All Things Bentley with CEO Frank-Steffen Walliser

I'm Matt Miller and I'm Hannah Elliott, and this is hot pursuit.

All right, we have I would say a legend on the program today?

Is that a legend and a guru and a doctor.

Frank Stephen Wallaser is going to join us. He is the CEO of Bentley, the new CEO of Bentley, and was at Porsche for two decades. I think longer.

Actually, right now, I think longer.

I mean, obviously we all know him because he was the project leader for the nine to eighteen Spider hypercar in twenty ten and really developed Porsche's motorsport program. He did all the GT cars.

He really is.

Kind of the genius behind it. I mean, he's a mechanical engineer I think orchestrated Porsche's dominance in that area for two decades.

Also, my favorite Porsche supercar that I've never driven, but I've never driven any of them, right, so I would say, like the nine to fifty nine, the Carrera GT, and then the nine eighteen Spider. Those are the three that stick out at least for me. I've never driven any of them, but I like the looks, the layout, the technology of the nine to eighteen better than any of the others.

It's so cool. It's so cool, you know.

But also we should say now he's at Bentley, and I think we can really expect that some of this really tight engineering, edgy perfectly balanced handling is going to be transferred over to Bentley, which is exciting to hear about.

Yes, the question is when are we going to see the first vehicle that he you know, from start to finish overseas.

Yeah, that was a that's a great question.

And you know we have frank on because Bentley announced last week that they are pushing off their electric vehicle goals for another five years and we'll be making hybrid combustion engines at least until twenty thirty five, which I actually received a lot of comments saying how happy people were that they're doing that.

Yeah, delaying that so yeah, interesting times.

I don't think anyone wants them to kill their internal combustion engines and just have like battery powered Bentley's.

Right yet, not yet.

Maybe there are a few people out there, but probably most of those who will be buying Bentley's would prefer the gas powered versions.

I think.

So, Oh, I got to tell you something that's amazing I don't know if I told you already. So my daughter's Edna especially, but also Lola. They love to have daddy daughter dance parties. And I was playing Zeppelin and Edna was like, I want to see this band. So I showed them the song remains the same and they loved it. And at one point Robert Plant introduces Jimmy Page. He says, ladies and gentlemen, Jimmy Page on the electric guitar,

That's an amazing connection in her head. Yeah, she's been listening to you obviously.

Yeah. Her favorite thing. When I say it's an electric car, she'll turn to her other four year old friends and say that means it doesn't need gas. So that's as far as she's gotten, I think with electric vehicles.

But I mean, maybe that's as far as you need to get.

Yeah, now she thinks it applies to guitars.

I guess weren't electric guitars considered quite.

A revolution and a revelation.

I imagine, you know, compared, I would imagine they were, I.

Mean everything before.

Yeah, it changed everything.

I never thought about it that way.

But for the good, right, I mean, like everything was better post electric electrification in guitars, and you know what, that's the case now, you know exactly.

I'm sure there were a lot of people who thought, you know, this is sacrilege.

Those people were called parents.

You know, it's probably it's probably true. And there are people who think, uh, you know, electrification is a hugely beneficial and positive change to driving, even for other reasons than you know, fighting climate change. Like people enjoy a lot of people enjoy driving their evs. The you know, instant torque and uh, you know, just the smoothness, the silence, like there are so many things that a lot of younger people feel like it's a it's a great change.

Yeah, Honestly, I will say I do. I hate the worrying noise that a lot of evs have that really droney were I hate it. However, I also hate the young gentlemen who drive their very loud, unmuffled vehicles Hondas and the like up to up the hill at like five am coming home from a night out.

I also hate that. I'd rather they be in electric vehicles.

It's Honda civics and late model BMWM cars.

Oh it's so and they're going fifteen miles an hour, twenty miles an hour, and it's like they sound really terrible, really bad.

There's a lot of rattle in there too.

All right, So we're going to talk to Frank Wallacer about a lot of this stuff, and I'm excited for our listeners to hear that. I also want to give some equal time to Rolls Royce, since we're going to focus so much on Bentley, and since you spent time in a Rolls Royce in Las Vegas learning to be a chauffeur. And my question is like, what do you need to know other than like, oh my gosh, shut your mouth and dry.

It's so much.

I don't even know where to start start with yourself, Like, you need to be dressed, not in shorts, obviously dressed like a professional. You know, coat, clean clothes, press clothes, blah blah blah.

All of that's fine.

See isn't it always black suit, white shirt?

Yeah? I mean suret Yeah, that'd be nice. If you show up on time.

You're late. You need to show up early. I mean all of these things. Seating position.

Let me back up and say I had this amazing day with Andy mccannon, who is the head driver at Rolls Royce. He drove Torston around for years and who also trains chauffeurs for Rolls's private clients for dealerships. He does security and evasive training. Andy is a fascinating guy. He's a former pro skier, and so he took a small group of us for the day so that we could learn to be white glove chauffeurs. And I actually, spoiler alert, did get glove.

I'm showing that now signed by Andy.

So I did pass. That's that's a spoiler alert. But it's it's a lot of things. It's a lot of etiquette. It's a lot of you know, how to open the car door, like we literally learned how to open a door properly, how to load luggage, setting the scene inside the car, make sure all the vents are the same direction. Where do you put water bottles? Where do you direct the rear view mirror so that you don't make eye contact with the driver. Where should the lady of the

White glove chauffeur.

Fascinating.

It was really fascinating. And then of course we practiced the whiskey, gin and tonic and champagne stops, which are just like they sound. You practice stopping so that whiskey in a in a shot glass won't spill, and then you graduate to gin and tonic and a traditional gen and tonic class, and then you graduate to the champagne coop full of champagne and try to break so as not to spill.

It's harder than it sounds.

I realized, Oh, I've been like thrashing my own cars around LA with no regard for anything. And yeah, it was really a fascinating, fascinating training.

I mean, I feel like Rolls Royce does have the lion's share of ultra high priced chauffeured vehicles, right, because Bentley is more about driving it yourself.

Yes, so, Rolls Royce told me that of the roughly six thousand vehicles that they deliver every year, twenty percent go to owners who employ full time chauffeurs, and that proportion gets dramatically higher for people who own the phantom extended wheelbase, which is really a car to be driven in.

So it's really interesting.

The whole idea is in a weird way that as we go deeper into autonomous driving and artificial intelligence, the real luxury is being driven by another human. Yes, you know, during this class we talked about building a relationship with your client, you know, remembering the name of their dog, remembering the name of their children, remembering their preferences for climate and music and seating position.

And it's all just about the.

Warmth of another human who can respond to things in the real world and real time that no computer will is able to do on that level. And for the people who have the resources to employ a driver, that's what they're buying. It's like a concierge, right.

Well, and those people probably also have fabulous wealth, so maybe they need a bodyguard. Does the chauffeur often double as a bodyguard, as Andy packinheat.

You know what, I'll have to ask him. He does offer courses on evasive driving. We did talk about driving in security threat areas, and he mentioned that, you know, in urban areas versus rural areas, and urban areas they're gonna try to take what's in the car, like a watch or a handbag. In rural areas, they're gonna take the car itself. So he does train people to do that.

Yeah, that is really interesting stuff, and your story on that is going to come out later later.

I'm taking it as a very good thing. It was supposed to run this weekend and now they're going to hold it until Thanksgiving. And hopefully make it into a bit more of a feature, which means that I get to write longer and then.

We include more words. So I like the sound of that, So stay tuned, all.

Right, I look forward to that. And now I want to talk about the car you're driving right now, which, by the way, Mercede has so many different variants.

It's so confused.

They're no longer divided easily between Mercedes and AMG products because when they put out the GT you know they had, it was just an AMG thing.

Yea.

Now they're bringing it all together. And by the way, the coops can have two doors or four doors.

Yeah, nothing mean nothing basically.

And I have issues with Mercedes like alphabet.

Soup and BMW does too.

I feel like they're trying to confuse the public to some extent, which I don't know why that works in a marketing sense, but.

I don't get it.

But they still make amazing vehicles. So tell me what you think about this. You're driving the Mercedes AMG S sixty three E Performance, which is not only I think their most powerful S class, but like probably the most powerful car that they make overall.

Yes, first, let me say that this car on the Maroni that I got starts at just under two hundred thousand dollars. Now I'm looking online and it's the MSRP says one hundred and eighty six thousand.

Yep.

But I'm telling you, on the Maroni that I have in the car with me, it's like high one nineties. And then the car that I drive personally with all the extras, it's at two hundred and sixteen thousand dollars, which I was shocked to find out. It's that is so expensive to.

Me, he really think, I guess I've got that's so expensive.

That's that's to me.

Like Bentley Territory, and in my mind, Bentley Occupy is a place that's higher than Mercedes.

Although I know we think you're going to.

Find that it's going to be half of what a Bentley costs.

Bentley Continental.

The Bentley Continental GT that I drove was about four hundred and whoa and.

Yeah, but it's star it's arts at.

Lower fifty at.

No, no, it starts at to something hmm.

Right, I'm gonna go ahead and look at Bentley dot com.

It'll be in my review.

So the price in your Bentley Continental review was I think a price for an old Bentaga.

Okay, three hundred thousand dollars, you're right, Yeah, it's three hundred into all.

Right, Prices are just much higher than we thought they were, right.

It's so wild to me that this car costs that much. Someone asked me over the weekend what I thought of it, and I just didn't really feel like talking at the moment, and I just said, it drives great, and that is true.

It does drive great.

To me. It's a little bit like having a nightclub and a hotel, and I don't think that often works because if you want to go to a club, you go to a club and then you go to your hotel, and I just want to like sleep and chill at the hotel. And this car is kind of like that. Like it's a big, heavy sedan that is engineered to be thrashed and like drive like a sports car, and it's jarring. It drives great, but it's kind of a

I didn't. So, first of all, I think the car looks very unassuming because it's an escue.

You guys have a spoiler.

I don't think so mine has a mine has a Speedboy spoiler on it.

Really, Yeah, that is a strange I mean, I don't know where that comes from. I'm going to go through the configurator right now. I'm not sure there's any kind of spoiler on the one on the website, so maybe. No, there's definitely not. And it's very smooth.

Oh, I didn't have that experience. And in any case, did you get out of comfort mode?

I had it in sport, it plus in track, like all the time, the whole time.

I kid, I kid, but I wow.

Yeah, and and and so to me, it like a much like a Moroccan palace. You know, it looks like nothing from the outside, and then when you get inside you're like whoa Like I was mind blown at the display behind the steering wheel because it's three D and you have to pay attention to that, Hannah, if you haven't noticed it, you can turn.

It on and off. I see it, Yes, I see it.

I've never seen it in any car before, so it's it's the first time I've ever seen that.

I think I was too distracted by the fact that the cup holders don't actually fit coffee cups, Like did you notice this? No, this single very poorly and this is a shock from Mercedes because they are generally so great. Cup holders for the coffee and the center console are two. There's a lip and it catches the lid of the coffee.

Cups.

Yeah.

Well, yeah, I'm not a.

Farmer, I know, but I am a farmer, so I have like you know, twenty four rounds.

You get a very small cough, you get a normal small coffee and the lid instantly pops up because the coffee holder is too small and claustrophobic. And that huge center divider, Yeah, this is a problem.

That is probably a problem well a lot of cars built for the American market because I'm like putting the big gulp in there and it's no problem.

Let me ask you about the sound. Did you notice any odd whirring and humming and you know, odd sounds coming from underneath the hood when the hybrid modes were engaged.

No, But I, like I said, I had it in sport plus the whole time, so I didn't ever have a moment when it wasn't as loud as it could possibly be. The combustion engine, I mean, if you have eight hundred horsepower and a thousand pound feet of torque that you're gonna thrash it, right.

Yeah, Yeah, that's where I'm like, Oh, but it's it's like a big heavy sedan.

That didn't feel heavy to me either. I mean it felt pretty nimble. I was. I was away impressed by this vehicle, and I feel like, I want you to go spend another couple of days with.

It, because I had a couple of days of it.

I just thought it was amazing.

I knew you would.

I literally said in the car, Matt Miller is going to love this car.

And I couldn't. I couldn't not compare it to the Bentley Continental GT because I had had or I had the Bentley Continental GT right after this, and they both have very similar power trains. They both have turbocharged V eight's with a hybrid assist, so they both have these massive horsepower and torque numbers. Although the Mercedes has more, they're both extremely luxurious. The Bentley felt tighter. I had less room in the Bentley. The Mercedes felt airrier. I

Okay, let me ask you this, which car do you think looks better?

Oh? The Bentley is a much more beautiful question, no question. I don't understand. What's the Mercedes exterior design?

To me?

For over a decade has been It's been lost on me. I don't understand it. I don't like it. I love the AMGGT obviously, or I did before this new iteration, and I think they've they've lost that too as they bring it under the Mercedes roof. But in terms of the luxury experience on the interior, in terms of the high tech of the NBUX entfotainment system so good, And in terms of the hybrid, I thought the ev drive train was amazing. Like I like just their straight six

I will say this was the first time that I have equibble with that NBUX system because I actually drove this on Saturday and I had a crazy night at the SPA and decided to dry drive it home over Mulholland that car kept telling me there were speed bumps coming when there were no speed bumps in sight, and then when there were speed bumps, absolutely nothing. And it's done that repeatedly, and it's kind of annoying.

Yes, and they had the same thought, and that was that was pretty much my only complaint, especially and it would say there's a pothole coming right and I'm driving around New York where, yes, I know that.

How is this?

I'm completely that is highly ironic and funny that it's telling you there's a pothole coming up in midtown Manhattan, for instance.

Yeah, no, that was that. I mean, I am. I imagine you could turn that off and I will own the car. All right. Well, next week I want to talk about it more because I just think it's a pretty standout vehicle.

It's a great car. It's just at least it makes me feel something. I don't know what I feel about. I feel a little conflicted. At least it makes me feel something. Yes, nothing right.

For sure, And I can't wait. Are you going to write a review on this or are you gonna do it?

Yeah?

Yeah, yeah, we'll do something on it.

Yes, yes, let's get to Frank Stephen. I mean, this guy had an incredibly storied career with Portia. I'm not sure when he started there, but he took over the motorsport division in two thousand and three. Legend, and he was the project manager for the nine to eighteen and yes, absolute legend. I think he took over the nine to eleven as well, and Acklitner left and now he's got his own baby right now, he's moved over to be the boss of Bentley. And you talked to him in Switzerland.

Yeah, and ander Mott that was the first time I got to meet him. And it's really interesting having a German CEO follow Adrian Hallmark who was Bitley's British, very British CEO, who left and went to Aston Martin. So now it's like we've got a whole new regime. And it does make me excited about the future of Bentley because I because Frank is very open, like, yeah, let's we've got some things to work on and this is what we're gonna do.

I like that, Yeah, I like it too. Let's listen to actor Frank Stephen Ballasser.

Frank, you're actually not that new to Bentley anymore. You've been there since July. Where are you along your big plans to make your mark on Bentley and propel the company to the future.

Well, there's something about the famous hundred days for a CEO. You have to set up the scenes, and I got some interesting books on that.

I got even a book with ninety days. But this is too short.

You need and we work with the team here on strategy and the future ideas on Bentley. This was coincidental. Ass or Beyond one hundred strategy was close to five years, so every five years you rework your strategy anyway, so that fit nicely together. We just announced last week or Beyond one hundred plus strategy that already signs out. It's the continuation of what was done in the past, but we did some tweaks and adjustments.

We have.

I think over the.

Last five years, everybody in the automotive industry is a better understanding of the biggest transition in the history of the car to switch to the electric drivetrain. Also in the market feedbacks speed of the different markets, A lot about technology. Not so easy for an industry that was used to have a proper life cycle. You launch a product, you have it seven years in, you do different model years,

But nothing to complain and nothing we can really influence.

We just have to be in our technology and our product offer flexible enough and this is what we mainly work through with the team.

Frank I have to say I received no shortage of messages in my social media inbox of people who are very happy to hear that Bentley will continue to make combustion engines and of course we're all very excited to see what the new electric model is. Can you tell us what the feedback has been like. What do you hear on your side of things.

We're reading the media feedback, we get some personal messages. We have a very strong feedback from our investors and dealers. They they are happy with the strategy. They see the more balanced product portfolio and an additional car, the additional card. It can hopefully grow their business. It's not a substitution, it's growing the business. The more balanced portfolio gives them the opportunity to keep a lot of the existing customers staying Bentley customers all in the future, and was pretty

The W twelve has been a big focus of Bentley for as long as I can remember. What's the future like for that engine? I mean, is it short lived or can we expect it to stay around in some form, you know, for at least another five years or a decade.

I have to say we already stopped the production also in summer.

It was around July end of June we stopped the production of the W twelve.

It is replaced by the fabulous V eight quag In hybrid like the Continental GT, and I could drive it. It's a It's interesting because well, there's so much history about this W twelve and it was the defining engine of Bentley. But Bentley is more than only only the engine. This makes it also really exciting in deciding now the future of the carrs but also of the company.

There's more about Bentley than only the engine.

And driving this we eight, especially in the PF configuration, it just shows you how good it.

Can be without being a W twelve.

For sure, there's an emotional part, but from a pure driving perspective, from the emotions you get, from the feedback you get, and how good the car is.

Good technology can replace something like that.

I would say, there's no replacement for displacement. Do you have a different take. I mean you come from a place where a three liter flat six is more than enough. So am I wrong?

I went through this and.

This is the magic of electrification, and this is more than displacement.

It can do things better.

This is new technology and it is really driving some magic into it. And without referring too much to the past, but I had the fun.

In making a Superspot's got a hypercar.

Everybody believed five point five V ten is the best what you can get with a manual, and then we put a D eight in with a hybrid.

A little bit more heavier, and everybody.

Was super happy. But only after sitting in the car. It does not work to judge it from an office.

Sorry to say, you have to drive it.

You have to feel the sensation and then it really it really changes.

You know. That's a really interesting point.

I'm curious if you think that we're at a similar spot right now, just in terms of educating consumers that hey, just because we're going we're losing some cylinders, doesn't necessarily mean you're going to feel any less excited when you drive things because this is a new technology.

Is that sort of similar to what you went through in your previous life when you introduce some of.

These harbards, I would say yes.

The majority of the customers is not engineers. They're not not their education to judge something from paper.

Or from information.

They get their customers, and we have to respect this. They need their own experience, they need good media that is explaining it. What is kind of confirm is doing so, but there's nothing like own experience and coming back a little bit from an engineering perspective, nothing else and displacement. It was right, but with the introduction of all the new exhaust gas limitations and Knox reduction and all what

Something I think I should say for the listeners in case anyone is not aware. Doctor Wallace are actually holds a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering and is sort of considered the grandfather of the nine to eighteen Spider hypercar. In case anyone didn't mention that, or didn't know that, or we didn't mention it.

Sure the Bloomberg terminal has you down as the project manager, so I would say you were the boss on that.

And you've been doing this for I mean, gosh, twenty ten, Since before twenty ten, working on this type of technology.

Yeah, I started in nineteen ninety five, so it's nearly thirty years now of experience in the automotive sector, different projects, but on these electrification part.

I started working on.

I think it was pretty much around in November, maybe even the day matches in two thousand and nine where the first ideas on electrification electrification of big cars started. Gained a lot of experience in that some of the technologies still around.

So I mean basically you were at Porsche since the turn of the century, right running the motorsport division, I think in starting in two thousand and three, and then the ninet eighteen and now you're at Bentley, and I think it must be incredibly exciting for you to have now this whole brand that you can shape and mold, you know, Obviously it's storied and has a long history,

It's exactly what you described.

It's not only an engineering job, it's not only a product.

It's a complete company.

It includes communications, it includes the customer interaction. It includes our sales channels, our dealerships, all the partners we have outside there, but also.

The production stuff. How to develop our.

Culture here within Bentley what is really an important part of it.

How to.

Continue to being a high performance theme bringing great products and we all know the surrounding is not easier.

We have to make decisions. We have, yeah, as I said, the biggest transformation in the history of.

The car, and well that's part of the fund and daily work. But this is also very motivating. And sure you're responsible for the half thousand people here on site, the crew, but also on the international dealer network and all the partners outside, and for sure on the customers.

That are really fans. I don't think we have really customers.

We have fans of our brand and of our cars and the history and everything behind that.

That's great, it's really exciting.

What was your perception of the brand? I mean, if I'm not mistaken, you are from Stuttgart, so you have been immersed in you know, Porsche, Mercedes. You're not far from a falter Bach, you know. I imagine you were a huge German car fan, and then you must have taken note with extreme interest when Volkswagen acquired Bentley, as well as all the other brands they acquired. So what was your perception of it growing up?

Growing up?

I think it was it was the interesting time when these when these big changes happened, where there was this big consolidation of the of of some of the smaller brands and the acquisition strategy of Volkswagen that but honestly, maybe based on information and based on age and experience from outside, it looked a little bit what exactly is the idea and how will that work?

And who did do the better deal?

Back in the days, because one company took over the name and the other one took over all the assets.

And the Bentley name that was not so known outside.

Of the customers. It was a very small customer group. But obviously this master plan behind it. Now we can look back well twenties, more than twenty five years ago when the decisions were made, and seeing the outcome, how this idea really started to have a balance steps business. To have a modelized there, to have grown the fans by multiplus of thousands in comparison.

To number of cars that have been produced before. This is really great.

I'm really curious to hear you call Bentley owners fans. It's really nice to hear because I think that term I would naturally think, okay, that applies to Porsche people. But you know, with Bentley, you're kind of in a different space, and I'm wondering if you could talk about how you see Bentley positioned as a brand in contrast to Rolls Royce for instance, or in contrast even to my bock. I know when we've spoken Ander Mott, you mentioned that Bentley might it might improve by sharpening its

Well, my learning is over the last weeks or months and discussions with the with the team here engineering and also with the comms team and marketing, and honestly also the chance to drive a lot of these heritage cars to really learn what makes it Bentley so special and also reflecting.

On the history.

When the thing that that's also a car that that really impressed me by by driving it was the turbo r.

Oh Boy. But we talk about that car a lot.

I'm a huge fan of, like I desperately want one.

Okay, Okay, So we are three.

But something obviously happened in the company back in the days that someone from me and some of the engineers decided, let's make a variant out of.

That that is more sport here. That is considering times and everything was kind of revolutionary considering the company.

So obviously there had been even though for this long long time where Bentley was kind of a second brand with together with Voice, there must have been enthusiasts for this brand that pushed it again and that they have seen a business opportunity also and they had been right. They had been proven right because everything I know then the sales numbers definitely went up and Bentley established again

A sportiness that is built in.

I think there's still a chance to emphasize even more the sportiness of the brand and we can maybe maybe more even more exotic cars that some would not have considered. Well, that's that can work with Eventley. But I consider that the brand is being really really strong. It can offer a lot of products under the.

Bentley brand as long as you keep this heritage.

This is this unique blend of having this super valuable car, of having the sportiness, of having the craftsmanship in the future for sure, also having the sustainability, with the technical knowledge we have, with the abilities we have, and we have to say we have from group technology what we can use in certain degrees.

I kind of liked that idea about you didn't say it. I'm saying this so this isn't on you. But having the Turbo R and that family of Bentley's sort of as a touch point in the history that you can refer to, but also maybe a bit of a north star as you move forward to tap into whatever you describe the excitement around that really gutsy, brawny, powerful driver's car.

This is a car for drivers, for sure. You can be shuffled with them and that works pretty nice. But it's a driver's car, and this this is aldo then part of the engineering and the product is designed is also made for drivers. I wonder in the car it handles, how the acceleration is, how the steering is.

Is this driver's car?

Yes? Well, and you're, you know, just starting out there as the head driver. I was talking with Hannah about this when she went to drive the the new Continental and interview you. I thought, well, I'm sure the Continental is a great car, and now I've driven it, so I know it's fantastic to drive. But it wasn't something that you developed from the start. And I've been thinking, what is the first project that we will say, five years from now? This was Frank's first car at Bentley.

I have a very clear idea that I hope it takes not five years.

How long will it take? I don't you know. I don't know more.

The next podcast.

Come on. I mean, look, you have you have Benega and a longer version of Flying Spur Continental and the and the convertible version. Do you think there's any holes in the portfolio? Is there something missing that you want to put back or recreate or create for the first time.

I would not say holes, even knowing well on the things that are coming, especially with our next expect but looking in some of the derive tips and looking on ideas based on these cars, we have some ideas.

They might be surprising, but it would definitely have fun in driving them.

Can you tell us a little bit about the process, because I've always thought start to finish a motor vehicle takes five years. That's just a round number that's stuck in my head and maybe it's from twenty years ago and I'm wrong. So what is the process like when you started the nine to eighteen to when it started, you know, to when the first customer took delivery? How long did that take?

Thirty eight months? Wow, very exact.

That was a very specific number.

Very specific, and it was it was pretty quick. I would say today. It depends always what is a new car. If there's a lot of things around, numbers are communicated by different manufacturers.

Why it's always so difficult to compare.

But if you have an existing platform and you do a new car based on that, so you have engines and gearboxes and things to carry over. I would say it would take you today between forty eight and fifty six months, so your five years is pretty much the number. But we also see that there is a need to

Quicker is not bad.

Greak, I'm dying to know where are you living now in your new role and have you found any great driving roads in your area that you like to drive just for your own enjoyment.

Well, I'm living not so far away from Croup on the office, twenty minutes in Cheshire on a farm in a bar conversion.

So come frut, how old? How old is the bar and can version?

Maybe one hundred years, I guess.

I guess driving around in Cheshire is looking at the size of the of the of the streets is a little bit demanding, but not maybe the best place.

You'll look for, I've heard, but it's.

Not so far away to go peak district where you'll find the first great roads to drive. And next weekend we go north of Wales, what is definitely a great place to drive amazing. So step by step, week weekend by weekend, we're looking for opportunities going out taking my Continental GG convertible a little bit around. That's but it's also part of learning about the product, how to handle what is it in the day to day usability.

I'm wondering about you growing up. I don't know if you spent most of your time in Stuttgarter around I went to tubing in so I'm familiar with the roads, and I spent a lot of time at Filterstart and Winstadt and you know the counch dot Vasen. What were you into growing up? I mean you're like generation Golf, right, So.

What kind of cars?

Yes? What kind of cars were you driving in high school? And what what spurred you to get so involved in this industry other than you know, obviously growing up in the bosom of it.

It was well a part definitely from the area because I was growing up near to Voidling and so tubing and that and giving me away, so you should know that, of course, and car industry always was important. But my parents told me when I was a kid, I was always in cars all the time in everything.

And I remember in we had been on a on.

A holiday travel and I was excited about every car, but it was I fell asleep and my parents later told me there was a Lamborghini parsting us and I missed that.

Since that time, I never s again in a car. Now it's getting better, but for twenty years I never ever slept because I.

Could miss a specific exotic supercar or something. Okay, and well then always in technology, always interested in cars fascinated me my whole life. The first one was what that was? What I could afford was a Fia do know?

Oh cool?

But it was an S so important. I did not engine, only the super small engine.

Then was the golf too, and after the Golf tour I have to think on after the GLF tour, it was a Boxer.

Nice.

My first colleagues.

Car are your car as an employee?

Then?

Right?

Yeah?

Do you own a car that you know you will have forever? Currently?

Two of them? Yes?

What are they?

One is a nine nine to three convertible model year ninety seven.

What color black?

Black? Black? Reimported from New York City?

Wow?

All black?

Yes, of course, triple black.

It's key Manuel with the Molia upgrade on the Stormer engine two hundred and eighty seven.

Power and the other.

But I keeped out on the c the US suspension that was not good.

And what's the other one?

Everyone is a Citish Rae Touring two thousand eighteen.

Great common wow and better for the for the Autobahn than other roads. Don't you think the rest of US could learn a thing or two from Germany about unlimited speeds or do you think that they need to change that?

That's an interesting question.

And number one, the reality in Germany is not so many unlimited roads that everybody seeing, especially if.

You're south of Germany. Everywhere one set down really open is super limited. The traffic is very dense. Even if it's unlimited, it's super dense.

Well, I like to I enjoy it if it's if it's possible, but it needs a.

Lot of experience as to do so and to have it properly. And he has to be vice if you have a powerful.

Car or I like that. I agree, I don't.

I don't think drivers in LA should have unlimited speed limits, knowing how knowing how these people drive out on these streets.

We cannot have that here. You can't trust us with us.

I would highly recommend to not do so.

That was Frank Stephen Walliser, Doctor Frank Stephen Wallaser, the CEO of Bentley, holding his cards a little bit close to the vest.

No, we're gonna have to have him on again. I guess I take it as a good sign. It means this is a conversation ongoing.

I suppose.

Yeah, I think it's going to be interesting to watch. Also, their competition with Rolls Royce. I don't know, do they see themselves as direct competitors anymore or something completely because still offers a twelve cylinder motor and Bentley does not.

Let me just take the liberty of saying, I don't think Rolls Royce thinks they're competitors. Yeah, so you know, and that's no shade on Bentley. I think Bentley, of course, is going more to what we talked about at the beginning of this show, more of a sporting driver, like perhaps the higher end Mercedes.

Right.

I don't know.

I wouldn't crossh up those cars for the record, sounds like you in your mind there's some cross shopping, but I wouldn't.

Yeah, No, I mean, look, if you're gonna pay four hundred thousand dollars for a car, you're not going to probably price it shop at against something that price is priced it at half.

I'm good in a Ferrari. If I'm spending four hundred thousand, I feel for the record.

I would get a Lamborghini therein lie our differences, I guess you would still compare the Bentley Continental against Does Rolls Royce even make the Wraith anymore? I don't know. Yes, those those are too too much for me, obviously to even configure, because in my wildest dreams, I can imagine getting the nine to eleven that I want, But I cannot imagine ever spending Bentley or Rolls Royce money, even if I somehow earned it, you know what.

This is on a totally different topic. But I was in the same room as the guy who won the two billion dollar Power Bowl payout a few days ago, and he's very you know, and you can google him and he's buying like old stuff at auctions, And can you imagine, I mean, this is just a guy.

This is Can I imagine or do I on a daily basis?

I either I it can't even my mind can't process. I mean this guy, you would never in a million, even still I think he won in twenty twenty two. Even still, you never ever ever guess he looks like just some dude.

I mean, so weird. I do this all the time in my head. First of all, if you win the two billion dollar jackpot.

Do you take it all up front?

Would? I would probably get the payout it's higher, but there are many, I think maybe better arguments for taking it up front. You're you're not getting half of that, so you're not gonna end up with even a billion after the government takes you know its share. But don't you put your dream garage together every time you daydream about having a billion dollars or one hundred million or fifty million, like I do that constantly. Yeah, Yes, I would need a truck and that would be probably right now.

Gonna say that we don't have to talk about it.

Well, here's the problem. On the day we recorded last week, I had driven it for all of a half hour and it was like I was in a good mood. I drove it a few people to Pickleball and I was like, Wow, this is so cool. I'm driving the Chrysler. Yes, because it's brand new, beautiful paint. It's not a great looking vehicle from the outside, obviously it's a Chrysler Pacific, a minivan, but the seating position is so different from anything I'm used to. You're sitting like at the front

Man. It's a good thing you didn't actually buy that. Like, what if you actually bought it after a fifteen minute I.

Would know that, And that actually is a very good point. Yeah, so many people test drive a car for fifteen minutes or a half hour or maybe an hour max. And you just don't have any time to get used to a vehicle, not at all.

And that that would be like my mood.

My mood would determine how I feel, like whatever I ate for lunch, you know, that would determine how I was feeling potentially about a car, Like if I had just done a great workout or whatever.

I can see how that affects. You know, you need more than fifteen minutes.

You need it for a week because you got to commute with it, go to the grocery store, go to an event. You know, I take it on date night exactly, get your friends in it, take it up to Bear Mountain or Angelie's Crest or whatever. Like, you need to do a whole gamut of things with it to understand if you want to spend your harder in cash.

Yeah, and it's not to say that a car has to do everything, but it's just to say you will learn which tasks this tool is good for.

Yeah, and if you're okay with.

That or not, where do you want to make compromises? Where are you willing to make compromises? Yeah? So the Chrysler minivan, I mean, for for what it is, Like if it was just if I was using it just in my suburbs taking the kids to you know, basketball and dance or whatever. I guess that makes sense. But as soon as I got into the city, I realized it already felt like a beat up uber over these roads.

Isn't like that? Yeah that's cool, Yeah, I mean why not?

I just need the heavy duty suspension. It's not like I'm taking it off road. I'm not really tolling anything. It's just that suspension in these roads here in New York in the metropolitan area. Like you need something that could survive armageddon?

Is that a crew cab? I mean, is that big enough to fit the family realistically?

Yes, I mean a crew cab like F one fifty or Silverado for sure fits the whole family. I was thinking like a Tahoe, you know, or a Yukon, which is essentially the same thing with a bat Yeah, but no, what I mean is body on frame. I mean, not you a yeah, so yes, not any suv in fact, most SUVs. No, it's only like Tahoe and probably what's the Nissan, the Armada, you know or whatever. The Tundra is called an suv form it starts with it Sequoya,

Yeah, I support it. I've no comeback to that other than you. It makes sense to me, honestly.

All Right, I guess that's all we have time for this week. Yeah, I'm really looking forward, Hannah, to you spending more time in this Mercedes AMG S sixty three E Performance.

I'm gonna look for those Easter eggs. They're better be an American flag in there somewhere today.

Today, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, it all ended.

Oh, November is my favorite month, my too.

Yep, wait, when's your birthday?

The sixteenth?

Nice? Yeah, coming November babies excellent. Okay, that's it for us this week. I'm Matt Miller, and

I'm Hannah Elliott, and this is Bloomberg.