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Watch a Bentley Continental GT Speed hit 206 mph in Australia

The top speed listed on most cars is usually a rather theoretical affair. After all, where can you actually drive a car to its v-max, anyway? Well there are a few highways in the world – and really only a few – that will let you drive as fast as you can. One of them is in the Australian outback, so that's where Bentley took its new Continental GT Speed. The road in question is called the Stuart Highway. It's a 1,761-mile road which runs across the continent from Darwin in the north to Port Augusta in the south. That's about the same distance as driving from New York to Denver. Only unlike any of the highways you'd take to drive across America, the Stuart Highway has one long stretch of 120 miles between Alice Springs and Barrow Creek that is completely derestricted, and has been for the past two years since local authorities set about trying out removing the speed limit. To see how fast the new GT Speed could actually go in the real world, Bentley put Aussie touring car champion John Bowe behind the wheel and let 'er rip. The result is a top speed clocked at 206 miles per hour. That's pretty darn fast for any car, let alone one that weighs a massive 5,000 pounds. Its 6.0-liter twin-turbo W12 engine contributes significantly to that curb weight, but with 626 horsepower and 607 pound-feet of torque on tap, it also has the muscle to keep the Conti pulling like a freight train all the way up past the double-century mark. Watch it unfold in the video above. BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GT SPEED: VMAX IN THE OUTBACK - Continental GT Speed hits 206 mph (331 km/h) top speed on Stuart Highway, Australia - Northern Territory route one of only three derestricted roads in the world - Australian racing legend, John Bowe, takes Grand Tourer on extraordinary high-speed run - Continental GT Speed combines supercar performance with supreme luxury (Crewe, 04 November 2015) The 16MY Bentley Continental GT Speed has been taken to its top speed of 206 mph (331 km/h)* by Australian racing legend, John Bowe, on the derestricted Stuart Highway** deep in the Northern territory. The 635 PS (626 bhp), 820 Nm (607 lb.ft) W12-powered GT Speed Grand Tourer reached Vmax in just 76 seconds, covering a distance of 9.4 kilometres in the process. At top speed, the 6.0-litre twin-turbo Grand Tourer was covering a staggering 92 metres (or one football pitch) per second. John Bowe said: "This isn't a modified racecar; it's a luxurious grand touring road car fresh off the production line.

Bentley's idea of future luxury includes holographic butler

Anybody can daydream, and British carmaker Bentley is no exception. Their vision of an autonomous luxury car is taken so far into the future that it will come with a hologram of a butler. This isn't just a fan-made, Photoshopped image designed to stir a little fantasy, but an official image released by Bentley depicting what their cars might look twenty years from now. The "Future of Luxury" concept image is the work of Bentley's design team, headed by German Stefan Sielaff. Sielaff has worked with Audi and Volkswagen interior design for decades, with a short interim over at Mercedes-Benz's Interior Competence Center. Sielaff has been at Bentley since 2015, and his team is hard at work conceiving the direction of luxury cars in the semi-distant future. Even if Bentley is traditionally closer to Alec Guinness than Princess Leia, a holographic interface is an interesting glimpse into the science fiction thought process of today's car design. Other touches seen in the interior concept image have to do with mood lighting, screensaver-style images displayed on the side panels, and a touchscreen music interface that appears to display Beck's 2005 album Guero. Still, 2036 isn't that far in the future that a Bentley passenger wouldn't take the time to write a few letters by hand. Related Video: Featured Gallery Bentley Future of Luxury Concept Auto News Design/Style Bentley Technology Emerging Technologies Gadgets Infotainment Concept Cars Future Vehicles Luxury

2016 Bentley Bentayga First Drive [w/video]

There was once a barrier that separated our Arcadian, four-dimensional space from an uncanny cosmos where a $229,100 SUV makes irrefutable business sense. That wall is gone, and the Bentley Bentayga broke it. We're accustomed to powerful SUVs. The Mercedes-Benz G65 AMG makes the Earth weep on account of its 621 horsepower and 738 pound-feet of torque. The Bentayga is shy of those figures, with 21 fewer horses and 74 fewer pound-feet. We're also accustomed to quick SUVs; the Porsche Cayenne Turbo S hits 60 miles per hour in just 3.8 seconds. The Bentayga runs that race 0.2 seconds slower. And of course, we are accustomed to luxurious SUVs that fear no obstacle or load. The Range Rover Autobiography can swim its leathers and veneers through 35.4 inches of water, surmount nearly 12 inches when toiling off-road, and tow 7,716 pounds. The Bentayga can 'only' manage 19.6 inches of water, 'only' gets to 9.64 inches on its tippy toes, and is 'only' rated to tow 7,714 pounds. None of these facts are listed to harp on the Bentayga. It isn't Bentley's way to make rank by being the best in every category. Instead, the Crewe brand brings all the boys to the yard by merely being excellent across the board. The Continental GT isn't superlative at any one thing, but no other vehicle that can carry four people is as fast and as capable and as dynamic, and only Phantom-level Rolls-Royces can touch it for luxury. The Bentayga is not the Continental GT of SUVs, it is "the Bentley of SUVs." But here's an important clarification: The Bentayga is not the Continental GT of SUVs, it is "the Bentley of SUVs." The automaker describes the mission as, "driving, luxury, performance." The interior advances the current design language with a two-piece instrument panel – an upper portion that slides through the center console in a "U" shape, and a lower portion that connects the console to the center tunnel. Bentley poses this as a riff on its flying wing badge, but it actually comes from interior designer Darren Day's wish to fit an IP with a steeper rake. The size of an instrument panel is limited by the width of the door openings because the dashboard doesn't go in until after the body is welded together. Day wanted passengers to be able to rest their legs on the buttresses tying the IP to the center tunnel, but his one-piece design was too large to fit through the doors.