BENTLEY Motors celebrated building its 200,000th luxury car by lining it up alongside its oldest surviving model.

A Bentayga Hybrid, destined for a Chinese customer, came face to face with the Bentley, EXP 2, in the company of some long-serving staff members at the Pyms Lane production line this week.

The company says the 200,000th manufacturing milestone is significant when put into the context that 155,582 vehicles have been built at Crewe since 2003 when the Continental GT was originally launched as the first model of the modern Bentley era.

Today, the plant is building 85 cars per day, the same output in one month two decades ago.

From Bentley's first existence in 1919 through to 2002, the company built 44,418 luxury cars, 38,933 of them in Crewe, including iconic models such as the Bentley Blower, the R-Type Continental, Mulsanne, Arnage and Azure.

Records show that 84 per cent of all cars built for the UK market are still on the road.

Bentley's Chairman and Chief Executive, Adrian Hallmark, said: "This production of the 200,000th car is just the latest landmark on the extraordinary journey that Bentley has been travelling since its foundation in 1919.

"The pace of progress has accelerated significantly since 2003 and we are now entering the next period of transformation as we pursue our Beyond100 strategy, with the aim of positioning Bentley as the global leader in sustainable luxury mobility."

Among the long-serving staff witnessing the landmark moment was Steve Ward, who was following in his father's footsteps when joining Bentley in 1977. Since then he has been involved with every Bentley model since 1980 and has tested them throughout the world.