Bentley Flying Spur review: don’t be fooled, this thing flies

No one knows the Bentley Continental’s new four-door brother is a racing car, but trust me on this. It is.

Floor it, James: it’ll hit 100km/h in 3.8 seconds.

It’s been argued since the dawn of automotive time that if a car manufacturer wins at the track on a Sunday afternoon, its sales will increase in the showrooms on Monday morning. Fair enough. But who in England, for instance, would know who won the Bathurst 12 Hour race in Australia?

I tried the other day to work out how many types of motor sport there are around the world, and it’s impossible. There are thousands. No one could possibly be expected to follow all of them. Most of us, in fact, follow just one: Formula One. Which, I guess, is why we all drive to work every day in our Red Bulls.

My favourite, though, has always been the Bathurst 1000. I first saw it on television years ago and couldn’t believe my eyes. The cars, big Fords and Holdens, had cameras that could be remotely swivelled to ensure they captured the action. And the commentators could talk to the drivers. And we could listen in.

The Ford/Holden rivalry meant big fights would break out every year, so in an effort to cut down the violence organisers restricted alcohol. Which meant fans went to the Mount Panorama Circuit weeks in advance and buried their beer so it could be dug up and consumed before the fight on race day.

In 1992 the crowd was, for once, united in sorrow and grief, because to everyone’s horror a Nissan Skyline won. “Boo,” they shouted at winning drivers Mark Skaife and Jim Richards as they took to the podium. After being pelted with beer cans, Richards snatched the microphone and called them “a pack of arseholes”. It was all very Western Suburbs. I loved it.

Today the Ford v Holden battle is over, chiefly because Holden has gone to that great scrapyard in the sky. But the racing has survived, and this year Bathurst staged a round of the Intercontinental GT Challenge – a branch of motor sport that allows supercar manufacturers to go wheel to wheel. It should be bigger than the Premier League and the NFL combined, but you get bigger crowds at a county cricket match. And the coverage in terms of column inches is even smaller. Which is why you don’t know who won that 12 Hour race.

It was a Bentley Continental. The big Brit bruiser somehow put one over on the much more lithesome supercars from McLaren, Porsche, Aston Martin, Lamborghini and Audi. Yes, I know this racing version had two-wheel drive and weighed only 1.3 tonnes, but even so. Watching something that big do that well was quite a spectacle.

From the back.

I haven’t driven a Continental recently, but I have been driving its four-door brother, the new Flying Spur. And even though this emphatically does not weigh 1.3 tonnes and most definitely does have cumbersome four-wheel drive, it still absolutely flies.

In the previous version the gearbox could be a bit dimwitted, but not any more. And there are other improvements. There are cupholders in the front. There’s even more Volkswagen tech. The ride is massively improved. And it is a much more joyous car both to sit in and behold. You can even have an illuminated flying B emblem on the leading edge of the bonnet – who doesn’t want that in their lives?

Mistakes? Well, let’s start with the dashboard trim. So many types of wood are on the options list, you need to be a qualified arborist to choose. Oregon crab apple, Manchurian walnut or good old-fashioned Cretan zelkova?

Bentley sent my test car with a glossy piano-black finish, and it looked lovely until the sun came out. Then the reflection was so powerful, it was like being shot in the face with a ray gun.

Another gripe: inside, there are several thousand very small buttons around the base of the gearlever. To see which does what, you must put on your reading glasses and lean over for a good peer. This could be construed as “driving without due care and attention”. Plus, you need to be mindful, because they, too, are all set in a glossy piano-black veneer – so if you’ve got up close and personal when the sun comes out it’s like being shot in the face by several thousand ray guns.

My main issue, however, is the mountainous torque. That gigantic turbocharged W12 engine produces so much of it that your passengers will get an idea of what it’s like to ride a Saturn V rocket. If you have a driver, he’ll need ballerina feet and the touch of a gigolo to be smooth.

I don’t care, though. This is a fabulous car. Yes, there are small mistakes, but that’s what gives it a human quality. Who chooses their friends because they’re reliable and sensible? In the Flying Spur you get astonishing smoothness and silence coupled with insane power. Most of all, though, you get a sense of deep satisfaction every time you get inside. Yes, it’s a bit chintzy and a bit flashy here and there. But in a world where everyone else makes car interiors look like the inside of a man’s washbag, it’s refreshing to have a bit of diamond-gnarled brightwork and some chrome organ-stop vent knobs.

After driving the previous Spur, I concluded by saying the Rolls-Royce Ghost was a better car. But that is not the case any more. The new model is just so sensational. Plus, it’s very affordable, if you are a successful CEO or a pop star.

Personally, though, I would wait until the northern summer, when the V8 version is due to come along. Not only will this be about $40,000 less expensive, but you won’t have to tell your passengers to hang on every time you pull away from the lights.

This means they won’t know it’s a racing car. No one knows, but trust me on this. It is.

Bentley Flying Spur

Engine: 6.0-litre turbocharged W12 petrol (467kW/900Nm)

Average fuel: 14.8 litres per 100km

Transmission: Eight-speed automatic, all-wheel drive

Price: $469,000 (Due in Australia late 2020)

Rating: ★★★★