2014 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL FLYING SPUR COMES OUT

The brand new Bentley Continental Flying Spur promises to glide into the 2013 Geneva International Motor Show in ultimate luxurious style, with more of everything than ever before. Bentley’s biggest-selling four-door model ever just got better.

I drove the previous-generation Flying Spur back in 2006 and thought it was heaven on wheels, bar a few minor details like switchgear borrowed/ shared with the Volkswagen Touareg. Other than that it was the ultimate super luxury sedan I’d ever tested. And possibly the thirstiest.

Come 2013 and we have this. Newly sculptured from the bottom up, the new Flying Spur carries only the sun visors, grab handles, armrests and some of the controls from its predecessor, despite having 600 new parts. Some of these parts, like the bonnet and front fenders, are made from aluminium. This is contributed to a shaving of 50kg off the old model, despite additional kit and a more rigid body.

All the luxuries one can think of are included, such as handcrafted wood veneers, leather opulence, heated seats front and back, WiFi connectivity through the car itself, a touch screen remote infotainment system with a 64GB hard drive that connects DVDs, SD cards, USB devices including iPods, tablets and HDMI devices.

The new Bentley Flying Spur is equipped with a 6.0-litre twin turbo W12 (two V6s stuck together to form a W shape) spurred on by an 8-speed ZF gearbox. All power goes to all four wheels. Said power is 460kW and 800Nm of torque. Bentley has tested the car to show a 0 – 100km/h take-off time of 4.6 seconds and top speed of 322 km/h. Not bad for a 2.5 tonne road orchestra.