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Of all the marques that lined up for the 1923 Le Mans Grand Prix, only one survives--Bentley.

In fact, throughout the 1920s, no other car company was as successful at racing, with Bentley investor and team driver Woolf Barnato winning three Le Mans races, a feat not since repeated.

Thus began the reputation that Bentleys were meant for driving and Rolls-Royces for being driven in. And yet after Rolls-Royce bought (some say stole) the "Flying B" brand in the early 1930s, Bentley has been in Rolls-Royce's shadow.

Until now.

In 1998 Bentley was bought again, this time by Volkswagen (BMW took over Rolls). That might have spelled disaster (imagine Bentley Beetles!), but VW is smart and, for the first time since it was bought by Rolls, Bentley has been given a free hand to develop its own suspensions and engine technologies. Simultaneously, VW is also pumping in an additional $500 million over five years to help the company create new Bentley models.

The first of which is the roughly $230,000 Arnage T, the most powerful, best-performing Bentley in history. It goes on sale this coming May as a 2003 model.

The Arnage T has a huge 6.75-liter V-8 engine that puts out more torque than any other production sedan on the planet (enough to propel the 2.5-ton Bentley to a top speed of 168mph). And the chassis and suspension have also been significantly upgraded, making the car exceedingly quiet and creak free--and able to corner smartly at well over 130mph with unerring agility. Sound like any pillowy Rolls-Royce to you?

Sure, you could get a faster or more agile car for $230,000, but it wouldn't have turned metal-backed door levers, old-fashioned pull-on metal air vent actuators, nor would everything that looked metallic in the cabin actually be made of real metal. Also, you wouldn't find the same, noise-canceling half-inch-thick glass polished with the same pumice used to sharpen observatory telescopes.

And perhaps most important, if you went for a traditional low-riding supercar, such as the Aston Martin Vanquish instead of the Arnage T, you couldn't put a six-foot, two-inch driver up front and another passenger of equal height in the backseat because there wouldn't even be a back seat, let alone a huge trunk. And in a Bentley you can get anything--and that means anything--customized down to contrasting carpet stitching or even more engine tuning and suspension modifications. Or as product strategy director Mark Tennant puts it, the answer to all requests, assuming you're willing to pay for it, is always, "Anything you want, sir."

So what's it like to actually drive (or, if you like, be driven in) an Arnage T? And are there any flies in the ointment? Read on for the answers.

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