The Bentley Flying Spur with the 542 HP lands in the hangar and MotoMan presents a combo TECH REVIEW, DESIGN REVIEW, FIRST DRIVE REVIEW as well as a round of our famous #OptionsGame only to learn that the 2021 Bentley Flying Spur V8 is a Bentley built off of the same platform of the Porsche Panamera complete with some of its excellent componentry changes the term ‘Bentley is a driver’s car’.
So i think we’d all agree with the past 12 months or so have brought about a fair amount of change no not all of it has been completely challenging in fact some of it hasn’t made huge headlines like a totally new rolls-royce ghost or a completely new mercedes maybach or something we do need to pay attention to is just as important but would be considered slightly
More nuanced and that would be a totally new engine in the bentley flying spur so a four liter twin turbocharged v8 542 horsepower and 568 pound-feet of torque that in turn drives all four wheels through an eight-speed dual clutch transmission we will talk a little bit more about that later because you kind of know where that transmission comes from and then
There are the performance figures 0 to 64 seconds not that much farther off of the 37 of the 12 cylinder and vmax the 12 cylinder is the basis of comparison 207 this one 198. you really didn’t expect this to be a lightweight did you 5 152 pounds or depending on how you express your weights and measures 2 337 kilograms with that oh yeah i’ve said before in many
Episodes the secret about bentley v8s they’re no slouch this is a fast car this is really something that one would not look at and say oh my god i wish i got the v12 that said the sweet spot is definitely somewhere between three and four thousand rpm and i would argue a huge reason for that is the porsche derived transmission here it has all the goodness we have
Learned in porsches but the character with this car the match is magnificent and that brings us to one of the most underappreciated benefits of a v8 in a flying spur which would be less weight in the nose and it’s not by a little it is by a lot 220 less pounds over the front axle that in turn works in conjunction with something that came from the v12 flying spur
And that’s some additional bracing you can see in the rear underneath the rear subframe and then up front connecting the shock towers as well as the front structure of the car and that in turn works with the platform of the vehicle and here this is a point that bentley they don’t want to advertise and they don’t understand why because this is a good thing this
Shares the same platform with all of those panameras we have driven on race tracks very fast and they do very well so the combination of the panamera platform with the additional bracing that means we’re able to do the aggressive driving we’re doing today then they layer on a couple of optional chassis control systems and this is the biggest reason why we’re
Able to do some of the stuff we are today number one there is four wheel steering and number two there is the active anti-roll bars now what exactly are the active anti-roll bars doing well think of an anti-roll bar as one bar connected and that’s something you’ve seen like that 230 mercedes i got sitting behind that camera here it’s not the bar connected from
One side of the car to the other think of it as two halves that’s connected to an electric motor that in turn is connected to a 48 volt electrical system now for the avoidance of doubt it’s not the entire car that’s 48 volt it is just the suspension system like we’ve experienced in the porsches and the audis this is a similar system bentley does like to make a
Stink out of the fact that they’re the ones that introduced it to the volkswagen group but back to what it does the two halves are connected to the electric motor in the center and as it goes down straight and level road the two halves are disconnected so it does not disturb the ride quality of the vehicle and this being a bentley that’s kind of a big deal for
The avoidance of doubt yes we’re driving it aggressively today but in comfort mode kind of going down pch this drives like pretty much any other bentley however as we drive it aggressively the two bits know they’re not connected and doing the same thing they’re working opposite of each other so as one side goes up the other side goes down and it counter balances
The weight leaning so the car can actually get through the turn without transferring weight too quickly so it doesn’t plow doesn’t squat doesn’t dive or doesn’t pitch so it’s got most of the control over the disparate planes of motion like a porsche panamera but here there’s a limit especially when it comes to pitch like for example getting into this turn here
As i push aggressively that one half is pushing in the opposite direction the other and that’s why it doesn’t lean off to one side and i can get through the turn and that’s aided with the four wheel steering system and really what that’s doing is increasing the overall high speed stability backing down to some of the more basic bits like the steering it’s direct
Good feedback it’s not quite the weight that i’d want but i’m going to give it a pass here i’m not going to do my usual complaint of oh i’d like heavier steering or better feel to the steering it’s a bentley it’s trying to do something different something that not a porsche or corvette are trying to do at almost 5200 pounds the brakes have a lot of work to do
Here and i can’t honestly say there isn’t enough braking power like there’s good feedback to the pedal there’s okay pedal modulation but again this is trying to be a bentley not trying to be a porsche and when you consider it’s trying to be a gt car in that process god this thing is really good the brakes are well matched to the personality of the vehicle one
Aspect about the driving dynamics of this thing that i find so surprising it doesn’t want to plow a vehicle usually this length and of this weight when you push it too aggressively you can easily get out over your skis and you push it too hard to turn like this you will go that way but here the tendency to plow is very limited that’s something i really just
Didn’t expect i would argue design is incredibly more important to these types of vehicles because let’s be honest they inherently attract more attention and as such they have to have the presence to cash those checks something incredibly hard to convey through a camera but much easier to understand with cars that are already on the road like for example the
2021 rolls-royce ghost is four inches longer in wheelbase than this however car not on the road the new mercedes my buck that’s eight inches longer wheelbase than this but where i feel crew builds on that a bit more successfully than the others is using more classic proportions a short deck and a long nose but in addition to the short deck it’s a bit higher you
Look at the back of the rolls royce in the mybach it’s too low in the back it makes it look more like an old man’s car then they bring those proportions together through character lines some starting in the front some starting the back and almost running the entire length of the vehicle but in the rear door they have a very unique way of how those two character
Lines almost meet now there is one additional thing we do need to geek out about and that would be the molinar driving specification and think of that as a hunting license to customize your bentley within bentley now there are a ton of things to cover here it’s like asking how long is a piece of string but some things that stand out to me the leather headliner
Sport pedals the bejeweled fuel filler cap as well as the oil filler cap and then the wheels so it turns out with the molar driving specification you get 22 inch wheels but apparently not everybody wants like wagon wheel size wheels on their bentley so you could say no to the 22-inch wheels and get these smaller wheels say you lived in a cold climate or just
Want a little bit better ride quality now although this is not entirely an exhaustive list we can’t forget the embroidered bentley wings on the seats and then another fascinating bit of information i learned from richard he’s the product manager this car in the u.s that four place seating package turns out there is a very high take rate for it in every other
Country except for the u.s something i don’t understand but then again it’s probably above my pay grade so we press on to the steering wheel and there there are four different designs on offer no it’s not just four different types of leather or single tone or two tone like this one has it’s a different design like this one has the more sporty design that comes
Part of the molder drive spec and while we’re on the mule in our drive spec like a big piece of it is the ability to mix and match different leathers inside the car like you see the two-tone hair and granite i’d want different colors but the concept of being able to do that that’s one of the bigger parts of what they call the mds if you’re in the know within the
Bentley folks yes it is indeed that time again to play your favorite game on the options game with today’s contestant a very well specked out bentley this one the 2021 bentley flying spur v8 for a base price of 196 000 to that we had the color now you would look at that and say oh it’s silver it’s got to be one of the basic colors turns out you would be wrong now
I wouldn’t spec bentley and silver however this one is a very special silver they call it silver frost and to get it you need not one but two option packages the first would be that mulliner driving specification we talked about earlier with all that stuff uh this one was spec with all that stuff and the smaller wheels this one’s got the 21s either way all that
Stuff and the wheels and the paint or half the paint eighteen thousand one hundred thirty dollars then to get the silver frost one is required to get the pearlescent three coat paint for thirteen thousand six hundred twenty five why so much for paint well have you heard the old story how one could walk into bentley and say i’ve got this coin that i want my car
To match the color of well apparently that’s what happened here this was one of these colors where someone walked into crew and said i want that color on my car and it was one of those one-off bespoke colors now it’s part of this monar and pearlescent range and costs a lot of money then we had the porpoise and damson interior so it’s a two-tone interior remember
That’s part of the molinar driving specification with dark stained burl walnut then on top of that the contrast stitch and seat piping is an additional three thousand six hundred and ten dollars then the led welcome lamps by moener translated from bentley speak to common english illuminated darsils 1105 the touring spec incredibly important in this vehicle that is
The night vision the head-up display the adaptive cruise control and a lot of safety doodads for 8 55 heated windshield eight hundred and ten dollars the panoramic sunroof with the twin blinds and vanity mirrors three thousand three hundred and seventy dollars then we press on to the deep pile over mats front and rear once again translated from bentley speak to
Common english floor mats optional in an almost two hundred thousand dollar car for six hundred and ten dollars then something very important in a bentley veneer picnic tables they would be very helpful for assisting in a little light reading five thousand four hundred and seventy dollars uh then the stereo system named for bentley eight thousand eight hundred
And eighty dollars then the bentley rotating display i thought this was standard on continentals and flying spurs turns out it is such a high take rate for this option at 6 425 most of them actually all of them i have seen have had it and i gotta say i love driving this car with the three analog gauges on a dashboard then we press on to what is most likely the
Least expensive option on this vehicle the air ionizer for 345 dollars which brings us to arguably the option that is enabling us to do what we are doing today the bentley dynamic ride system that is the four wheel steering and the active anti-roll bars for seven thousand seven hundred and thirty dollars then the flying spur black line specification we will
Talk more about that later four thousand eight 875 then the illuminated flying b for the radiator mascot this i’m a sucker for this even at hundred and 4910 dollars then a qi wireless charger is optional in an almost two hundred thousand dollar car the one thing going for it you can have it in the front you can have it in the back or you can have it in both
Places then the mood lighting specification i have no idea what this is but it is 2 570 which leaves us only one thing to add that is the destination handling from crew england for 2 700 i am told there is a gas guzzler tax for this vehicle because it is 15 20 17 combined however that was not contained in this build sheet because the vehicle we are driving is
A european spec vehicle it was flown over here for a short period of time kind of like a pilot build so it will be going back to europe which brings us to the total retail price for one of the most uniquely equipped bentleys we’ve ever driven together 271 910 so another fascinating tidbit i picked up on my call with richard you guys may remember front of the
Show and inside the moto man studio against bo buchman he runs galvin auto sports here in los angeles as well as galvin ford which i believe is the largest ford deal in the world something like that anyway he also makes a lot of money taking the chrome trim off of my box rolls royces and bentleys and making them black trim whether it’s glossy or satin finish
So the folks and crew are scratching their head like wait a minute why is this guy running a ford dealership making money off of our cars so they went back to the drawing board at least in design and said we’re going to start making the black trim from the factory and make it part of the mds spec at least an offshoot of the mdf spec and that’s why this car has
Black trim and beau buckman didn’t do it so in order to bring all this together we need to circle back to the point that bentley does not like to advertise about this vehicle and that is the fact that it shares a platform with the porsche panamera not for the avoidance of doubt it is not trying to be a porsche it does not drive like a porsche it drives very much
Like a bentley but the fact that it has porsche dna running through its veins especially a transmission makes this go way beyond that old saying well the bentley that’s the driver’s car which brings us to the wish list and i had to spend a lot of time thinking on this because there really isn’t much i would change here the only thing and this is a huge ask a
48 volt electrical system throughout the entire car not just the suspension system and here’s why performance not efficiency because you’re not looking at this for fuel economy but think about what we did today and having the ability to do that with the torque coming from zero which could be tuned in a 48 volt mild hybrid system with that engine and that brings
Us to the point where i turn this around to you guys and you will find in the comments below or via our social media motorman tv award moto tv onward facebook twitter and instagram about that or anything else we should add to the wish list kind of like not getting one in silver and with that i do want to leave you with something my design nerd found on this car
That i love you know how bentley’s and rolls royces they have a wood dash and it’s book matched meaning it’s mirrored well this one has a carbon fiber rear spoiler and the carbon fiber is book matched until i see you in the next episode
Transcribed from video
2021 Bentley Flying Spur V8: A Bentley with Porsche DNA By MotoManTV