The house of the Winged B teases the New Grand Bentley [w/VIDEO]

Aspiring Thomas Crowns have been waiting for a brand new Bentley to replace the Arnage for too long. Grab your monocles and have a look, chaps – what you see above is an initial taste of "the height of British luxury motoring" and "the purest expression of the Bentley spirit." Simply called the New Grand Bentley, this is what will replace the long-serving Arnage (and its 50-year-old V8?) as Brahmin at the top of the Bentley caste.

The New Grand Bentley

What can we discern from this shadowy glimpse? Unless the Photoshopped lighting effects deceive us, the bonnet goes from being a trap hood to a clamshell affair; the fenders lose one of their detail lines; and if the perspective is accurate, we are loving the swept grille. For you purist Anglophiles, be proud: the car has been designed and engineered in Crewe, and will be built there to boot.

Anything more than that will have to wait for the car to debut this summer. In the meantime, you can also visit www.NewGrandBentley.com (which will probably be a glamorous tease served on a silver tray), scrutinize a high-res version of the photo above, and check out a 19-second video clip.

[Source: Bentley]

Coming off record sales of 10,014 vehicles in 2007, Bentley's performance last year didn’t go so well, with sales figures dropping by up to 20% over the course of the year. The super-luxury carmaker is being forced to make further cutbacks after earlier shift reductions and production slowing didn't reach far enough to counter decreased demand.

Bentley announced today that it would suspend production for up to seven weeks because of falling demand.

"There's a global downturn in the automotive market," company spokesman Mike Hawes told AFP. "The market continues to be in decline globally so we have decided to stop production for six or seven weeks".

In May 2008 the company also reduced production and asked more than a third of the staff at the Crewe factory to work just a three-day week. Some 1,400 employees of Bentley's 4,000 strong staff are already working the reduced shift in an effort to cut production by around 15%. For the latest production halt, which will run from March to May, workers will still be paid.

The reduction in sales, which had occurred mostly in the U.S., has been attributed to a variety of factors, including higher petrol prices and carbon taxes. Interestingly, brand image may also play a factor in Bentley’s fall in sales - people are becoming more and more reluctant to be seen in exorbitant and environmentally apathetic cars such as those built by Bentley.

Bentley is by no means the only luxury manufacturer to have suffered sluggish sales this year, with across-the-board declines in growth affecting much of the premium segment.

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