An outing in the Flying Spur Speed wows even fans of the Hamster

Published on Saturday 21 November 2009 14:16

WILLIAM Bentley (aged seven, no relation) leaned forward on the thick leather front seat of the £168,000 black Bentley. He was clearly impressed. His parents run a Mazda and a Jeep and a short trip in Crewe's finest metal was always going to be a life-changing memory.

"What do all those switches do?" I have no idea, William, but it is a good question. Mostly his comments were reactions to the whoosh of acceleration, that spectacular array of fascia, the illumination of the controls and dials at night, and new perspectives on local scenery.

What words came to his mind? "Cool" or "awesome" or sometimes "that's cool". My young neighbour is a fan of Top Gear, in particular Richard Hammond. A few months ago I got his autograph for William, through a mutual friend, the one Hammond rescued by boat when his precarious house on the River Severn went under. That would be Zog, who has had his own moments in the media spotlight but observes that no-one asks for his autograph.

Nor me for mine. Still, we all need heroes and William Bentley has his, and "The Hamster's" signed photo has been admired by his school chums. For me, I now have William's drawing of the Bentley on the cover of a thank-you note. It is a sharp-nosed rendition, with his father in the back seat and someone in the front with hare's ears. That must be me. The body perches on massive spoked wheels – more like those on the bike I often wheel past the Bentleys' kitchen window, where William exchanges greetings.

A hundred years ago, small boys would be marking the transition from bicycle and horse to powered road transport. Bentley's efforts and success at winning the Le Mans 24-Hour Race in the 1920s helped reduce its bank balance to zero and in the 1930s it joined Rolls-Royce. By 2003, both company's were in German hands, BMW rescuing the mighty Rollers and Volkswagen Group adding Bentley to its Skoda-to-Bugatti portfolio (a catalogue now controlled by Porsche).

The car tested here, the Flying Spur Speed, is a longer, four-door version of the Continental coup. Both use a version of the 12 cylinder engine made for Bentley by the VW Group. This 5998cc engine produces 552 brake horse power and 479 lb ft of torque. That is for the ordinary, standard, 195mph Flying Spur, which takes a yawning 4.9 seconds to get from stop to 60mph (or 5.2 seconds to 62mph).

However, the engine in the Speed models gives 600bhp and 553 lb ft. That's 200mph at your beckoning, and stop to 60mph in 4.5 seconds (4.8 to 62mph). And, my, it feels wonderful. The slow one costs 120,700. The Spur is 137,000. The one you see here was 167,950. Nearly 10,000 of that went on ceramic brakes.

I can see why Porsche owners equip their cars with these fade-resistant brakes – for hard-charging track days – but in a Bentley limousine? It doesn't "feel" a natural fast car in bends, either. There's a sense of willing it through. A Ford Focus would make mincemeat of it on twisty roads.

The Bentley is not immune from tyre drumming on coarser roads. Give it an open road, though, and the pace is immense, smooth and satisfying as the ZF six-speed gearbox goes through its ratios. There are large paddle shifters behind the steering wheel. Why are they there at all? With this much power only the serious geek would over-rule the auto-shifting. Also, they get in the way when you reach for the indicator and wiper stalks.

I have never seen one of these modern Bentleys being hammered at a speed which would test either the brakes or the driver. I suppose that pushing it down through hairpins in the Alps or Pyrenees will heat the brakes up a bit, as they control a car weighing two and a half tons empty, without occupants and luggage in boot.

Collecting the son and heir at the end of term will be a problem because the boot is too shallow to take a school trunk. I suppose his mummy will use the Kahn Range Rover or, silly me, have had bespoke containers made to fit the Bentley.

The Silver Spur is long enough to overhang a normal parking bay – when the reversing camera is a useful back-up. There were times I wanted one at the front. Yet for such a leviathan it attracts scant attention. Styling is restrained and Bentleys are so affordable under owner VW's economies of scale they have become commonplace.

Inside, you have a place of physical and emotional comfort. The room is redolent of the rich smell of quality leather, with lots of knurled metal motifs on the controls. The air vents are operated using chromed plungers. It looks and feels smart. The colossal transmission tunnel gets in the way of a logical resting place for the driver's left foot. I got accustomed to this. I also had to accept that, after being parked in rain, the water sloshed into the cabin when the back doors were opened and then into the boot when the lid was popped. This is a design oversight.