The Bentley Arnage is a large luxury car produced by Bentley Motors

Bentley

Bentley Motors Limited is a British manufacturer of automobiles founded on 18 January 1919 by Walter Owen Bentley known as W.O. Bentley or just "W O". Bentley had been previously known for his range of rotary aero-engines in World War I, the most famous being the Bentley BR1 as used in later...

 in Crewe

Crewe

Crewe is a railway town within the unitary authority area of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 census the urban area had a population of 67,683...

, England from 1998 to 2009. The Arnage, and its Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce Motors

Rolls-Royce Motors was created from the de-merger of the Rolls-Royce car business from Rolls-Royce Limited in 1973. The original Rolls-Royce Limited had been nationalised in 1971 due to the financial collapse of the company, caused in part by the development of the RB211 jet engine...

-branded sibling, the Silver Seraph

Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph

The Rolls-Royce Silver Seraph, produced from 1998 to 2002, was first unveiled on March 3, 1998 at the Geneva Motor Show. The Silver Seraph replaced the Silver Spur, which ended production in 1997....

, were introduced in the Spring of 1998, and were the first entirely new designs

Automotive design

Automotive design is the profession involved in the development of the appearance, and to some extent the ergonomics, of motor vehicles or more specifically road vehicles. This most commonly refers to automobiles but also refers to motorcycles, trucks, buses, coaches, and vans...

 for the two marques since 1980.

Another break from the past was to be found under the bonnet

Hood (vehicle)

The hood or bonnet is the hinged cover over the engine of motor vehicles that allows access to the engine compartment for maintenance and repair. In British terminology, hood refers to a fabric cover over the passenger compartment of the car...

, for decades home to the same 6.75 litre

Litre

pic|200px|right|thumb|One litre is equivalent to this cubeEach side is 10 cm1 litre water = 1 kilogram water The litre is a metric system unit of volume equal to 1 cubic decimetre , to 1,000 cubic centimetres , and to 1/1,000 cubic metre...

 V8 engine

V8 engine

A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft....

, a powerplant which could trace its roots back to the 1950s.