Bentley Motors has made its last hand-built, high performance 12 cylinder engine at the company’s UK headquarters in Crewe.

Final 'Speed Edition 12' special edition W12-powered Bentayga, Continental GT and Flying Spur models are now leaving the factory.

Around 100,000 (Bentley owner VW based) W12s have been produced since the engine was introduced in the first Continental GT in 2003.

A commemorative lunch for the W12 assembly and R&D teams was held at Bentley’s Heritage Garage in Crewe.

Assembly workers were also presented with a commemorative W12 piston.

The six-litre, twin turbo W12 will be replaced by a hybrid powertrain combining a V8 combustion engine with battery technology.

Every Bentley model will become available with the new electrified powertrain. The unit develops more power than the retiring W12 but emits just 50g/km of CO2.

In essence, two narrow angle V6 engines sharing a common crankshaft, the compact W12 was 24% shorter than a conventional V12.

The hand build process took around seven hours and required 2,600 separate components. Pistons and conrods were paired in balanced sets to fractions of a gram.

The introduction of the Bentyaga in 2015 saw a complete W12 redesign with twin scroll turbochargers for faster response and immediate torque and two different fuel systems to balance performance and emissions. Under part or trailing throttle, cylinder deactivation completely shut down one bank of six cylinders for greater fuel efficiency.