Yahoo Autos Bentley Continental GT Speed Hybrid Proves Green Is Good
Last year I drove the Final Edition third-generation Bentley GT Speed and decided it was the best car in the world. It was bad at nothing, save from being affordable to the masses, and possessed such a wide spread of talents it was impossible not to be impressed by at least one of them, not to mention the collective superstardom they gave the car. It was also the last outing for Bentley’s always-entertaining W-12 engine before it was forced into emissions-enforced retirement. It was a hugely difficult act for any successor car to follow.
Now Bentley has replaced both the W-12 and the old Continental V-8 with a new version that combines the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 with the plug-in hybrid system from the Porsche Panamera Turbo S. Is this luxury greenwashing? Or is hybridization actually a better solution for the best touring car on earth?
In the Bentley, the hybrid system makes even more power than it does in the Porsche - 771 hp and 738 lb-ft, with 591 hp and 590 lb-ft from the V-8. The rest comes from an electric motor mounted inside the eight-speed dual-clutch transmission, drawing power from a 25.9 kWh battery pack positioned behind the rear seats (with 22 kWh usable). Bentley claims this 5421-pound leviathan will be able to sprint from 0-60mph in 3.1 seconds, and has an EV-only range of a huge 50 miles under the European WLTP testing cycle; so likely around 35 miles in the ‘States. An 11kW onboard charger also means the battery can be topped off relatively quickly at home, and the Conti can also recharge itself using the gas engine - a neat trick I haven’t found much use for outside performance testing at a track.
On the outside, the new Continental GT is marked by a more aggressively sculpted front end, with what look like LED eyebrows dividing the headlights horizontally and a prominent circular sensor poking through the grille for the adaptive cruise and safety systems. Once seen, this can’t be unseen. The rest of the car looks as tasteful and classy as ever, particularly in the satin red finish of our test car. Bentley hasn’t tried to fix what definitely wasn’t broken.
Fortunately the interior remains as opulent and comfortable as ever, virtually unchanged from the outgoing car aside from the digital gauge cluster which now shows the appropriate hybrid status information.
On the road the new GT is as expected: incredibly isolating from the outside world. It’s quiet, with thick insulated glass, heavy, pleasingly tactile materials and controls, and a very distant exhaust rumble which makes it sound more like a steamship than a sportscar. It has the most comfortable automotive seats I’ve ever settled into, with a dozen ways to adjust them plus heating, cooling, and six massage functions. Almost everything you can touch is either luscious leather, metal, glass or carbonfiber. Only the central button array is in so-called piano black plastic, and even that material is somehow nicer than it is in other cars.
There is lots of tech, but no tech overload. The Continental does all the things you might want a car to do: play music with incredible fidelity, connect to your phone, provide easy access to drive modes and other settings. But it is not weighed down by multiple layers of menus, and there are still conventional physical buttons to jump between modes, plus metal knobs and wheels for HVAC and audio adjustments.
Should you want to make all the tech go away you can do just that, one button on the dashboard making the central screen spin around like the license plates of James Bond’s DB5 and park either a trio of Breitling-designed analog gauges or, for true minimalists, a polished wooden panel. I’ve used that function surprisingly often in other Bentleys, particularly when doing long distances at night and looking to cut down on distraction. You can do all the basics in the gauge cluster.
The Continental GT grew massively better when it was switched to the Porsche Panamera architecture in 2019, but the new Hybrid Speed builds on that. This is the best variant yet.
The EV mode is almost silent, and although acceleration is limited when running in pure electric mode, the Continental will cruise at speeds of up to 87 mph without firing the engine. It’s a neat trick that will help anybody wanting to make low-profile arrivals or departures, or to conduct short-ish journeys without recourse to the gasoline engine.
On a winding canyon road the handling is shockingly good for something so big and heavy thanks to a battery of assistance systems, these including rear axle steering and a 48 Volt electrical anti-roll system that fights lean by applying a counter-torque to the sway bars.
Steering feel isn’t exactly McLaren or Porsche, but it is superior to Lamborghini and many others. The optional carbon-ceramic brakes do not fade, even when used hard on track on a hundred-degree day. The powertrain produces so much torque that there is no need to go to the redline, yet the smoothness and refinement actually encourage exploration of the upper reaches of the rev range. It is obscenely fast in every gear, but masks the speed with poise and isolation. A Continental driver will regularly find themselves traveling far, far quicker than expected; on any highway doubling the speed limit seems to put the Continental into its comfort zone.
Then there is track use, something a vanishingly small percentage of Bentleys ever see, but which the Continental handles with ease. The new GT is a riot on a circuit, its performance beyond the limit is the greatest upgrade from the previous generation. I tracked the old car a lot and it was great fun, but the PHEV is markedly better.
Positioning the battery pack behind the rear seat helps with weight distribution, and although overall mass has increased by around 400 pounds, more of this sits over the rear wheels with the car static (it is now 48:52 on Bentley’s numbers, previously 55:45.) This creates a fabulously balanced chassis, one that wants to drift and will happily stick its tail out in an easy, progressive way. It also has so much power that it will spin wheels over negative-G crests with the traction control disabled. It sounds like it should be terrifying, but the reality is anything but. The new GT is happy to meet a driver wherever they are, whether rolling with stately grace or devouring a race track. Beyond-the-limit handling is an absolute delight.
Nobody is going to need to buy a hybridized Bentley to cut bills; the ability to boost gas mileage is definitely for bragging rather than the need to save cash. But you should want it for the simple reason that this is a better powertrain than the old W-12. It sounds better, it makes more power and all the effort reaches the street through a vastly improved chassis. Should you want to drive on electron flow then you could potentially do so for months on end without firing the engine, although at the cost of lugging the V-8 around cold. But the Continental GT Speed Hybrid is at its best when both sides of its powertrain get to work together.
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