Bentley Motors Ltd. says the Continental Flying Spur, which made its North American bow at the New York International Auto Show, is the fastest four-door car in the world. It is capable of 195 mph, says Andrew Stuart, president of Bentley Motorcars of North America. Stuart says the Flying Spur sedan and the Continental GT coupe, which shares the same architecture, are making Bentley a great name again and stretching the automaker’s vision.

Job 1 for the Flying Spur will be at the Crewe, U.K., factory in mid-year says Mark Tennant, worldwide marketing director. Distribution will start in Europe and the car will come to the United States later in the year. A spokesman says there are more than 1,000 orders for the Flying Spur in the United States so far. Crewe built 6,600 cars in 2004, including 2,400 for the United States “Production will be up a bit from that this year,” Tennant says. “We won’t sell as many coupes as we did last year because of the availability of the sedan.”.

A U.S. spokesman says Bentley expects to sell 1,700 GT coupes this year and 1,400 Continental sedans. Tennant says the automaker will manage production carefully to maintain the exclusivity of the brand. Present plans are to hold output to about 8,000 units annually..

“I doubt whether 10,000 units would be right for Bentley,” Tennant says. “Bentley should be an unusual sight. We don’t want Bentley to be omnipresent.” Some production will go to fill the pipeline, but he says most Continentals are being built on order. Interested buyers today will have to wait more than six months for delivery. Bentley is not accepting bespoke orders for the GT Coupe or the Flying Spur yet. “We now make the cars so that customers won’t want anything extra,” Tennant says. But he promises that some bespoke elements will become available in the future..