While its VW Group siblings are busy working with electrical architecture, new infotainment and autonomous technologies, Bentley is keeping things simple at CES. It's partnered up with the audio specialists at Monster to unveil the Monster at Mulliner, a Continental GT V8 S with a monstrous sound system and custom look – car tech done old school.
If you ask us, the Bentley Continental GT – any Bentley really – is a car that never needs gimmicks like customized body kits or big, booming sound systems. But Bentley didn't ask us, and since the young sports and music "movers and shakers" it's trying to appeal to with the Monster concept tend to have way more money than we do, the Monster by Mulliner lives.
Not that it's such a bad thing – the Monster-inspired red-accented Onyx black body looks tasteful enough, and the add-on body components aren't overwhelming. Assuming that the upgraded audio system isn't used to bass-blast fine art off household walls, the car might even feel at home in quiet, old-money neighborhoods.
That audio system is a 3,400-watt design with 16 speakers personally tuned by "Head Monster" (that is, CEO) Noel Lee. This custom system isn't currently available in any production car in the world. Since the driver probably won't want to go from that immersive in-cabin sound experience to cheap earbuds, there's also a special compartment storing a set of Monster's 24K wireless headphones.
Bentley's Mulliner personalization division has customized the surfaces and spaces around those 16 speakers with reds and blacks and an exclusive 3D laser-etched fascia panel. "Monster by Mulliner" and Monster's motto, "Always Lead, Never Follow," are scribed around the interior.
Source: Bentley