The death of the Bentley Mulsanne has hit us pretty hard, chiefly because the big limo took the iconic 6.75-litre V8 engine with it to its grave. Sad times.

Bentley, though, has also confirmed that a replacement for the Mulsanne is simply not viable. Yep, although it actually outsold the Rolls-Royce Phantom, the whole uber-luxury sedan segment is shrinking – we’ll give you one guess as to why.

(*cough* SUVs *cough*)

Anyway, that means the smaller, more dynamic Flying Spur will have to step into the Mulsanne’s shoes to become Bentley’s flagship sedan. Now the folk at Crewe have given it a little helping hand.

(Click HERE to read our First Drive of the W12 Bentley Flying Spur)

If you’re buying a Flying Spur to be chauffeured in, there’s absolutely no way you could make do with a bench seat across the back. You poor thing. Luckily, you can now spec two rather lovely looking captain’s chairs that come complete with self-levelling electrically operated picnic tables and enough stitching to dwarf the height of Big Ben. If that’s not luxury, we don’t know what is.

The four-seat configuration also gets an extended centre console that runs between the two rear seats and features twin cup holders, two USB ports and a 12v power socket. It can also be heated to keep your arms toasty – and suddenly we’ve forgotten all about the Mulsanne…

STORY Greg Potts