Living on the Upper East Side of Manhattan means I get to see a lot of high-end vehicles owned by people who live closer to Central Park than I do. For the most part, they’re your run-of-the-mill rich guy cars: Mercedes-Benz S-Classes, BMW 7-Series, Range Rovers and Escalades dominate the streets. But, sometimes I get a treat – a very rare treat. You see, I just stumbled upon one of the rarest vehicles I’ve ever seen: this Bentley Bentayga Stetson Edition parked on Lexington Avenue.
On the face of it, seeing a Bentayga – especially in a more affluent neighborhood like the UES – isn’t all that exciting. However, one small batch on the D-pillar gives it away that this Bentayga is something fairly special and extremely rare. Back in 2019, Bentley wanted to appeal to Texans (I guess), so like a truck maker, it built the aforementioned Bentayga Stetson Edition – a car I didn’t know existed and is deeply uncommon. At the time, it cost $246,578 (about $303,000 in today’s money), according to Autoblog. Oh, and it was only available at Bentley Dallas, and as far as I can tell there are only three in existence. No, I’m not joking.
The wildest Bentley in the west was a team-up between Bentley’s Mulliner division and the hat-maker Stetson. It was originally sold in just three different colors – Onyx, Dark Cashmere and White Sand. However, the one I saw was finished in some sort of pearlescent white, so perhaps it has been wrapped or repainted. Tough to say. The wheels have also been painted black to give it that cheap look everyone should be after.
Anyway, on the outside, it doesn’t look too different from a normal Bentayga, but the interior certainly has some alterations. Mulliner installed a three-tone leather interior (all different shades of brown), Autoblog reported back in 2019. To let you know what you had was special, the seats, door panels and floor mats all featured diamond-quilted designs. Additionally, “boot stitching” was used throughout the car to remind you of feet, I guess. There were also a number of “STETSON” embroideries throughout the car. The biggest eye-catcher is probably the open-pore liquid amber veneer, which was cut from American Red Gum trees in the U.S. just for the Bentayga Stetson Edition.
Under the hood, the Stetson Special Edition had to make do with the Bentayga’s standard engine: a 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 that pumped out 542 horsepower and 568 lb-ft of torque. That’s more than enough to move this mass of leather, wood and badging around Manhattan with swiftness.
I should also note that each Bentayga Stetson Edition came with a matching Stetson cowboy hat. How fantastic is that?
As I mentioned, I believe there are just three of these in existence. From a few reports I read when the truck first came out, Bentley Dallas received one in September, October and November of 2019, and then they fell off the face of the earth. If someone can find more Bentayga Stetson Editions, I’d be happy to amend my story, but I don’t think you will. She’s a rare bird this one.
Just how or why this Texas-exclusive Bentayga ended up in New York City is anyone’s guess. I waited around for a while to see if the owner showed up, but my dreams were bigger than my bladder, so I went home. Maybe I’ll run into them someday and will be able to wrangle some answers out of them about whether or not they still have the matching hat.