Bentleys have always been big - WO Bentley's first effort was a thumping great three-litre four that dwarfed most sports cars of its time. Ettore Bugatti was quite right when he remarked that "Signor Bentley builds the world's fastest lorries".
So it's not inappropriate that Bentley, now part of the VW Group, should be "deeply involved" in building a luxury SUV that, according to Autocar, is scheduled for showrooms as early as 2014 with a target price of £150 000 (R1.75 million - but you can pretty well double that for South Africa).
Especially as the new boss of Bentley is former Porsche man Wolfgang Durheimer, who lists the launch of the Cayenne (if we must talk of inappropriate) as the proudest achievement of his time there.
Durheimer says he has great faith in the SUV market and has roped in design chief Dirk van Braeckel and engineering boss Uli Eichhorn to drive this project, which will feature signature Bentley styling cues and an "old school" wood and leather interior to make it even more upmarket than a Range Rover (Premier League footballers, are you listening?) with the stated intention of upstaging Aston Martin's Lagonda 4x4, due to launch at about the same time.
Industry insiders are speculating that it will be based the new VW MLB modular platform for longitudinally-mounted engines, using mostly Audi all-wheel drive components which it will share with the next-generation Q7. That's no surprise, given that the MLB concept was developed at Porsche and was very much Durheimer's baby.
Apparently he also wants to put a diesel in the new ubertractor - which is not as sacrilegious as it sounds if you recall the immensely torquey, long-stroke petrol engines in W O's original Bentleys.
He's been quoted as saying that the 1000Nm on tap from Audi's big V12 TDI (a magnificent engine still looking for the right home) should be just about enough to provide appropriately effortless muscle for the new SUV, despite an all-up weight in excess of three tons. However, he's also prepared to drop in the current W12 petrol engine for non-diesel-friendly markets such as the US.
If the project is green-lighted (as Durheimer seems confident it will be), it will lend entirely new meaning to Ettore Bugatti's waspish but accurate comment, made all those years ago.