From slightly inauspicious, gawky beginnings in the 2000s, both Porsche Panamera and Bentley Flying Spur have now flourished into mighty luxury vehicles. We've called the former "the class of the field" in Turbo guise, while the latter has been hailed as nothing less than "the very best that money can buy" on these pages. So why not pitch them head to head?
While the Panamera and Flying Spur are admittedly not direct rivals, there are interesting points of commonality. For starters, both use - and are in fact the only cars to use, along with their Continental GT and Sport Turismo counterparts - the VW Group's MSB modular platform. That means familiar operating systems and fonts inside, along with air suspension and adaptive damping in each, dual-clutch transmissions, very similar rear suspension arrangements and dimensions not all that dissimilar: the Panamera is 5.2m long, the Bentley 5.3; the wheelbases are similarly close and there's just 40mm difference in width.
If that seems awfully large for a Panamera, look closely at the pics. This isn't any regular Panamera, it's a Panamera Executive. Introduced at the LA show in 2016, the Exec adds 150mm to the length, as well a host of options aimed at powerfully built company director types: Porsche Rear Seat Entertainment, folding tables with inductive antenna connection for another mobile, and a roll-up sun blind as standard. So it's the most luxurious Panamera ever, against a Bentley claimed by its maker to offer "phenomenal handling and ride" - might they be able to learn something from each other?
A caveat before we begin, which the eagle-eyed may have already noticed: this isn't exactly a fair fight. The Panamera is an Executive 4 E-Hybrid, which means a twin-turbo V6 is supplemented by an electric motor for grand totals of 462hp and 516lb ft; more than adequate enough for most, though not if the opposition packs 635hp and 664lb ft. Sadly, it was the only Panamera of this kind available, and there isn't a V8 Spur yet, so we'll have to live with that.
FROM THE DRIVER'S SEAT
Wafting towards the south coast in an electric Porsche Panamera (the car defaults to E-Mode on start-up), it's easier to concern yourself with what a nice experience it is rather than obsessing over the output or lack there of. Crawling out towards the motorway there's easily sufficient electric power to scoot two-and-a-lot-tonnes of Porsche around town, and the serene, tranquil silence means you can make the most of a supreme Burmester stereo and cool, crisp Panamera interior which still looks sharp years after launch. The hybridisation has had precious little impact on the driving position, either, dropping bum to floor as far as it's needed - and more than most would need, in fact. It does nothing for visibility (now further hindered by having more car behind) but leaves the driver in no doubt that this is certainly still a Porsche.
Furthermore, if luxury is about peace, quiet and calm - the popularity of 'retreat' holidays might suggest that it is - then it's hard to argue with 30 miles of electric range, getting us all the way past Gatwick, that gets to 60mph in six seconds and a maximum of 86mph. It's just such a pleasant, soothing way to travel, even if it's bizarre (verging on the incongruous) to drive a Porsche with a petrol engine and see the tacho stuck at zero. Time to sample the other drive modes...
Oh. Any form of combustion would disturb the quiet of EV motoring, but that doesn't excuse the tuneless note of the 2.9-litre V6 under any meaningful load. While the engine feels willing to rev - peak power arrives at 6,000rpm - there's precious little joy to be had from it, which is unfortunate when you're powering a Porsche. Still, configure the hybrid mode correctly and the engine can be used to re-juice the batteries on the move, which is handy. It's not much of an exaggeration to say electric power is sought after.
Objective performance is fine, if nothing more than that. The hybrid assistance alongside the extra length is a Coke-and-cake double whammy as far as weight gain goes, of course, meaning that this E-Hybrid is 250kg more than a standard wheelbase Panamera Turbo while also nearly 100hp down. Nobody is ever going to call it slow, though the impact of its weight gain is tangible, and not a little disappointing. Whisper it, but the old, now defunct V8 diesel and its 627lb ft would suit the Executive brief quite nicely - it was 200kg lighter as a standard car, for starters.
Of course, the Flying Spur, with its familiar W12 now meticulously honed as it approaches 20 years old, could hardly be simpler to get acquainted with. It could hardly be anymore crushingly effective, either. Its default drive mode is simply called 'Bentley', one step down from 'Sport', one step up from 'Comfort' and a setting for throttle map, air suspension, gearbox calibration and so on that there seems precious little need to meddle with. You request, the Bentley dutifully obliges - however and whatever is asked.
On the motorway it is supreme. Despite the lack of a silent-running electric motor, the refinement rivals the Panamera for reverential hush. Similarities abound (heaven forbid, they even have the same massage seat settings), but the Bentley counters the Porsche's contemporary, minimalist luxury with sumptuous materials; it is swanky and it is lavish, though somehow it never feels excessive. It's an interior entirely befitting of a 21st century Bentley, where richness and usability, craftsmanship and technology, are intelligently and seamlessly combined.
The Flying Spur really drives how you'd hope a modern Bentley would, too - if not better. Like its cabin, the key to that success is deploying sophisticated technology only insofar as it benefits what appears to be a traditional and uncomplicated driving experience. So it still has fairly light controls, and they still aren't the most immediate, but the underlying level of control is quite extraordinary. Predictable perhaps given the car's relationship with the demonstrably excellent GT, though it's extremely pleasing to find the skills have transferred to the four-door.
On the road, it means that the four-wheel steer bestows a level of agility on a 2,437kg (!) saloon that it's hard to immediately comprehend. The Flying B goes exactly where directed, yet never with any sense of contrivance or flightiness - it just feels lighter, and smaller, somehow organically. The 48v active anti-roll keeps the mass in check admirably, not spookily locked down as in some SUVs but with impressive, implacable control. Those enormous 275-section front tyres (as on the Panamera) mean huge turn in grip, of course, with the four wheel-drive system smartly distributing power as required. The Flying Spur is enhanced and improved by its tech as well as by its new, better balanced architecture, an assured, capable and fearsomely accomplished large sports saloon - yet an agreeably cohesive and rewarding one, too. It's some achievement.
To be honest, it's the sort of praise usually directed Porsche's way: impeccably well integrated technology and tangible dynamic reward. For the Panamera 4 E-Hybrid, it's a little harder to lavish the usual compliments. In some ways, like the powertrain, the car feels conflicted and compromised - attempting to wedge too much under one roof. Does it want to be luxury limo? Is it a Porsche sports saloon? Is it virtuous, thrifty and green? Or is it a Panamera with the power of a 911 Carrera S and a point to prove? Very seldom have all things to all people been found in one car, and it isn't here, which is a shame given the manifest talent displayed in other variants.
So although the Porsche delivers more decisive gearshifts (they share dual-clutch technology albeit in a different state of tune), greater steering immediacy and weight (also with four-wheel steer, although no more sense of connection) and better brake feel (once beyond the weird, regen phase at the top of the pedal) it's hampered. Being so much longer and so much heavier makes the recognisable, likeable Panamera traits feel a little redundant, engaged as they are in a tussle they're never going to win. Think retired, world-class footballer, where brain and decision-making remain sharp but are incapacitated by weight gain. In direction changes, braking, dealing with the road's imperfections, the Exec is noticeably less adept than Panamera memory would have suggested. Even if, notably, its low-speed ride on 21-inch wheels may well surpass the Bentley on its optional 22s.
Of course, the E-Hybrid does labour under your expectations for it, just as the Spur flourishes. Where prior experience of a Porsche four-door would imply almost unmatched dynamic prowess, and a large Bentley suggest something a little more dim-witted, to have them confound assumptions makes them seem more different than they are. Given the remit, the Panamera is more than good enough for the designated driver - and, as Nic will tell you, really very good from the back - but it is overshadowed by the revelatory Spur.
Moreover, the manifest excellence served up elsewhere in the Porsche lineup is a problem for the Panamera. Anybody after an electric, four-door model with an amazing interior could get a Taycan now. Those who simply must have usable rear quarters could have the lighter 4S, or the more emphatically powerful Turbo - both supremely better to drive. Sometimes, it seems, too much choice can be a bad thing. By contrast, all a Bentley customer has to be worried about is whether to get W12 now, or hold on for the V8 that's surely on the way. Given this W12's fairly flat, uninspiring soundtrack, and the V8's more than adequate performance, that's an easy choice from where we sit. And talking of sitting...
FROM THE BACK SEAT
While Matt Bird spent his whole day at the business end, I tried to do business in the back end. No contest here, you might think: Bentley has been whisking Britain's elite around for generations - you might as well ask which is preferable for a Sunday afternoon, watching cricket on a lovely village green or seeing handball be played in a sweaty gymnasium. But, as tends to happen, assumptions before the fact are rather skittled by the reality on the ground. Which car would you rather see pull up outside the front door of a London hotel? The Bentley. Which car would you rather be dropped off at the Royal Albert Hall in? The Bentley. As a statement to the wider world, it is deliciously on message. But by virtue of that long wheelbase, as its designers intended, the Porsche has plenty to offer.
For a start, most obviously, there is legroom. A lot of it. Not prodigiously more than is available in the Flying Spur (where it is also plentiful) but just enough so you pass comment on it. Then there is the positioning. The Bentley offers far more seat adjustment - there is a full suite of controls on the door card - but the Panamera somewhat trumps its flexibility by positioning you more pleasingly in the first place. You are lower to the ground and better reclined by default; experienced back-to-back, it's clear you're sitting in the Porsche, and on top of the Flying Spur.
Now, the caveat there is that in the latter, you are sat on far softer and better trimmed seats. You don't need to know much about Bentley's expertise in the realm of animal skins to know that your thighs are one-to-one with some of the finest leather that the car industry has to offer. And your hairdo is met with a headrest apparently made from clouds. Porsche hasn't spent so much time on these niceties - think business class versus first class - and yet in the Panamera there is a pleasing sense of being whisked somewhere with hunkered-down intent.
There's more, too. Thanks to the Exec spec, the Panamera is better able to pander to its lolling autocrat. The rear-mounted infotainment screen actually offers far less usability than the Flying Spur - which benefits from optional 10.2-inch tablets in the headrests, offering rear seat occupants internet-enabled functionality - but its framed by a centre console that makes the Panamera a proper four-seater. Moreover, Porsche has managed to stash an airline-style fold-out tray under your elbow, which is obviously precisely what you need if you're planning on getting some work done. Or eating lunch.
Exactly like an armrest-stowed airline tray table, it's something of a faff to unfold and then fold away, but you miss it in the Flying Spur, where the fold-down armrest is big but obviously not as impressive as a built-in console (though you could, in an emergency, seat someone in the middle). Bentley's trump card is the optional fridge concealed in the void behind, which takes up some space in the boot, but nevertheless offers you a place to chill your Sancerre. Which is also very handy because the superior sense of occasion the car delivers puts you in the mood for an afternoon drink.
When all is said and done, that, really, is the difference. In the Porsche you sit a little more contentedly - the car really does ride very ably around town - and with the can-do attitude of a mob boss with somewhere to be. Clearly that's the job of the Executive variant, and the Panamera nails it surprisingly well. In the Bentley, I forgot all about the emails I was supposed to be writing. I was more interested in brushing my knuckles against the textiles and blithely smiling at curious passers-by. It is not the car I'd choose to coolly rush me from airport to city centre - it's much better than that. It's the one I'd choose to view an English market town from, in the company of good friends. It's the corner of a pristine country pub on 22-inch wheels. Who could ask for more?
NC
VERDICT
It says a lot about Porsche that the one car it builds to cater for those in the back is genuinely better from the back seat. Comparing it to a standard car dynamically looks harsh in that light, given that its sacrifices are mostly about gaining improvement in other areas - i.e. servicing the needs of the person who paid for it. Niche though it might be, there's clearly a reason the hybrid, long-wheelbase Panamera exists. That thought extends to the imperfect powertrain, too; as prominent city centres move to be free of combustion engines, a Porsche sports saloon with ability to whisk its occupants to Paris - and then reach the final destination emission-free - ought to retain their relevance.
But only for a short while. Already the Taycan has shown the way forward, and dated the appeal of the E-Hybrid's compromises. Not for nothing either, Porsche's latest model has shown how it's possible to be electrically powered, and still exude Porsche-ness from every pore. In contrast, the Panamera's additional weight and complexity denies it some Porsche-like adroitness, without delivering the full benefits of electric motoring. Which ultimately makes this long-wheelbase Panamera a nice idea, near-expertly done, but without the means to power your expectations of it.
The Bentley does not suffer that problem. While the world can still enjoy large saloons powered by large engines, the Flying Spur does it like no other. The virtues of a platform that made the standard Panamera a triumph have migrated to the Bentley, where they have been embellished by the materials, the sense of occasion - and that almighty motor. If the Panamera arguably works best as something smaller, lighter and faster, then it's hard to imagine a Flying Spur as anything less than the huge (and hugely talented) car you see here. While 17-foot saloons with 6.0-litre engines might be living on borrowed time, they're going out in quite considerable style and on remarkable form - for both driver and passenger.
SPECIFICATION | BENTLEY FLYING SPUR
Engine: 5,950cc W12, twin-turbocharged
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch automatic, four-wheel drive
Power (hp): 635@6,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 664@1,350-4,500rpm
0-62mph: 3.7sec
Top speed: 207mph
Weight: 2,437kg
MPG: 19.1 (WLTP combined)
CO2: 337g/km
Price: £168,300 (as standard; price as tested £221,520 comprised of Rear seat entertainment with maps for £5,775, 'Naim for Bentley' premium audio system for £6,595, Blackline Specification for £3,550 and First Edition Specification (Bentley Rotating Display, choice of any wheel style, choice of deep pile overmats of lambswool rugs, Contrast stitching and seat piping, Duel veneer with Grand Black lower, First Edition embroidered emblems, FE exterior badge, FE Fascia badge, Illuminated Flying B mascot, LED welcome home lamps, Mood Lighting Specification, Mulliner Driving Specification, Touring Specification, Panoramic sunroof, Welcome lighting) for - wait for it - £37,300
SPECIFICATION | PORSCHE PANAMERA 4 E-HYBRID EXECUTIVE
Engine: 2,894cc, twin-turbo V6, plus electric motor
Transmission: 8-speed PDK, four-wheel drive
Power (hp): 462@6,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 516@1,750-5,000rpm
0-62mph: 4.7 seconds
Top speed: 173mph
Weight: 2,325kg (EU with driver)
MPG: 113 (NEDC)
CO2: 56g/km (NEDC)
Price: £88,264 (as standard; price as tested "in the region of £125k" - because the Exectutive is special order now, and there wasn't a full spec - but the important options are 7.2kW on-board charger, Burmester High-End Surround Sound System, Night Vision Assist, Seat massage function, Folding table for rear passengers, Larger rear centre console, Four-zone automatic climate control, 14-way electric front seats, 21-inch SportDesign wheels in Jet Black Metallic, Rear-axle steering including Power steering Plus, Soft close doors, Thermally and noise insulated glass and, of course, Carrara White Metallic. Plus more besides!
Picture credit | Harry Rudd
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