It's late in the evening in San Francisco, and I'm singing along to Blondie's "Atomic" at the top of my lungs in a $400k Bentley Mulsanne Speed when I realize people have stopped walking to watch me at the lights. Then again, when you're driving eighteen feet of British hyper-luxury sedan, it probably doesn't matter much what you're doing. You're going to get attention either way.
Nestling in-between the Flying Spur V8 - which is as "entry level" as a Bentley sedan gets - and the W12-engined original, the new 2017 Flying Spur V8 S is all about eager affordability. Feel free to put as many air-quotes around "affordability" as it takes to stomach the $205,000 starting price, drop your weary, wealthy body into the supple leather seats, and try to get with the old-school charm.
The Bentley Flying Spur is over seven feet wide. Wider, in fact, than a Hummer H1. Just twenty inches narrower than a Smart car is long. Ironically for a marque so closely associated with Britain, that makes the Flying Spur singularly unsuited for a great many British roads. And, with a price tag easily ten times that of the Smart - and dwarfing even the cost of a full tank of gas for the Humvee - it's not something you want to scrape along one of the ancient stone walls you suddenly notice the UK has in abundance when you're driving a borrowed behemoth.
The fastest, most ridiculously-luxurious SUV on the market just got an even more exclusive special-edition, with Bentley customizing its beastly Bentayga for one special group of enthusiasts. The Bentayga Fly Fishing by Mulliner is, as the name suggests, targeted squarely at those whose idea of fun is to take their several-hundred-thousand-dollar truck down to the river and catch some trout.
Bentley has published what it claims to be the world's most extraordinary car photograph. While it may not be the MOST extraordinary photo of a car ever taken, it is very cool. The photo is a shot of the new Mulsanne Extended Wheelbase cruising across the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge. The image was taken using a massive zoom lens from 700 meters away.
Bentley is most known for its ultra luxurious cars, but it also produces one beast of a two-door coupe in the form of its Continental GT. But now the British manufacturer has debuted the updated version of the special edition Continental GT Speed, and not only does it blow away the standard model, it's the most powerful production car Bentley has ever made.
Bentley has unveiled a new app for the Apple Watch that gives passengers in the lavish Bentayga SUV the ability to control a number of car systems from the watch. The well heeled in the back seat can't be bothered to reach for a standard button when relaxing after all. Using the watch app, the passengers being driven in the Bentayga can control climate and entertainment systems.
"Lavish excess" may be a given when you're talking about a $230k-plus SUV, but even the Bentley Bentayga can surprise you. With its 600 horsepower W12 engine and a 0-60 mph time of 4.0 seconds, the Bentayga could embarrass a proper sports car on the road, but the lucky occupants may well be too busy enjoying the high life inside to notice. Read on for some of the most extreme, OTT, and generally uber-luxe features of the 2017 Bentayga.
The racetrack is not the natural place for an SUV, but then the Bentley Bentayga is not your typical truck. For a start it's luxurious in an Black Amex-melting way - it starts just shy of $230,000 but only the most ascetic of buyers resists the Bentley options list, and they've no reason to be in the showroom in the first place.
With the age of autonomous and AI-assisted driving quickly approaching, high-end car manufacturers are now considering how their passengers will be entertained and made more comfortable. Mercedes' concept features seats that swing around to face each other, while BMW envisions using the windshield as an augmented reality display. Bentley, on the other hand, seems to be toying with a concept of the ultimate luxury: a holographic butler to take care of passengers' needs.
When it comes to adding options to a normal car, you can get things like navigation, upgraded audio, and maybe a special paint. When it comes to optioning a car like the Bentley Flying Spur, the options get much more expensive and unique. Bentley has announced new Mulliner bespoke features for the Flying Spur.
The Bentley Bentayga has only been official for a few months and already Bentley is looking to the future with an even more potent version of the high-end SUV. The standard Bentayga uses a 6.0L twin turbo W12 TSI engine making 600hp and 664 lb-ft of torque. That much power pushes the big SUV from naught to 60mph in 4.0 seconds.