Sky’s the limit
£167,000 FOR Better to drive than its 2.3-tonne weight would suggest AGAINST Good luck keeping it below £200,000
This is the entry-level Continental, priced £12,500 lower than the big-boy W12, while nearly 80 kilos skinnier. But this is hardly a Dacia Sandero, where ‘entry-level’ means black bumpers and a gaping hole where there ought to be a radio. A basic Bentley really isn’t basic at all. This remains a stupendously well-appointed vehicle, and its 542bhp 4.0-litre V8 isn’t what you’d call meek.
In fact, if you want a Bentley for driving – rather than just wafting – this may well be the one to have. Sure, its claimed 0–62mph is a little tardier, but 4.1secs is still mildly outrageous for a car that’s probably bigger than most London flats. And certainly better insulated from the rigours of the world outside.
Even as a soft top. Roof up or down, this thing is staggering. Plenty of people have nailed the refined cabriolet thing nowadays, and most at a price well south of the Bentley’s. But the GT V8 Convertible is something else. Roof down, even without a wind deflector covering the rear seats, the way it resists bluster right up to the British speed limit is astonishing. Needless to say the heated seats, wheel and armrest take the edge off any chilliness, too.
And, roof up, you’d swear you were in a coupe. Even the very best of its rivals have one weakness: when you’re sat at traffic lights and the hubbub of everyday life creeps in enough to convince you a window might have been left down an inch. Here, not a single murmur from chattering pedestrians will make its way inside. Perhaps for the best if you’ve specced your Conti at the gaudy end of the colour scale.
Now, a Sports Series McLaren will deliver bigger thrills when it inevitably convinces you to leave the motorway and take the much longer route to your destination.
The Conti GT, regardless of its powerplant, does such a good job at making long, straight roads genuinely pleasant that we’d forgive you entirely for staying in its (and your) comfort zone.
Its mass fully reveals itself on the approach to corners when you’ll be pushing the brake pedal with more urgency than in any of its rivals, before realising you need to just stifle your enthusiasm a little in comparison. It never stops being a GT car, ultimately, but its sports car impression is better than I’d hoped for.
It’s worth veering away from the quickest route to take one more interesting. With less weight over its nose than the W12 – and its 4WD transmission defaulting to rear-drive as much as possible – it drives with vigour. But only once you’ve told it you want vigour.
This is an unfalteringly polite car, and it won’t go performing its two-seater tribute act unless told. The best way to do this is turn the rotary drive mode dial into Sport, which’ll stiffen up the suspension and sharpen up the throttle and gearbox responses, as well as notching up the V8 engine’s volume.
Here’s a car that wafts along as easily and silently as its bigger-engined sibling below 3,000rpm, but which reveals a wicked sense of humour above it. Some say the Queen knocks out some great jokes a few drinks into dinner. Getting the V8 to loosen its hips and show off its defter moves feels similar. And any scuttle shake from folding the roof is entirely negligible. This is the same vein of entry level as an essential Waitrose limoncello dessert. And just as indulgent. Stephen Dobie