Bentley Eight: which version to buy
If you are choosing a Bentley Eight, the catalogue has one answer: there is a single generation and a single named version, 6.8 AT. Production runs from 1984-01-01 to 1992-12-31. Body is Sedan. There is no second engine, no restyle listed as a separate generation, and no extra gearbox or drive option in the data.
If you are choosing a Bentley Eight, the catalogue has one answer: there is a single generation and a single named version, 6.8 AT. Production runs from 1984-01-01 to 1992-12-31. Body is Sedan. There is no second engine, no restyle listed as a separate generation, and no extra gearbox or drive option in the data. Years people search for — 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992 — sit inside that same 6.8 AT window. They are calendar years of the same car, not rival catalogues.
There is therefore no “extra money for extra horsepower” inside this model line. What you are buying is 208 hp, 460 Nm, 6750 cm³, Gasoline, Automatic, 3 gears, RWD, kerb 2245 kg. The rest of this text is the arithmetic of that one spec sheet, so you can judge 6.8 AT on its own numbers rather than on a comparison that the data does not contain.
Generations: what actually changed
1 generation (1984-01-01–1992-12-31): Sedan, 1 version — 6.8 AT. Start and stop of the generation match start and stop of 6.8 AT. No restyling row exists in the data, so no later generation “adds” power, mass, or gears. If a listing is labelled 1987, 1988, 1989 or 1992 Bentley Eight, the catalogue still maps it to this generation and this version name.
Because generation count is 1, there is no generation-to-generation delta to compute. Horsepower does not rise. Displacement does not fall. Drive stays RWD. Gearbox stays Automatic with 3 gears. Boost stays No.
Specs of the only version: 6.8 AT
| Version | hp | Nm | Displacement (cm³) | Fuel | Cylinders | Layout | Boost | Gearbox | Gears | Drive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.8 AT | 208 | 460 | 6750 | Gasoline | 8 | V-shaped | No | Automatic | 3 | RWD |
Further 6.8 AT engine figures from the same row: 153 kW at 4200 rpm; 460 Nm at 1500 rpm; 2 valves per cylinder; Distributed injection (multi-point); compression 8.1; bore × stroke 104.1 × 99.1. Engine location is not measured. Fuel grade is not measured.
Engine, horsepower, and what the litres buy
6.8 AT is a 6750 cm³ Gasoline V-shaped 8 with No boost. Specific output:
- 208 hp ÷ 6.750 L = 30.8 hp per litre
- 153 kW ÷ 6.750 L = 22.7 kW per litre
- 460 Nm ÷ 6.750 L = 68.1 Nm per litre
- 460 Nm ÷ 208 hp = 2.21 Nm per horsepower
Peak torque is listed at 1500 rpm; peak power at 4200 rpm. The gap is 2700 rpm between those two points. Compression 8.1 with No boost is the induction setup in the data; there is no turbocharged Bentley Eight version here to pair against it.
Searches for “Bentley Eight vs Turbo R” and “Bentley Eight vs Mulsanne” cannot be settled from this table: those models are not in the launch data, so their hp, Nm, mass and 0–100 are not measured here. Inside this model, 6.8 AT is not competing with another Eight.
Weight, horsepower, and payload
Kerb weight of 6.8 AT is 2245 kg. Gross weight is 2698 kg.
- Mass per horsepower: 2245 ÷ 208 = 10.8 kg per hp
- Mass per kW: 2245 ÷ 153 = 14.7 kg per kW
- Payload (gross − kerb): 2698 − 2245 = 453 kg
- Payload as a share of kerb: 453 ÷ 2245 = 20.2%
Ground clearance is not measured. Wheel sizes are not measured. Fuel tank is not measured. Those three are the usual “which trim is lighter / sits higher / goes farther” levers; they are absent, so they cannot decide the version.
Performance and mpg
6.8 AT acceleration 0–100 is 11.4 s. Top speed is 195 km/h.
Fuel consumption:
- City: 22.6
- Highway: 12.8
- Mixed: 19
City minus highway is 22.6 − 12.8 = 9.8 (same units as the source row). Mixed sits 3.6 below city (22.6 − 19) and 6.2 above highway (19 − 12.8). CO2 is not measured. Eco class is not measured.
There is no second Eight with a smaller mixed figure, so you cannot “buy the economical one.” If mpg is the decision, you are accepting 6.8 AT mixed 19 against city 22.6, not choosing among Eights.
Dimensions and what is not measured
Length, width, height, wheelbase and interior figures are not measured. The measured size-related numbers for 6.8 AT remain kerb 2245 kg and gross 2698 kg. Clearance not measured. Tank not measured. Wheels not measured.
Front suspension: Independent, spring. Rear suspension: Independent, spring. Front brakes: Ventilated disc. Rear brakes: Disc. Those labels are identical for the only version, so they do not split the choice.
Reliability and problems
Reliability, failure rates, and “problems” lists are not measured in the data. A year on a for-sale advert (1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991) is not a reliability grade here.
Which version to choose
Choose 6.8 AT. It is the only named modification: 208 hp / 153 kW at 4200 rpm, 460 Nm at 1500 rpm, 6750 cm³ Gasoline V-shaped 8, 2 valves per cylinder, No boost, Distributed injection (multi-point), Automatic 3, RWD, 0–100 in 11.4 s, 195 km/h, mixed 19, kerb 2245 kg, gross 2698 kg, 10.8 kg/hp, 30.8 hp/L, 453 kg between kerb and gross.
What you are not choosing: a later generation, a restyle generation, a higher-hp 6.8 AT, a boosted Eight, a non-RWD Eight, or a gearbox other than Automatic 3. Those alternatives are not in the catalogue. Calendar years 1984–1992 do not create extra version names; the anchor stays 6.8 AT.