Bentley Flying Spur: Review
Designed for the Chinese, built and now driven by PH where it matters - here at home!
Flying Spur looks at home in a posh London mews
The black and white photographs along the back wall of the showroom, depicting those aristocratic Bentley Boys of the 1920s and their Le Mans-winning motor cars, serve to remind us that the Bentley story is one of privilege, pioneering spirit, mechanical excellence, adventure and - for want of a less vacuous phrase - Britishness.
New money, old money
Today, Bentley thrives. Sales rose by 22 per cent last year, operating profits totalled 100m euros and the recently confirmed SUV model will help drive sales even further in emerging markets. Business, then, is good. Under German ownership, though, and with the UK market only the third largest for the brand - now barely a sixth of the size of the combined Chinese and US markets - have our own requirements and preferences become a minor priority?
Send the chauffeur home - time to drive
Back seat driver
The way this car performs in the UK, then, will say a lot about the importance of the home market for Bentley. Editor Dan experienced the new Flying Spur earlier in the year in China as most local owners will - from the back seat while delegating the driving impressions to 'Caruthers' up front. Here, though, we get to try it on our own unique brand of blacktop.
Target audience won't do this - their loss
Once onto the motorway that ride quality does remain for the most part, but lumps and bumps aren't smothered completely and larger deflections do require a second, shorter stroke from the damper to get all the mass back under control. Although the sound of the city is excluded from the cabin at standstill, there is some wind noise from the header rail at speed and a degree of tyre noise, too, particularly in the rear. You'd barely know the engine was there at all, though, which is impressive given its potency.
W12 is as mighty as ever; 625hp 'adequate'
Knocking the suspension and gearbox - the brilliant ZF eight-speeder, calibrated here for less urgent shifts - into their sport modes does taughten the Flying Spur a little. Through sheer grunt and grip it can be hustled along a lumpy British B-road at quite alarming speeds. Composure over bumps and body control are just about adequate in such conditions, while the steering - still hydraulically assisted - is ideally weighted and actually feels accurate and direct.
In refinement terms, luxury cars have a very definite point of diminishing returns. The Flying Spur does ride comfortably and it is quiet inside, but it certainly doesn't deliver twice the refinement of a Jaguar XJ or three times that of a Mercedes E-class. It does feel well suited to our roads and driving conditions, though, and the balance between the experience from the driver's seat and one of the rear chairs is ideally pitched for UK buyers who, according to Stephen Davis, Flying Spur Project Leader, "might be chauffeured during the week, but drive during the weekend."
Purple leather is a bit noveau riche; nice otherwise
BENTLEY FLYING SPUR
Engine: 5,998cc W12, twin-turbo
Transmission: 8-speed auto, four-wheel drive
Power (hp): 625@6,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 590@2,000rpm
0-62mph: 4.6sec
Top speed: 200mph
Weight: 2,499kg
MPG: 19.2mpg (NEDC combined)
CO2: 343g/km
Price: £140,900 (£172,855 as tested)
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h, and I spanked it"Were I in market for a Rolls-Royce I would buy a new Phantom.
One brand has attracted my interest more than ever with their newer cars, while the other has the opposite effect as I lust after models from their past and ignore the new.
Phantom - and the Ghost - show how it can be done in styling terms. If I had the cash, they would be in my garage. Only current Bentley would be the V8 Conti Gt - even then I think Id prefer an SL or a Maser over it any day.
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