High Speed, High Style – The Bentley Continental GT Speed

The Beautiful Bentley Continental GT Speed

I’d arrived on a sunny morning luckily, and was able to see the Bentley sat glistening in the sun, in all its glory. What a stunningly beautiful car it is too.

I was as excited to see it as I was about the Rolls-Royce Phantom that I’d reviewed earlier. I’d looked forward to seeing it for weeks.

This isn’t your average fast car by any means and just because it’s a ‘tourer’, don’t be fooled into thinking that this is a fat, heavy, wallowing, but ‘quick’ car. Oh it’s far, far from that. It encompasses being a comfortable, elegant tourer, loaded with all the gadgets to keep your journey as easy and tireless as possible, with being a continent munching beast and supercar, all at the same time.

As soon as I arrived to see the Bentley, it was already obvious that it was a lot more focused on the job than the normal Continental GT. The beautiful front grille is sat at a steeper angle, and its ‘mouth’, the front air intake, is wider. These all work towards the car having more air forced into it, cooling the engine and helping those twin turbos to breathe better.

It may be a trick of the imagination, but the car looked lower too. Maybe it’s those huge 20 inch, 13 double-spoke alloys, with their (very) low profile tyres.

I’ve been a passenger in, and driven, quite a few fast cars in the past. One of the most luxurious and quick was the Mercedes SL55 AMG. Speed, grace, power and great handling, all rolled into one. Well, this Bentley just blew it away. In all those categories.

Whichever angle you look at the GT Speed, it never fails to impress. Low, purposeful, sleek, expensive. These are some words that, when I ask, people use to describe it. It doesn’t need to move as it looks like it’s travelling at speed even when sat still.

After I’d admired the car for quite a while, I was ready to hear it running. That’s one thing that frustrates me at motor shows. I always view a car that is sat there, for all to see and touch, whether it’s a race car or a supercar, as a stuffed (and very obviously dead) lion. It’s okay to see it, the size of the beast, its flipping massive teeth and claws, but really we all want to see the real, live animal, roaring and tearing across the landscape in its natural habitat.

So I waited impatiently for it to be started. When it fired into life, I was frankly startled. The noise doesn’t seem to match the looks. It’s an elegant car. The sound exiting from the two exhausts at the rear, and from the engine, is far from elegant. Not that I’m complaining. It’s a welcome break.

Nowadays, companies seem to be making their cars quieter and quieter. Take Porsche for example. I love Porsche’s. They’re a real drivers car, and involve you greatly. But start one (this doesn’t include the GT2 and GT3), and the sound they emit – well, it just isn’t there. Even after you give it a bit of a boot, it still doesn’t satisfy the ear drums.

With the Continental GT Speed however, I can say to Bentley, well done sirs! What a sound. It burbles away nicely while at tickover and the noise makes you smile. Any petrolhead would be more than pleased with it in fact. When it had warmed up, we were stood around the engine bay and I decided to wind the owner up by saying the engine sounded tappity. I’m glad I did really, as he demonstrated that I was completely wrong by flooring the accelerator. It’s rare that I nearly sob over the sound of a car, but I did on this occasion. It is one of the best stock (if you can call this engine that) engine sounds that I have ever heard.

It started out as a low burble, then turned into an angry, throaty sound, mixed with those twin turbo’s sucking in everything around them. Trees, dogs and even whole fields were all pulled into the Bentleys induction system, never to be seen again. I’m going slightly over the top there, but that’s how it felt. After letting off the accelerator, the exhausts pop and crackle. This is how a performance car should sound. There’s no need for after-market exhausts, there’s just a need for more slightly-insane design engineers at the factories.

Sliding inside the car, the interior is superbly well made, and makes it feel like the £145,000 ($211,000) it costs. This one has the Mulliner, (a specialist division), interior which is only available on the GT Speed and not the normal GT. Mulliner hand make the entire interior. You can choose, among a huge list of options, whichever combination of stitching colour, door trim and (very deep) carpets you want.

Pulling out onto the road, the GT Speed’s power delivery is smooth and refined. But push that right foot down hard and this beast will nigh-on snap your neck. The engine delivers instant power at any point on the rev counter and turbo lag is non-existent.

Getting this 2.3 tonne car to 60 mph in just over four seconds (4.3 seconds for pub ammo talk), is a six litre W12 engine producing 600 bhp and 553 lb-ft of torque. They are insane figures. Just to put this in context a bit more, your average 2 litre petrol family car produces around 140-150 bhp and will make sixty mph in around 8 or 9 seconds. So look back above at the Bentley’s figures, rub your eyes all you want, but they’re not going to change. Even more crazy is the 202 mph top speed. And believe me, when this car is accelerating you know full well it will hit that magical 200 mph.

It doesn’t wallow or heave itself around the twisties either. Thanks to the excellent four wheel drive system, it’s composed and handles well. In fact unless you look down at the needle, which I don’t recommend on a tight bend, you won’t really notice the ridiculous speed you are going at.

The surge in speed pushes you way back into those incredibly soft-but-firm seats. Those lovely seats aren’t going to do anything for you under heavy braking however, as you will struggle just to hold your eyes and other facial features in place. Some people complain of a lack of braking power. To them I say, go get a doctors note for a reality check. This is a 2.3 tonne car for goodness sake and those 8 piston calipers provide more than enough stopping power, no problems at all. I didn’t soil my pants and, as I set any car’s braking system by this wholly scientific method, they must be okay!

In this car, Bentley have made something almost unique. A luxury touring car that handles well, eats continents for breakfast and will make you throw your continental breakfast back up, should you be inclined to put that accelerator to the floor. I love it, and I love Bentley for building it.

Now, if I can just get the money together for one…

All photos taken with a Nikon D90 DSLR