Bentley Arnage 4x4 With Lexus V8 Looks Ready For War

Jun. 18, 2021 6:41 AM ET by Gerhard Horn Video / 7 Comments

One-off model is looking for a new owner.

If you're in the market for a luxury performance SUV, the Volkswagen Group has all the bases covered. Normal folks can buy a Touareg, but if you want to stand out a little more, it also offers the Audi Q8. Finally, high-end customers can choose between the Lamborghini Urus and the Bentley Bentayga. The Bentayga's styling is somewhat divisive, however. What if you want something slightly more elegant but just as capable off-road?

A man in Russia has an answer. After having vodka for breakfast, we're guessing second breakfast, lunch, teatime, and dinner, one man came up with the idea of building a high-riding version of the discontinued Bentley Arnage.

There was a major problem with this concept, however. The Arnage is a handsome, stately sedan designed just before Volkswagen took ownership of the brand in 1998. In other words, it's an old-school Bentley, designed before the Germans added some much-needed reliability. To get around this problem, the current owner ditched all of the unreliable components. And once that was done, he was left with a body and an interior.

To make the Arnage off-roader more reliable, he turned to Japan. The 6.75-liter V8 was replaced with Toyota's 3UZ-FE engine, more commonly referred to as a Lexus V8. More specifically, the 4.3-liter naturally-aspirated motor used in previous incarnations of the Lexus LS and GS. It's mated to a five-speed Aisin automatic transmission.

As you can see from the side profile image, the front wheel arch had to be extended. That's because the body was lifted from its old platform and bolted on top of a fifth-generation Nissan Patrol (Nissan Armada) chassis. We know the Patrol chassis can cope with a lot since it was used to build the ultimate 3,000 hp sleeper SUV.

The shock absorbers, springs, control arms, and brakes were also poached from the Patrol donor vehicle. The driveshaft is from a Land Cruiser, while the rest of the components were taken from a humble Toyota Surf.

A serious build like this requires a lot of fine-tuning, but it seems to be running smoothly after passing through the hands of six owners. The interior is stock, apart from a hideous aftermarket navigation system bolted to the top of the dashboard.

It's currently for sale, and the asking price is 8 million rubles. That's roughly $111,360, which means you can either import this one-off piece of British history or get a brand-new Land Cruiser or Nissan Armada for much cheaper. To see how it performs off-road, have a look at the video above.

Source Credits: Avito

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Tags: #Bentley News #Car Culture #Offbeat #Off-Road #Video

Gerhard Horn

News & Features Editor

Contact Gerhard @GrootScreenGerhard

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