Review: Bentley Continental GT Speed

'I chance a glance at the dials: 162 mph. It feels half as fast'

In a past life, the airport’s runway – all 10,003 feet of it – was on Nasa’s approved list of places to land the Space Shuttle in the event of an emergency. Unfortunately for the Campbeltown tourist trade, the astronauts never popped in for a pit stop.

Still, if the runway is long enough to stop a space ship, it’s long enough to wind a supercar up to terminal velocity. So take your protein pill, put your helmet on and join me as we bid to qualify for membership of the 200mph club.

We’ll be travelling in Bentley’s Continental GT Speed which, painted a fetching shade of orange, looks as though it might have just arrived from Mars. The more observant among you will have noticed the clue in its name – with a terminal velocity of 206mph, the GT Speed is the fastest road-going Bentley ever.

Thrust comes not from a brace of solid-fuel rocket boosters strapped to the doors, but from Bentley’s venerable 6.0-litre W12 engine (see panel) which, thanks to some fettling of its twin turbochargers and reprogramming of its electronic brain, develops 626bhp and a thumping 607 lb ft of torque. That’s probably enough to tow the Space Shuttle to the launchpad. It’s definitely enough to propel the GT Speed to 60mph in just four seconds.

Rest assured, though, that there’s much more to this car than Going Very Fast Indeed. The meandering 270-mile drive that brought us here from the GT Speed’s birthplace in Crewe merely served to underscore just how well Bentley blends luxury and sporting prowess. The GT Speed is classed as a grand tourer and easily fits that bill, wafting across bumps in near silence, but awaken the beast within and it will give much less forgiving hypercars a run for their money, thanks to stiffened suspension, the surety of four-wheel drive and those immense reserves of power.

The swooping lines of the Continental GT are now more than a decade old, which is forever and a day in the lifetime of a car, yet a series of nips and tucks here and there means today’s GT still looks as arresting as the first examples that rolled out of Crewe in 2003.

That’s especially true of the Speed, which hunkers down 10mm closer to the road than the standard GT. Its 21-inch alloy wheels fill the arches, and the body-coloured aerodynamic package that’s fitted as standard includes a front splitter, side skirts and a rear diffuser. The exterior look is topped off with a pair of even-fatter-than-usual exhausts, red-painted brake callipers and stainless steel “Speed” badges on the front wings.

Inside, our burnt orange Speed features black leather with contrasting orange panels across the dash, door tops and centre console. The Speed logo is stitched into the headrests, and the diamond  patterns on the quilted leather seats are picked out in contrasting thread.

It’s all yours for £156,700, although you will want to fork out £10,000 for carbon-ceramic brakes if you plan to spend a lot of time zipping up and down your private runway.

Or, for an extra £15,700, you can dispense with the roof and have a GT Speed Convertible. You’ll sacrifice a bit of leg room in the back and, although the hood does a great job of suppressing outside noise when it’s raised, those rich baritone exhaust notes are hard to hear above the rush of the wind and roar of the tyres when you’re travelling al fresco on the motorway. Also, the convertible reaches Vmax at “only” 203mph. Pah!

More speed is what we need, so we pick a coupé from the pack and head for the runway. Set the cabin doors to manual, cross-check, buckle up and prepare for take-off. I expect a squeal from the tyres but, even on a dusty, seldom-used corner of the airfield, the GT Speed makes a clean getaway.

The exhausts bellow as the eight-speed gearbox flicks through the ratios. A 70mph left hander takes us off the apron and on to the runway proper. After that it’s a case of foot to the floor and be brave.

Resisting the temptation to look at the speedometer, I focus instead on the far end of the runway, almost two miles away. In the rear-view mirror, I catch sight of the spoiler rising from the boot. That’ll be 90mph, then.

Still the Bentley surges forward, pressing me back in my seat. I have both hands on the wheel, but the car feels so composed, I suspect they’re surplus to requirements. Confident I’m not going to spear off into the long grass, I chance a glance at the dials: 162mph. It feels half as fast. The lack of drama in the cabin contrasts sharply with what’s outside, where the Bentley is gulping down  almost 4,000 litres of west coast air every second in its efforts to keep cool.

Still the needle climbs, the rapidfire swish-swish of the tyres passing over the runway’s centre line adding to the sensation of sheer velocity. The car is still gaining speed as I ease off the throttle with the speedo showing 180mph. There’s still plenty of runway left, but this particular Bentley has already completed several high-speed runs and still has more to do, and its brakes must be looked after.

Fair enough. I’ll settle for three miles a minute. Ludicrous speed indeed. What’s even more ludicrous is that the Bentley still has another 26mph in reserve, assuming we can find an even longer runway.

VITAL STATS

PRICE £156,700

ENGINE 6l petrol turbocharged, 12cyl, 626bhp, 607lb ft

PERFORMANCE Max speed 206mph; 0-60mph 4s

ECONOMY 19.5mpg

CO2EMISSIONS 338g/km