The sun is finally setting on W12 production. The latest Speed is one of your few remaining chances to buy it new.
Impressive numbers have always been intrinsic to Bentley’s W12 engine. Measuring six litres in capacity and offering 635hp and 664lb ft in its current tune, it’s the beating heart of the firm’s modern-day line-up. But its biggest number might also be its most jaw-dropping – 105,000 have rolled off the production line since it first appeared in the 2003 Continental GT, a chunk of those making their way into upper-scale Audis and Volkswagens.
Not that it’s any less imposing for it. Picking up a 635hp, 207mph baton from the standard car means it still lives up to its suffix, even if it’s not bringing any epoch-shifting pace. Still, just to be sure our first go would prove as boisterous as possible, Bentley invited us not up the road to Crewe, but across the ocean to Colorado. The 2,500m highs of the state’s ski resorts, in fact, with temperatures in negative double digits and oxygen canisters nearby for any altitude-based wobbles.
The Spur predictably strikes a lovely balance between the two, though, with standard all-wheel steer but 345mm of extra wheelbase over its two-door sibling. Longer, more satisfying slides are the result and a better demonstration of its Sport mode’s rear bias is unlikely to present itself. Nevertheless, it is away from the confines of the cones that this car truly satisfies.
There’s agility at its core and just enough feel and feedback bubbling through the wheel and your bum to allow you to hustle it like a bona fide sports saloon, only with the bonus of more sumptuous ride quality. I’d argue the V8-powered S version would be a better handler, but the fitment of a W12 hardly blunts the front end’s response – modern Bentleys were built around this engine, don’t forget – and it revs freely enough to encourage you to keep the ZF eight-speed auto in its sportier map.
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