Bentley Crewe facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Bentley Crewe |
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| General information | |
| Type | Office, car factory |
| Location | Crewe, Cheshire, England |
| Coordinates | 53°6′14.66″N 2°28′20.47″W / 53.1040722°N 2.4723528°W |
| Current tenants | 3500 employees |
| Management | Bentley Motors |
| Technical details | |
| Structural system | Steel frame/brick |
| Floor area | 166,930 m2 (1,796,800 sq ft) |
| Grounds | 521,111 m2 (5,609,190 sq ft) |
Bentley Crewe, also called the Pyms Lane site, is the main home for Bentley Motors Limited. It's where they design, make, and manage their luxury cars. This big factory is located near Crewe, Cheshire in England. The whole area covers about 521,111 square meters. About 166,930 square meters of that is inside buildings.
Contents
The Story of Bentley Crewe
How the Factory Started
Before World War II began, the company Rolls-Royce and the British Government needed a safe place to build airplane engines. They looked for a "shadow factory." This was a secret factory built away from big cities to protect it from air attacks.
Crewe was a great choice. It had good roads and train lines. It was also in the northwest, far from where bombs might fall. There was also a lot of open farmland. In July 1938, they started building the factory on a potato farm. Just five months later, the first Rolls-Royce Merlin airplane engine was made. This factory made 25,000 Merlin engines during the war. At its busiest in 1943, about 10,000 people worked there.
Making Cars at Crewe
After the war, jet engines became popular. Rolls-Royce decided to focus its airplane engine work in another city, Derby. They moved all their car making to the Crewe factory.
In 1946, the Crewe factory made its first car. It was the Bentley Mark VI. This car was special because it was the first Bentley (or Rolls-Royce) to have a standard body. Before this, car bodies were custom-made by different builders. The Bentley Mark VI was very successful. Crewe made over 5,000 of them. This was more than all the Bentleys made in the 20 years before the war!
Later, the Bentley R Type was made until 1955. Then came the Bentley S1 and Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud. These were the first cars completely designed and built at Crewe. The S1 was also the last Bentley with a six-cylinder engine. Its next version, the Bentley S2, used a new 6.25-liter Rolls-Royce V8 engine. This engine was designed and built right there in Crewe. Different versions of this engine are still used today!
Bentley vs. Rolls-Royce Cars
For a while, Bentley and Rolls-Royce cars were very similar. The 1965 Bentley T-series and Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow only had different badges and front grilles. The Bentley even used a Rolls-Royce engine. Because of this, fewer Bentleys were sold. This makes them more valuable now. These cars were also the first to have a single strong body (called monocoque) and disc brakes on all four wheels.
In 1980, the Bentley Mulsanne was made. It was similar to the Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit. At first, fewer Mulsannes were sold than the Silver Spirit. But then, Bentley changed its image. They made the Bentley Mulsanne Turbo, which was nicknamed the "Crewe missile." It could go 140 miles per hour and speed up faster than some Ferraris!
After this, Bentleys were designed for wealthy business people. Rolls-Royce cars kept their traditional luxury appeal. This change made Bentley sales jump. By 1985, Bentley was selling more cars than Rolls-Royce for the first time since car production moved to Crewe.
Bentley and Rolls-Royce Go Separate Ways
In 1998, two new cars were launched: the Bentley Arnage and the Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph. These were the last cars made by both brands together. They used a BMW engine. In the same year, the company that owned them, Vickers, decided to sell its car division. This included the Bentley brand and the Crewe factory. However, the Rolls-Royce brand name would go back to the original Rolls-Royce company.
Many companies were interested, including BMW and the Volkswagen Group. Volkswagen ended up buying the Crewe factory and the Bentley brand. BMW bought the Rolls-Royce brand name from the original Rolls-Royce company. They agreed to a plan where Volkswagen would take over the factory by the end of 2001. In 2000, BMW announced they would build a new factory for their Rolls-Royce Motor Cars in West Sussex.
Bentley Crewe Today
After Volkswagen took over, they invested a lot of money (about £500 million) into the Crewe factory. They also improved the old Rolls-Royce V8 engine, which they now owned. This led to two versions of the Bentley Arnage: the Green-label (with the BMW engine) and the Red-label (with the improved V8). The Red-label sold much better.
Volkswagen kept improving the V8 engine. Today's version is very different from the original 1959 engine. Dr. Ulrich Eichhorn, an engineering director, said:
Today’s V8 is a descendant of the 1959 engine but massively improved. It now has over 100 percent more power, over 100 percent more torque, 40 percent less fuel consumption and produces 99.5 percent fewer emissions.
In 2002, Rolls-Royce cars were no longer made at Crewe. The factory was updated to make more Bentley models. In 2003, the Bentley Continental GT was introduced. This was the first Bentley car designed only by Bentley since 1931. It has a powerful 6.0-liter twin-turbocharged engine. It can go from 0 to 100 km/h (about 62 mph) in 4.8 seconds! Its top speed is 318 km/h (about 198 mph).
In 2005, a four-door version called the Continental Flying Spur was launched. At first, some of these cars were built in Germany because the Crewe factory didn't have enough space. But by 2006, all assembly work moved back to Crewe.
In 2009, the Bentley Mulsanne was shown. This was the first main Bentley car designed completely by Bentley in almost 80 years. It replaced the Arnage and went on sale in 2010.
Since 2015, the Bentley Bentayga SUV has also been built at the Crewe factory.
