Bentley Flying Spur: Hybrid Power & Luxury Refined

Of note: Bentley’s brand-new “Azure” trim. It’s meant to evoke an extra relaxed yet overtly lavish tone contrasted to the “Rate” cut we sampled in the Bentayga on day one.

Bentley’s New Azure Trim

Sure, Bentley flew me to Montana to see its headlining act, the new Bentayga Rate. However prior to a mid-day return flight on day two, there were some other Bentleys to take into consideration, lined up in the horseshoe driveway of our Big Sky hotel.

As much as I delighted in the Bentayga Speed and its large capacities, the Flying Spur is simply the Bentley closest to my heart. I suppose it’s impossible to clarify– though I’ll attempt– yet with the Bentleys that ride closer to the ground as opposed to flaunting around like The Mayor of Monaco on 23-inch wheels– well, there’s just something a little bit more … Bentley concerning a Traveling Spur. Some restraint.

The Allure of the Flying Spur

Now, I don’t really understand what it seems like to don a ruby locket, most likely due to the fact that I’m bound by the stolid irons of masculinity. (Also I can not pay for to browse at Tiffany, so let’s go with the irons). If you’re spending the expense of a great Midwestern home on a type of transportation, maybe a ruby pendant on wheels is the type of hyperbolic feeling worth wheeling out of your driveway.

While a growing number of clients most likely to Bentley for their SUVs, I find that Bentley’s autos use a purer expression of the brand’s traditional ideals. Also if you inevitably leave of the display room with a Bentayga’s keys in your pocket, you owe it to on your own to consider the alternatives.

Bentley urges this streamlining is an advantage, that its clients don’t miss the hallowed W-12 engine which made use of to power the large bruisers in its profile. Proof remains in the sales, they contend. W-12 acquisitions tailed off towards the end of the engine’s production run, while these subsequent V-8 Hybrids have proven enormously prominent, contributing massively to Bentley’s placement as Volkswagen Group’s golden goose.

Hybrid Power and Performance

In slow-moving suburbs bordering the resort, the kick of hybrid torque eases each Bentley easily up brief, punchy climbs up without a solitary extra whit of strain from the drivetrain. No kicking down 2 or 3 equipments when you squeeze the gas pedal, interrupting the experience you’re rolling along on a breeze. Rather, there’s merely quiet, uncomplicated, assured propulsion from the hybrid electric motor.

W-12 acquisitions tailed off towards the end of the engine’s production run, while these subsequent V-8 Hybrids have shown greatly popular, contributing enormously to Bentley’s placement as Volkswagen Group’s cash money cow.

In slow-moving domestic locations bordering the hotel, the kick of hybrid torque reduces each Bentley effortlessly up brief, punchy climbs without a solitary additional speck of stress from the drivetrain. As a lot as I delighted in the Bentayga Speed and its large capacities, the Flying Spur is simply the Bentley closest to my heart. I expect it’s difficult to describe– though I’ll try– but with the Bentleys that ride closer to the ground rather of flaunting about like The Mayor of Monaco on 23-inch wheels– well, there’s just something a little bit more … Bentley about a Traveling Spur. Of note: Bentley’s brand-new “Azure” trim.

The cars and trucks confirm the factor about crossbreed V-8s themselves: This powertrain seems great and drives beautifully. I’ll call it perhaps the most-refined hybrid powertrain in the world. As a design curiosity and link to Bentley background, the W-12 can not be replaced. From the vehicle driver’s point of view, the V-8 hybrid makes certain the outward bound W-12 will not be missed out on.

A Timeless Bentley Interior

Then there’s the diamond-pattern sewing holding each leather panel with each other, the visual depth of the magnificently painted trim items running along the dash, and in basic, the means this indoor appearances like it’s resting inside a jewelry expert’s glass screen situation. This is a lovely inside, and I can not honestly say that regarding practically any modern-day automobile.

This is timeless Bentley, long and low and made from blocky forms that appear to be fined sand down so completely at the sides, you visualize water trickling off the important things even when it’s sat under Montana’s cobalt skies. You look at it, the Traveling Spur is awesome.

What does that in fact imply? Well, the Flying Spur’s drivetrain doesn’t punch theatrically at your backside when its transmission shifts throughout a flat-foot quarter-mile blast, unlike the Bentayga’s mill. The Spur’s hybrid system just smears the gear shifts together like a swipe of warm honey down your back while the engine note boils over gruffly on a swell of syrupy, easy mega-torque.

And possibly it’s just exactly how this Traveling Spur was spec ‘d by Bentley, but there’s a stateliness to the Traveling Spur’s inside that fits better with my very own preconceptions of the Bentley namesake. The “Cumbrian Environment-friendly” leather is laid across the Spur’s inside by the backyard, binding the interior in a color of avocado-skin that really feels simultaneously rich, luxuriant, and assured in its stateliness.

That’s all to say: I can obtain my stealth wide range hit from the back seat of a Genesis G90 or an S-Class on 19s; We aim to Crewe to supply something of such superb high quality and design that it mixes us mentally.

The huge(ish) news here among the assembled non-Bentaygas is that hybrid V-8s now power the totality of the Continental GT and Flying Spur ranges, tuned to differing horsepower and torque numbers based on trim, but constantly with at least 670 horse power and 685 pound-feet.

Hybrid V-8 Dominance

Bentley’s GT/C Azure convertible cranks the high-end up another notch, yet in a sort of fresh, new-age method. If the Spur is a stuffy kind of throwback to British coachmaking’s golden age, the Azure is brand-new luxury; It attends kombucha-ayahuasca health retreats in Sonoma with the various other girlbosses and gets there by private chopper.

You see that perspective throughout the interior of this blue-on-silver beauty. The leather top quality and amount match the Flying Spur’s, yet the Azure provides its inside in cooler shades, evoking a luxury yacht’s smooth ease.

Azure: A Modern Luxury

A hybrid schedule isn’t much to compose home (or to viewers) around, but I was overcome by the overwhelming Bentley-ness of both cars I evaluated. After a 45-minute hole in the Continental GTC, I just doodled superlatives in my notebook.

The large leather surface areas are broken just by white comparison stitching and a walnut veneer stretching throughout the lower dashboard and facility console. This dash format looks a little dated compared to the Bentayga, however it just fits the Traveling Spur.