Road test: Bentley’s back seat boom

Our correspondent lets his chauffeur do all the ‘hard work’ in the new Flying Spur
07/06/13 page 61 motoring
7 June 2013

There are many different ways to road-test a Bentley; it is, after all, a car for all occasions. You could drive serenely to a social or business meeting through the smarter parts of London, sweep — grand tour style — along an autoroute or enjoy it out in the country on some fine A-roads. It’s good at all these things.

But the right place to be is sitting in the beautifully-upholstered back seat while your chauffeur does the work.

That at least is the view in China, Bentley’s second-largest market after the Americas, where, the firm says, “most” owners like to be driven “because it’s all about having a chauffeur”, and where sales grew last year by 23 per cent, to 1,839 cars.

As China is where Bentley chose to launch its new version of the Flying Spur, it was in the back seat that I spent a portion of the road-test, being “chauffeured” by my colleague to the Great Wall.

So what’s the view like from the back? Rather good; there’s plenty of vision out (although I’d remove the front passenger headrest if I was the boss, for even clearer sight lines) and the ride is well-cushioned, more so than in the old model, which was known as the Continental Flying Spur. You get a nice fold-down “desk”, multi-adjustable seat (electric, of course), champagne cooler, heating and so on, and a whizz-bang touch-screen “infotainment” system. And acres of leg room. Up front, it’s just as comfortable — and even more fun. With an extremely smooth and quiet six-litre W12 engine producing 616bhp (up from the previous model’s 552bhp) it scorches from 0-62mph in just 4.3 seconds and on to a 200mph top speed. No wonder it’s Bentley’s fastest four-door car ever, even if the penalty is 19.2mpg and 343g/km CO2.

The cabin, we are told, has 600 new parts, with few “carry-overs” from the previous model, and it is, as you’d expect, utterly sumptuous, with leather, veneer and chrome nicely applied.

Exterior changes include more muscular rear “haunches” and a tail that drops away dramatically at the back, as well as a slightly new “nose”.

Underneath, the “platform” has been substantially re-engineered and the body is more rigid, but slightly lighter. An efficient eight-speed automatic box has replaced the six-speed and, as before, the car is all-wheel drive.

On the road, even at high speed, the new Flying Spur is whisper quiet as the engineers went to some lengths to add extra acoustic treatment. The suspension engineers went even further, providing a softer, calmer ride than before, aided by “taller” tyres.

The car can be hustled, rewardingly, through bends, although you remain fully aware of its considerable weight (2475kg) and its width. It isn’t really meant to be a sports car, after all. The steering is beautifully fluid too; if you employ a chauffeur he’s going to be enjoying himself rather more than you, as you read your newspapers or attend to business in the back.

There is a generous-sized boot, as you would expect of a car that Bentley says is expected to steal sales from the likes of the Rolls-Royce Ghost and Jaguar XJ, as well as four-door sports coupes such as the Aston Martin Rapide and Maserati Quattroporte.

It’s a very good-looking car indeed, but it’s the package that matters and the Flying Spur has pace and comfort too, along with that opulent cabin and the immense cachet of that Bentley badge, which makes a difference whichever country you’re in.

Bentley Flying Spur
Top speed: 0-62mph: 4.3 secs; 0-100mph: 9.5 secs; Combined fuel consumption: 19.2pmg;
Emissions: 343 g/km; Torque: 590lbs/ft; Bhp: 616bhp
Price: from £149,900 (£400,000 in China, thanks to taxes)

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