Bentley engineers recreate The Nutcracker theme at factory

Team use tools, electric windows and cups of tea to reinvent Christmas classic

A festive red Bentley. Photo: Bentley

If you’re looking for an alternative to the Christmas tunes played on regular instruments, Bentley may have created something of interest.

A version of Yuletide standard Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy from the beloved ballet The Nutcracker has been bolted together at the UK brand’s factory at Crewe in north-west England, and it’s far from traditional.

Workers styling themselves as the Bentley Orchestra have assembled a piece of music made up of a blend of wheel nut guns, paint sprayers, electric windows going up and down, doors opening and closing and many other sounds that employees hear every day as they slot, screw and stitch the ultra-luxurious cars together.

It might not be a contender for 2022’s most seasonal sound, but it’ll certainly be a talking point if you shunt it on to your Yuletide music mix in between Last Christmas and Santa Baby.

In August, Bentley released the first images of its most powerful vehicle yet: the Mulliner Batur. Only 18 will be made, however, and they’re all reserved.

Unsurprisingly for Bentley, the Batur is a grand tourer at the premium end of the spectrum.

With its muscular looks created by design director Andreas Mindt and his team, the two-door coupe has design features that the brand says will ultimately be signature flourishes of the electric vehicles it plans to manufacture in the future, despite being petrol driven.

The Batur range will be the most powerful series of cars Bentley has ever produced, with each being fitted out with a 750-horsepower version of the 6-litre twin-turbocharged W12 engine that has been a brand benchmark for the past two decades.