As hard as it may seem for most of us to believe, there are those who wouldn’t consider a Bentley Continental GT luxurious (or exclusive) enough. Now, for those select few?very few?discerning and eminently wealthy individuals, there’s the new Grand Convertible by Mulliner.
Originally previewed as a concept at the 2014 Los Angeles auto show, the Grand Convertible is a droptop version of the Mulsanne, and it is now being put into strictly limited production. It’s all hush-hush, the news being fed only on a need-to-know (read: have-the-dough) basis. However, a spokesman for the British automaker confirmed via correspondence with Car and Driver that Mulliner, Bentley’s in-house customization and coachbuilding department, will build 19 examples of the Grand Convertible?a figure ostensibly representative of 1919, the year in which the company was founded, as Bentley prepares to kick off its centenary celebrations a little over a year from now. Exact specifications of the production model have not been disclosed, but the concept we saw three years ago packed the high-output 6.75-liter twin-turbo V8 from the Mulsanne Speed sedan, which sends 530 horsepower and 811 pound-feet of torque to the rear wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission.

The concept also featured a burl-walnut tonneau cover that was the largest single piece of wood veneer ever fitted to a Bentley.
Pricing information, likewise, has been disclosed only to the elite cadre of cli...