So here we have the third contender for ‘best car in the world’, joining the Rolls-Royce Phantom and new Ghost, and replacing the charming dinosoar that is the Bentley Arnage. This, then, is Bentley's new Mulsanne, the first all-new all-Bentley model since – wait for it – the 1930 8-litre.

It's an impressive machine; like the Ghost it looks better in the metal than in pictures, its complex curves catching the light beautifully and effectively shrinking what is a seriously large machine. Bentley has gone all-out with this, starting from scratch in most areas, right through to moving the old factory stores off-site and building an all-new ‘body-in-white’ facility in its place, solely to construct the Mulsanne’s bodyshell.

Here you see a fascinating balance of technology and craftsmanship, new robots gracefully performing the more monotonous tasks – spot-welding chassis legs for example – while metres away craftsmen hand-braze the panel joins and hand-finish the bodywork. Next door, on the production line, women stitch the steering wheels alongside the men kitting out the interior – which is itself hand-crafted in a dedicated area, a team of craftsmen spending 170 hours per car on the interior alone, 55 on the wood.

Ah yes, the wood. One of the joys of the Mulsanne is the ‘ring of wood’ that encircles the cabin, right around, even behind the rear seats. The beautiful veneering is unusually laid on thick substrates of solid wood and, if you select the right option, is subtly decorated with intricate marketry.

The chrome isn’t chrome, it’s perfectly polished stainless steel (for a less brash shine), the leather is traditionally tanned (for that smell which has so long been missing from car interiors), the buttons and switches are glass-faced and the Naim in-car entertainment system is, for now, the most powerful known in the production car world, at 2200W.

It feels good, really good – a long way beyond anything that the Crewe factory has ever previously produced. As good as the Rolls-Royces? Close thing: my personal feeling is that the Ghost and Phantom take a narrow victory on style for their uncluttered dashboards and consoles.

The Mulsanne, for me, wins on exterior looks. There are plenty of classic Bentley cues: the large headlights and smaller driving lamps (always a company trademark), the three-pronged effect within those projector/LED lights (like the pre-war ‘Tripod’ lights), the ‘floating’ ovals in the rear lights (Continental S2), the subtle rear haunches (S1, S2 and S3), the bluff front and long rear (T-series on) and the horseshoe shape in the bootlid (MkVI).

The news that the Mulsanne would be powered by yet another iteration of the 51-year-old V8, still overhead-valve and just two valves per cylinder, was greeted with some surprise and derision. Would not the car have been better off with one of the many VW Group units – V8, V10, W12, W16 – rather than a new take on a 51-year-old design?

Perhaps not. Where the 6.75-litre V8, now featuring much-lightened rotating parts, wins is in that Bentley ‘surge’ again, the perfectly flat torque ‘curve’ that reaches its peak of 752lb ft at 1750rpm and sticks there right to the redline. Curiously, some of the features that were once thought of as compromises to enable the fledgling V8 to fit into narrow engine bays designed for straight-sixes have turned into advantages: short exhaust port tracts and wedge combustion chambers instead of the hemispherical chambers made fashionable in the early 1960s now work to, respectively, heat the catalytic converters more quickly (because less heat is absorbed into the cylinder head) and to provide the squish and swirl that improves efficiency.

Four valves per cylinder would undoubtedly have helped power above, say, 4000rpm, but we’ll learn soon that 4000rpm isn’t really what you’re looking for in the Mulsanne. And, although it smacks of clutching at straws, there is of course much less friction involved in turning one camshaft rather than the four of a DOHC V8.

But there are also disadvantages. Bentley has improved efficiency by providing variable cam phasing, retarding the camshaft timing at low revs and advancing it further up the scale. What it couldn’t do is alter the overlap between exhaust closing and inlet opening, which is relatively easy with a DOHC design. Instead, the V8 has a different trick, shutting off four cylinders (two and three on one bank, one and four on the other) when loads are low – in other words, when gently cruising. There was never an occasion when any of us detected the shutdown, or the regular restart (every two minutes or so) necessary to keep the cats warm. All this has improved fuel efficiency and emissions by 15%.

So, does it work? You start by pootling away, doing that great big-engined luxury car trick of driving on little more than idle speed, the gentle burble of the exhaust calmly modulating as the new ZF gearbox begins a gentle progression through its eight (yes, eight) ratios.

And, then, of course, you boot it. The bonnet rises just as the Arnage bonnet would, and this great beast of a car launches forward in the most indecently fast manner as the scenery begins to disappear into a blur. Yet still this engine, this five-decades-old engine, is woofling like it’s done nothing more than dispatch a milk float and you wonder if the rear passengers have noticed how fast you’re now travelling. You glance in the rear view mirror and, no, they actually haven’t – although they’re not leaning forward in their multi-adjustable seats any more.

Sweep through the bends, traverse carelessly over potholes, the Mulsanne is unfussed, and those damned passengers don’t seem too worried, either; this is partly due to the electronically controlled air-suspension (best to choose the Bentley setting, rather than Comfort or Sport, unless you’ve got round to tailoring the Custom set-up) and partly because the yaw centre is set directly under the rear seat, meaning passengers aren’t swung around.

It’s good, really good. Drive it hard and it’s great fun, but I guarantee that after the initial novelty you’ll merely drive it fast, making rapid progress for mile after mile after mile rather than scaring the world with full use of the performance.

The Mulsanne is an amazing machine, more amazing than its restrained looks suggest. In driving terms, it replaces and improves upon the Arnage; in looks, perhaps it’s not quite as characterful, but it’s certainly impressive.

For a series of videos explaining the processes involved in producing the Mulsanne, visit these links:
Episode 1: Building the body beautiful
Episode 2: The art of colour
Episode 3: The mighty new V8
Episode 4: Unrivalled craftsmanship
Episode 5: Assembling the new flagship
Episode 6: Testing and sign-off