Bentley Bentayga Diesel
BENTLEY CUSTOMERS WILL be perfectly used to petrol engines that barely return more than 20 miles to the gallon. Many would probably rank ‘good fuel economy’ somewhere distantly below ‘a cigar humidor big enough for my collection of Cubans’ and ‘a paint job the colour of a Balinese sunset’ on their list of desirables for their next Continental or Mulsanne.
It would be easy, therefore, to misread the significance of the V8 triple-turbo diesel engine recently
dropped into the engine bay of the Bentayga. Crewe’s first diesel production model isn’t our new favourite super-luxury SUV because it’s a good 50% more efficient than the W12 version we tested in 2016, but because that diesel engine – and, my word, what an engine – is even better suited than the petrol is to the demands that any Bentayga owner is likely to make of his car.
The Bentayga Diesel is, simply put, a better Bentayga. Although it is marginally slower to accelerate than its petrol counterpart in outright terms, it counters with superb driveability from low revs and supreme in-gear pulling power, being blessed with a mighty 664lb ft of torque (enough to make the 2.6-tonne kerb weight of our test car feel hatchback-light at times) that’s available from just 1000rpm – or from idle, which is as near as makes no meaningful difference.
Keep in mind how the Bentayga is likely to be used and you’ll appreciate why long-striding flexibility matters more in this car than 12 cylinders and 600bhp at 6000rpm. No one drives an SUV this size like a hot hatchback. Luxury pace has to be easily won: effortless, comfortable and laid back. And if you want to tow a speedboat on a trailer, an engine that supplies perfectly metered torque with every half-inch of travel from the accelerator pedal comes in very handy indeed.
Out on the road, the Bentayga Diesel has a remarkable capacity to accelerate and overtake in its higher gears without needing so much as a downshift. It rides with a slightly softer and more supple gait than its petrol counterpart – which we also think suits the Bentayga down to the ground – and its mechanical refinement is nothing short of sensational compared to the usual standards for compression ignition, making it a match for the W12 in almost every way and certainly more advanced than any diesel rival.
It has taken Bentley almost 100 years to add a diesel-engined car to its model range and, until now, you could understand the reticence. But the Bentayga is unquestionably the right car to have done it with. And anyone minded to sniffily claim that diesel power could never be right for such an aristocratic brand need drive this car for just 10 minutes in order to recognise how perfectly this powertrain serves it.