Playing whack-a-prole in Bentley’s
616-hp Flying Spur
Just 50 years ago, Chinese peasants were
melting their cookware to satisfy Chairman Mao’s demands for increased steel
production.
Now, driving through the Beijing suburbs in
a 2014 Bentley Flying Spur, one can’t help but wonder if any of it made its way
into our bourgeoisie land-missile via the combined magic of global recycling
and karmic bitchiness.
Three
tons of air-conditioned, quilted-leather luxury might not make up for
generations of back-breaking labor, but it must help at least salve the wounds
It would be delicious irony: Thanks to
state-sanctioned capitalism and the gaping maw of Walmart, the children of
those long-suffering peasants consume new Bentleys at a rate of around 2,300 a
year; China is now the brand’s second-largest largest market, with new owners
snapping up cars as fast as Crewe can ship them. No surprise then that when
Bentley’s PR mavens selected an introductory drive route, they shunned San
Francisco to Pebble Beach and Soho to the Dover cliffs, opting instead for
Beijing to the Great Wall.
Three tons of air-conditioned,
quilted-leather luxury might not make up for generations of back-breaking
labor, but it must help at least salve the wounds. After all, the Flying Spur
sedan (now sans Continental moniker to further distinguish it from the sporting
coupes) boasts numbers that would have been fantasy just a decade ago: The
6.0-liter W12 engine now produces 616 hp and 590 lb-ft of torque, the
all-wheel-drive system doling it all out in a 40/60 front/rear split.
Yet, the car is lighter: A 110-pound weight
reduction versus the outgoing Flying Spur means the power-to-weight ratio
improves 14 percent; every 8.9 pounds gets its own horse. Sixty miles per hours
is now achieved in 4.3 seconds – the Porsche Boxster is a full second slower –
and should you find yourself on an autobahn, airstrip or racetrack, the Flying
Spur’s terminal velocity is 200 mph. keep it south of the century mark and a
combined 15 mpg is available, rising to 20 mpg on the highway.
Traditional
Bentley consumers will find themselves at home in the Flying Spur, swaddled in
leather, wool, woo and brushed metal from headliner to floor mat.
The Continental GT’s optional twin-turbo V8
will not be available, at least not yet. And with numbers like the
aforementioned, we’re not sure a V8 makes much sense. Fuel economy would likely
only improve 1 or 2 mpg, and a slightly lower price is of negligible concern
among Bentley’s clientele.
Instead, those buyers are primarily
interested in supreme opulence, inside and out. Traditional Bentley consumers
will find themselves at home in the Flying Spur, swaddled in leather, wool, woo
and brushed metal from headliner to floor mat. Contrasting piping and stitching
are found throughout the basic car, while Mulliner Driving Specification Spurs
get quilted leather available in five additional colors (upping the total to 17
choices), along with five unique wood veneers, Other Mulliner upgrades include
two-piece, 21-inch wheels and a special knurled shift lever.
New to the Flying Spur is a removable
multifunction controller for rear-seat passengers. Featuring a touchscreen, the
controller communicates with the car via Bluetooth allowing the rearmost tycoon
to tweak climate control, stereo functions, sunshades and such without having
to look for permanent switchgear. It sounds superfluous in concept, but it’s
remarkably convenient while being chauffeured about town.
Once
you’re off, though, the acceleration is massive
The rest of the rear seating is just good,
a surprise considering the number of owners who prefer being driven to driving
themselves. The seats are firm to the point of minor discomfort after about 90
minutes; while some might prefer the additional support, we expected to be
absorbed, amoebalike, in plush luxury – but it didn’t happen.
Instead, the fun was up front, even on the
streets in and around Beijing, notorious for their rhythmic insanity. Seasoned
travelers know the rules of the road, even the logic of self-preservation,
simply don’t apply to the average Chinese driver.
A Bentley (particularly one to which we had
no legal or financial obligations) does ease the challenges, in many ways
making the Flying Spur an ideal conveyance for the environments – tanks being
reserved for the Chinese military. The steering is delightfully direct for such
a large vehicle, with a firmness tuned somewhere between Audi and BMW; feedback
is just fair, but considering the isolation levels the suspension is asked to
deliver, the Flying Spur reacts to inputs like a car a thousand pounds lighter.
A
Bentley eases the challenges, in many ways making the Flying Spur an ideal
conveyance for the environments
On multiple occasions, all 616 hp was used
to slingshot us around slower traffic, while brake rotors the size of Saturn’s
rings were capable of saving us from dogs asleep in the road, parked tuk-tuks
and errant bundles of sticks – they apparently make up a sort of secondary
currency in rural China.
Twin turbochargers and eight gear choices
mean there can be a moment of lag on initial throttle tip-in as the W12 and its
control computers determine exactly how fast you want to go and how quickly
you’d like to arrive at that velocity. Once you’re off, though, the
acceleration is massive; gear changes, even at full throttle, are barely
perceptible, a testament to the additional tuning Bentley engineers did on the
excellent ZF box. One thing they could have left off: the obnoxiously large and
mostly useless shifter paddles extending from the steering column – not only is
the plastic finish out of place in this car, but the upshift/down-shift
function is laughably slow.
The presence of paddles begs the larger
question: What type of customer chooses a Bentley Flying spur? We think it will
depend upon that customer’s definition of luxury. For the technophile, the
bells-and-whistles junkie, far more equipment can be found on a Mercedes-Benz
S-class or Audi A8/S8 for tens of thousands of dollars less. However, those
brands, vaunted as they are, aren’t Bentley. Nor are those cars blessed with
the kind of hand crafts-manship found in Crewe’s vehicles. It’s at this point
where value equations and feature sets become largely a moot point, with the primary
purchase considerations becoming available veneers and properly pedigreed brand
names.
Rolls-Royce and perhaps Aston Martin are
the only two sedan manufacturers traveling in this rare air, and of those only
the Rolls Ghost offers comparable interior space and amenities, though at a
substantially higher price point.
The Bentley owner will likely be one who
prefers to be his own driver – whether the engineers’ intent or not, this car
is most satisfying when seated behind the wheel. While it’s true many buyers
will never opt for the experience, it makes for some damn lucky chauffeurs.
