Bentley has revealed a faster and more powerful V8 Bentayga Speed

Bentley doesn’t make its 6.0-litre W12 rolling thundercloud anymore, so for its new Bentayga Speed has deployed an eight-cylinder powerhouse to startling – and surprisingly sideways – levels.

So welcome to the new Bentley Bentayga Speed: now a V8-powered luxury SUV with a ‘Sport’ mode. That’s right, ‘Sport’… in a big, two-and-a-half-tonne SUV.

Bentley said this new mode makes it exceedingly pointy, because ‘Sport’ stiffens up the dampers by 15 per cent, backs off the ESC “to permit exhilarating drift angles or power-on oversteer”, and even launch control. That’s right, ‘drift angles’ and launch control… in a big, two-and-a-half-tonne SUV.

And speaking of launches, you’ll get there quicker in this V8 car than in the old W12-engined Bentayga Speed. Bentley quotes 0-62mph in just 3.4s, a full half-second quicker than the 6.0-litre car. It’s also a full second quicker to 62mph than the regular V8 S.

Interestingly, Bentley hasn’t gone for the 771bhp hybrid V8 monster as fitted in the nose of the Conti GT Speed, but an ‘uprated’ twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8. Uprated to the tune of 641bhp and 627lb ft. More power than the outgoing Bentayga Speed (which had 626bhp), but less torque (the old SUV churned out 664lb ft).

Still, Bentley has given it a good old bark, because there’s a standard-fit sports exhaust, or the option of an Akrapovic titanium system. A far better soundtrack to accompany that new ‘Sport’ mode, which joins the standard ‘Comfort’ and ‘Bentley’ modes, the latter two carried over from the W12 car.

There’s all-wheel-steering and the option of carbon ceramics, which all points to Bentley’s efforts to make this massive luxury SUV… dance. Or, in Bentley parlance, “recalibrates one’s expectations of handling, roadholding, accelerating and steering response for a luxury SUV”. Quite.

As befits a Bentley Speed car, the big Bentayga gets dark tint brightware, Speed badging inside and out, 22in wheels (with the option of 23s), a choice of caliper colours, an optional black roof, a new ‘Precision Diamond’ quilt pattern for the interior, and a darker secondary leather as the “predominant” colour.

No word on how much this surprisingly sideways Bentley SUV will cost, but it'll be... more.