The Queen's Bentleys go biodiesel
The Queen is going green. Not surprisingly, the head of the Royal Family doesn't drive herself, relying instead on Bentley to provide a couple of £10 million limos complete with drivers. Must be nice, huh? The two luxury machines maintained for the Queen will be converted to run on biofuels, which we assume means ethanol. As of this moment, each machine is powered by a 6.75L twin-turbo V8 engine that makes 400 horsepower, though we're not sure if these engines will be converted or replaced. This move coincides nicely with Bentley's stated goal of emitting no more than 120g/km of CO2 per vehicle on a well-to-wheels basis by 2012.
The Royal Family is said to be very eco-conscious and is actually surprisingly well-versed in biofuels, with Prince Charles having already converted his Aston Martin to run on alcohol fuel and his Range Rover and Jaguars to biodiesel. Biofuel Bentleys are better than petrol-burning Bentleys, we suppose, but just switching to something smaller would have a much greater effect.
[Source: Daily Mail]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Phil 11:20AM (1/01/2009)
Bad title; the Queen's twin turbo V8 monsters are being converted to run on ethanol, not biodiesel.
Bentley don't have any diesel engines at present.
Bentley boss Franz-Josef Paefgen once said they will never produce a diesel car. However in November '08 VW boss Martin Winterkorn implied that a diesel Bentley is very likely.
If they used the diesel V12 from the Audi stable in a Bentley it would be entirely in keeping with the marque!
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Victoria 2:11PM (2/19/2009)
"Not surprisingly, the head of the Royal Family doesn't drive herself, relying instead on Bentley to provide a couple of £10 million limos complete with drivers. Must be nice, huh?"
It must be very nice, but your snarky words contain a fallacy. The Queen does drive, albeit not to official engagements such as are required by the biodiesel Rolls.
We Brits have this great story about the Queen driving. At the Cartier polo event at Windsor Castle, there pulled up Nancy Reagan inside her enormous Lincoln limo, flown in especially from the US. She was surrounded by Secret Service men by the dozen, as well as police outriders in motorbikes making the most awful row with their sirens. The then First Lady steps out...to meet the Queen in a kerchief, descending from her muddy Land Rover. She had driven herself, and had only one security officer with her.
I don't think the Queen is such a pampered hypocrite, as you make her out to be in your post. And yes, I know it was tongue-in-cheek. But just for the record.
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