Bentley invited its design team to host an informal car meet at the British brand’s Crewe campus. Intrigued, Car Design News went along to find out what designers who spend their working life defining the upper echelons of luxury, drive in the real world. The results were sometimes surprising
Seeing what car designers drive is a bit like visiting a famous musician and finding out what is in their record collection. Such was the mode at the Bentley car meet, hosted the British marque at its Crewe headquarters. Amid a congenial atmosphere, buoyed by a uncharacteristic period of sunny weather, the design teams: exterior, interior, clay and digital modellers, CMF and more besides showed off their weekend chariots and offbeat daily drivers.
It was an eclectic line-up; it seems Bentley designers are enthused by late-stage British Leyland offerings as they are Italian sportscars. Among the standouts were design director Robin Page’s E-type, a Porsche 944 owned by interiors boss Darren Day and Andy Plumb’s refulgent Robin Reliant. Newly arrived head of design operations T. Jon Mayer had brought his left-hooker Porsche all the way from Sweden.
In a wholly characteristic bout of nostalgia, Car Design News editor James McLachlan was particularly taken with the white two-door Austin Allegro with burgundy interior and quartic steering wheel: an absolute gem.
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