Speaking as someone who has driven more than his fair share of Bentleys, I can say that although the brand's Continental series is the way of the future, the more expensive and stately Arnage is still a benchmark to be respected. Bentley has announced that it will debut the Arnage Final Series at next month's Paris Motor Show, thereby confirming for the first time that the current model's ten-year run is about to end. Only 150 of these special Arnage models will be built, and all are powered by Bentley's legendary twin-turbo 6.75-liter V8 producing 500 bhp and 738 lb-ft of torque, which also happens to be celebrating its 50-year anniversary in 2008. Bentley says the Final Series combines the performance of the Arnage T with the refinement of the R, and a few odd features are thrown in like a rear cocktail cabinet with a Final Series stainless steel flask and two shot glasses and four Bentley umbrellas mounted in the trunk. Like any special edition, there are also Final Series badges on the exterior and interior, as well.

So if the Final Series marks the end of the Arnage, what's next? We asked Bentley outright, and they of course couldn't comment on future product, but say that work is well underway on the brand's next flagship model and hinted that it may move even further upmarket. We take that to mean the Rolls-Royce Phantom should consider itself put on notice. We also asked if Bentley's iconic V8 would be retired in these times of strict emissions regulations and maybe replaced with something from the VAG parts bin. Again, while they could neither confirm nor deny anything, we got the impression that there's life left in this 50-year motor.

Bentleys and buckets of torque go hand-in-hand. Therefore, it might make some sense for the German-owned British luxury marque to consider one of the VW Group's big, powerful turbodiesels for one of its upcoming models. Not so fast, says Bentley. It has specifically polled its customer base -- made up mostly of Americans and Asians -- to determine if there's any interest in an oil-burning Bentley. Apparently, there isn't. Instead, the luxo-barge company will focus on biofuels in an effort to lower the fuel consumption and emissions of a numbers of its models. As a matter of fact, the first flex-fuel engine from the Flying B is expected to debut in 2009 and Franz-Josef Paefgen, Bentley's Chief Executive, says that all of its models will be capable of running on biofuels by 2012 as part of its plan to go British Racing green.