Geneva Motor Show about the proposed new vehicle. "At the moment, our line of thinking is for a smaller car. But smaller doesn't necessarily mean cheaper," he said. The brand believes the price floor of its models should be 100,000 pounds ($167,240).
The smaller Flying B isn't the only project being worked on. Rose hinted that it is considering an even more expensive model above the Mulsanne priced at around 300,000 pounds ($501,735) that would compete with the Rolls-Royce Phantom. "The twin pillars of the Bentley brand are performance and luxuriousness. Any car that offers something unique, with both of those bases well covered, is on the table," he said.