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2020 Bentley Flying Spur First Edition Road Test | $280,000 worth of drama-free splash

After reading Brett Berk’s First Drive review of the Bentley Flying Spur, I was intrigued. Not by the authorÂ’s propensity for shedding clothing (though that sure is Â… something), but by some of the carÂ’s numbers and its drivetrain features. Figures such as 626 horsepower and 3.7 seconds to 60 piqued my interest, as did torque-vectoring all-wheel drive and four-wheel steering. Bentley says the Flying Spur offers “breathtaking performance.” BerkÂ’s first drive was in Monaco, where a car like this pairs well with the luxury yachts. My time with the Flying Spur would be much less of a pantsless extravaganza. Instead, IÂ’d be fleeing quarantine cabin fever with my family, schlepping through the rain to run errands, waving to confused-looking neighbors and hopefully experiencing performance that would, as advertised, take my breath away. The Flying Spur feels a bit like a boat. ItÂ’s big, with a long hood stretching out into oneÂ’s forward view like the bow of a cabin cruiser. Add the isolated feeling provided by the suspension, and I could easily imagine myself skimming across a calm bay. The materials lend themselves to the nautical whimsy as well, with plenty of quilted leather and horizontal swaths of metal-accented wood that reminded me of my uncleÂ’s Lake Erie runabout. My first outing was with the family, and it was mostly spent on the highway. My wife, Cat, who is prone to motion sickness, had no troubles in the Flying Spur. Apart from sneaking in a few hard launches — eliciting chuckles from Cat and admonishment from my son, Wollie — I kept my driving sane and smooth. I mostly kept the car in Comfort mode. Driven as such, even with the brief moments of right-foot indulgence, the Flying Spur felt a bit underwhelming. The carÂ’s size suggests the existence of the 6.0-liter W12 under the hood, but its 626 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque are experienced differently in this Bentley. Hardly any sound makes its way into the cabin. Its highway calmness belies its actual swiftness. This was all well and good for the comfort of my passengers, but it didnÂ’t do much to evoke any feeling beyond that of leisure. In fact, IÂ’d have almost rather have been a passenger for this sort of trip. That way I could better soak in the craftsmanship that surrounds you inside a Bentley.

Bentley teases restyled production SUV

Bentley insists that customers responded positively, but journalists weren't particularly enamored with the EXP 9 F concept when it was unveiled two years ago at the Geneva Motor Show. And so it went back to the drawing board, honing the design to make it more pleasing to the eye.
The production model won't hit the road until 2016, but at its annual shareholders meeting today in London, the British automaker revealed the first image of the finished design - or at least the front end, which was arguably the most controversial element of the design in the first place.
The rendering, as you can see above, is highly stylized and obscured by flying sand (as many customer examples are likely to be in the dunes of the Middle East). But from what we can see, it appears that Bentley has moved the secondary headlights from below the primary ones to beside them. It's hard to tell, but it appears that their place on the edges of the front bumper have been replaced by air vents, giving it an altogether Continental-like front end. The shape of the grille, hood, fenders and greenhouse otherwise appear similar to the EXP 9 F we've already seen, though the air dam appears taller than the concept's.

Cheap shots in the 'cheap' Bentley: What can you get away with in a Flying Spur V8?

You know the feeling when you think you've finished something brilliant, then you sit down and take a look at it with fresh eyes and realize that, not only is it crap, but it was never really a good idea in the first place? That was me, a couple of weeks ago, as I was looking through the footage I shot while driving the 2021 Bentley Flying Spur V8. Yes, after seeing reactions to the car on social media, I actually thought it would be funny to do a tongue-in-cheek bit where I suggested that Bentley provide owners with a feature designed to help keep "poor" people away. It was a half-baked idea, conceived to be lighthearted and in a vague nod to British humor. The point was not to make fun of anybody's financial situation (except my own, in a round-about self-deprecating way), but the product turned out a bit, well, cringe-inducing. Out of selfish desire not to lose the work that went into it (or another opportunity to talk about this gorgeous car), I decided to repurpose it with some help from "Dr." Byron. As you can see, he's doing house calls now.  I've been reviewing cars for more than a decade now, and even with that much time under my belt, I can still count on my hands the number of truly remarkable cars I've had the chance to drive. This Flying Spur stands out as the most expensive, the most exclusive, and, well, pretty much just the most car I've ever experienced. As I alluded to in my initial write-up, this is the kind of car that causes somebody like me — a person of comfortably modest means — to rethink even the most fundamental aspects of an otherwise conventional road trip.  Over the years, I've had people compliment, degrade and otherwise question my life choices based on cars I barely put 100 miles on. It's part of the gig. I was once rather directly approached and asked for money while gassing up a 2012 Porsche Cayman; no "hello," no preamble, no sugar-coating. Just, "Can I have some money?" So no, that tweet didn't actually make me self-conscious about cruising around in such a valuable and exclusive automobile, but the mere act of driving it did, and the discomfort was even further juiced by my knowledge that what I was driving wasn't even the "expensive" Flying Spur. I found myself wanting to tell people, "Look, you really shouldn't be that impressed. This is the cheap one." The question follows thusly: What is a cheap Bentley, and why does it need to exist?