BACK-SEAT BENTLEY
With top speeds of 187mph, the Bentley Bentayga is the world’s fastest SUV
The Bentley Bentayga is the world’s fastest SUV
‘This is like a Range Rover, isn’t it?’ said my younger daughter, reposing like a princess on the sumptuous quilted leather upholstery of the new Bentley Bentayga. ‘Only it’s twice as expensive and twice as good.’
Only the young can be so casually cruel. That savage judgement, however, may not be fully accurate. It is possible to spend more than £93,500 on a Range Rover which, believe it or not, would be half of the £187,275 cost of the Bentayga we borrowed; yet there are some aspects of a Range Rover that remain unbeatable, such as its jaw-dropping crosscountry capabilities. Nevertheless, with all due respect to the sensitivities of Range Rover lovers such as the Windsors and the Kardashians, I am sorry to say my daughter is largely on the money.
Other super-luxury 4x4s are on the way (from Rolls-Royce and Lamborghini, for instance), but for the moment, the Bentley Bentayga is at the top of the heap. W.O. Bentley – maker of the immortal 1920s sports/racing cars that ran away with the Le Mans 24-hour race and gave James Bond his original mode of transport – would probably have exploded at the notion that his name would be applied to an all-terrain SUV. But he loved fast cars, and none of his supercharged ‘ blower’ Bentleys could hold a candle to this Bentayga’s flabbergasting acceleration (0-60mph in four seconds) and top speed (187mph). These figures make it the fastest SUV in the world. It has an average fuel consumption of 22.1mpg.
Like W.O.’s creations, there is a brutal functionality about the Bentayga’s uncompromising mass. Over 17ft long and almost 6ft tall, standing on colossal 21-inch wheels, it lives up to Ettore Bugatti’s acid dismissal of early Bentleys as ‘fast lorries’. A shapely crease running from the flanks to the rear is the only visible subtlety in a body that has all the diffidence of a Glasgow pub bouncer.
Contemporary Bentleys are made with Chinese tastes foremost in the designer’s mind. That’s why the back seats are more comfortable than the front ones – because show-offs who buy expensive cars in China would rather be driven than take the wheel themselves – and also why its suspension settings in default mode are comfortable to the point of narcolepsy.
However, those in the chauffeur’s seat can enjoy more pleasure than any SUV has ever afforded. At bottom, the Bentayga is an Audi Q7 and shares much of its underpinnings with Porsche’s Cayenne, since Audi, Porsche and Bentley are all members of the VW Group. But neither of those large 4x4s can get near the Bentayga for its driving dynamics and its balance through corners.
Although a diesel version is available, the car we borrowed came with a six-litre twin turbo-charged W12 petrol engine. This has been tweaked to produce more than 600bhp in the Bentayga, running through an eightspeed semi-automatic gearbox controlled with steering-wheel paddles. With the suspension settings switched to Sport, flooring the throttle pedal is like putting the hammer down on a speedboat. Zipping through corners, this two-and-a-half-ton car leans so little you might be driving the Bentley Flying Spur saloon.
‘Other superluxury 4x4s are on the way, but for the moment the Bentley Bentayga is top of the heap’