Bentley’s $250,000 Books Celebrates 100 Years Of Motoring

What do you buy a wealthy friend who already has a stable of prestige cars lining their driveway?

Even if you could afford to fork out for a top of the range Bentley, they’ve probably already got one.

But Bentley have come up with a must-have limited edition book for aficionados of the plush, luxury saloon cars who have everything already.

For a mere $252,000 you can have the book that opens to a metre wide and weighs in at nearly 30 kilos gift-wrapped as a present.

And the limited edition really is special.

Plush leather cover encrusted with diamond

Marking the 100thanniversary of making Bentley cars, the 800 page volume is lovingly covered in soft leather, with the most exclusive version encrusted with 100 carats of diamond.

Three editions are planned, depending on how deep your pockets are – and they must be really deep if you want the $252,000 100 Carat Edition with the famous winged logo in an optional white gold or platinum.

Just seven books will be published for 100 Carat Edition.

The Mulliner Edition costs $16,000 and is limited to 100 copies and includes specially commissioned watercolours of 56 Bentley models and huge Polaroid portraits. Inside is a shred of the tyre from the Bentley Speed 8 which won the Le Mans 24-hour race in 2003.

Personalise your edition as a gift

The Centenary Edition extends to 500 copies and has a more reasonable $3,800 price tag.

Buyers can also have selfies taken alongside their own Bentleys included in their books and their names embossed in gold or silver or the front cover to make the gift more personal.

Each book has a forward by fashion designer Ralph Lauren and has nine chapters illustrating features of Bentley cars , such as design, performance, craftmanship and innovation.

Bentley CEO and chairman Adrian Hallmark has written the final chapter – the future.

The leather cover is the same as the hide lining the interior of the latest models.

Inside, you can read the story of Bentley from humble beginnings in 1919, to the exploits of the Bentley Boys  who won a cluster of Le Mans titles in the Twenties on to the present day.
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