By Jorn Madslien BBC News Online business reporter at the Bentley factory

Four years after being snapped up by the German automotive group Volkswagen (VW), the quintessentially British car maker Bentley is about to return to its racing roots.

Bentley is targeting rich 40-something drivers

The shift is not entirely one of choice.

But given that rival German car maker BMW has managed to snap up Bentley's sister brand, the Rolls-Royce marque, and is about to launch its own high-end luxury car, Bentley was forced to act.

It is doing so, in part, by targeting new customers.

Younger driver

In the past, the average Bentley owner has been male, in his fifties, and owner of five other cars.

But this is about to change, product strategy director Mark Tennant told BBC News Online.

Mr Killick says demand for bespoke Bentleys is soaring

"The target group for the future market is maybe 10 years younger," he says.

Bentley predicts that 70% of its new customers will never have owned a Bentley before.

To attract these younger drivers, Bentley plans to launch a range of new, sportier cars like its new Continental GT Coupe which was first seen in Paris this autumn.

"That range will expand the Bentley business three-to-four folds over the medium term," Tennant says.

That would be a massive rise from current sales of between 2,000 and 2,500 cars per year, though not exactly enough to make Bentley a mass-market car maker, stresses Bentley chairman and chief executive, Dr Franz-Josef Paefgen.

Rich players

Yet it may seem as if Bentley is giving the high-end market for chauffeur driven limousines a wide birth.

This is, by and large, the segment which BMW is expected to aim for with its Rolls-Royce, due to be launched on 3 January, and the segment which DaimlerChrysler's new Maybach is targeting.

Nobody else can make a Rolls-Royce Dave Maddock Bentley worker

Indeed, says Mr Tennant, "the core proposition for Bentley is very much as an owner-driver car.

"The guy in the driver seat is not wearing a peaked cap, that's the typical difference with those other propositions."

Instead, the younger and sportier Bentley Grand Tourer will take the marque into new, unchartered territory.

With a lower price tag somewhere between �100,000 and �150,000, it will be up against totally new competitors.

"We're looking, certainly, to Mercedes, to Porsche, to Ferrari, to Aston Martin. All the names you'd expect at the top end of the market," says Mr Tennant.

And it does not stop there.

"Everyone who is offering expensive luxury goods is our competitor," Dr Paefgen tells BBC News Online.

"This would include not only cars, but also boats and planes and holidays or whatever."

Brand management

Volkswagen's ambition to re-build Bentley's sporty image is clearly ambitious.

But some officials acknowledge that it may also appear muddled, though they only do so in private.

It is not all old fashioned

Officially, everyone at the firm is praising the boss of Bentley's parent VW, Dr Bernd Pischetsrieder, for his supposedly tremendous skills at managing the group's numerous brands.

A couple of years ago, VW announced plans to carve up its brands into two distinct product groups, one combining its "sporty" Audi, Seat and Lamborghini models, the other comprising its "classic" VW, Skoda, Bentley and Bugatti models.

Problem is, confides one Bentley official to BBC News Online, it simply does not make sense to exclude the marque from VW's sporty portfolio.

Besides, the official acknowledges, Dr Pischetsrieder's track record of managing several brands at the same time is far from impressive - a view oft voiced by sections of the auto analyst fraternity.

His detractors point out that it was he who was in charge of BMW during the Rover era, thus it was he who failed to profit from the Land Rover brand, the MG brand and the Rover brand.

As is known, the BMW-Rover marriage has since ended in a bloody divorce.

A glorious inheritance

This was not the only divorce at the time which was influenced by Dr Pischetsrieder's presence.

Can this car take on Porsche and Ferrari?

In 1998, when a fierce battle for Rolls-Royce and Bentley Motor Cars was raging, Dr Pischetsrieder masterminded BMW's purchase of the Rolls-Royce marque for automotive purposes from its owner, the aero-engine maker Rolls-Royce.

VW's then boss, Ferdinand Piech, was clearly annoyed.

But he was also impressed.

So, apparently, he decided, there and then, that Dr Pischetsrieder should become his successor: The heir to the mighty VW throne.

Conservative customers

In fairness to Dr Pischetsrieder, it was his predecessor who bundled Bentley into the "classic" portfolio, thereby upsetting some within the group.

And, while we are at it, why not be fair to Mr Piech as well? For his decision may not have been all that daft after all.

For Bentley is not about to give up on its more conservative market, despite its additional push for sporty 40-something customers.

The car maker will still be making its more substantial and rather understated models which more closely resembles some Maybach models and, presumably, the new Rolls-Royce.

Bentley will also go the extra mile to satisfy demand for chauffeur driven limousines.

These will be built by the newly launched division Bentley Mulliner which offers a wide range of bespoke services

Made-to-measure

The Mulliner division's offering is broad and includes the building of one-off cars, such as The Queen's State Limousine which was built to celebrate her Golden Jubilee, the delivery of armoured limousines with gadgets like a storage tank that can be used to sprinkle the road with oil in case of emergency, or merely bespoke components such as hand made wood steering wheels which take a week to make.

Bentley Mulliner's turnover is set to rise to an estimated �12m in 2003 from �8m this year and from just �1m last year, and its staff has quadrupled, says the director of Mulliner, John Killick.

The push makes it clear that Bentley will still target the market previously dominated by Rolls-Royce, though it is here the loss of the exclusive brand name is felt the most.

"Bentley awareness is reasonably strong in the UK and Continental Europe, but less so further afield," laments Mulliner director in charge of special customer commissions, Richard Charlesworth.

True heritage

Bentley can only hope that former Rolls-Royce buyers will appreciate that only the logo and the former chief executive, Tony Gott, have left to join new Rolls-Royce.

Everything else is left at Bentley's factory in Crewe, including a skilled and loyal 2,500-strong workforce.

Yet, none of Bentley's senior management are prepared to take a snipe at their former boss Mr Gott's new venture.

But Bentley worker Dave Maddock, who has been with the company for 28 years, is not so demure.

"My own feeling on this is that Rolls-Royce's heritage is here," he confides to BBC News Online.

"Nobody else can make a Rolls-Royce."