The new 771bhp Flying Spur Speed is the fastest four-door Bentley ever built

This is a four-door, hybrid family saloon made by a small British manufacturer that boasts low emissions and a very decent real-world electric-only range.

Where it differs from yer average four-door, hybrid family saloon however, is in its 771 horsepowers, huge torque reserves and bountiful speed. Because this is no ordinary four-door, hybrid family saloon – it is the new Bentley Flying Spur Speed.

And the new Bentley Flying Spur Speed comes with a new ‘Ultra Performance Hybrid’ drivetrain able to swoosh this British bruiser from 0-62mph in just 3.5s (0-60mph in 3.3s – half a second quicker than before). Bentley calls it its first “four-door supercar”, and you’d be hard pushed to disagree.

So yes, it looks much like the outgoing Flying Spur, but then the outgoing Flying Spur already looked very handsome indeed. The changes are all deep within, with this fourth-generation car sitting on a new architecture allowing the instalment of many electrons.

So there’s a twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 up front that replaces the old 6.0-litre W12 thunderstorm, unfurling 592bhp on its own, ably assisted by a 187bhp electric motor fitted inside the eight-speed dual clutch gearbox, a 25.9kWh battery and four-wheel-drive.

When in ‘EV’ mode, Bentley reckons on a range of 47 miles. When in full fat ‘Sport’ mode, Bentley reckons on 771bhp, 738lb ft, and “the charismatic cross-plane beat of the V8”. Those numbers make it Bentley’s most powerful saloon.

It’s also Bentley’s most comfortable saloon, thanks to new very fancy dampers that allow rebound and compression to be separately controlled. That, says Bentley, means there’s a greater difference between ‘Comfort’, ‘Bentley’ and ‘Sport’ modes, but more importantly makes Comfort even comfier.

The ‘Active Chassis’ is standard fit on the Flying Spur Speed, featuring ‘Dynamic Ride’, all-wheel-steering and an electronically controlled limited slip diff. There’s torque vectoring, next-gen ESC and a weight distribution of 48.3:51.7 front to rear.

Not fussed about where all that power is being sent? Soothe thine fevered brow and step inside, where you’re welcomed by broadly the same impeccable cabin as before, beautifully finished using a range of expensive material. The seats feature a new design with 3D diamond quilting, there’s ‘diamond’ hide on the doors and B-pillars, new graphics for the driver instrumentation and many, many, many options.

Like the ‘Dark Chrome’ spec, the superb rotating display, or literally whatever you desire via Bentley’s coachbuilding arm, Mulliner. “Customers continue to have tens of billions of configuration possibilities to select from,” says Bentley. Tens of billions. Perhaps it’s correct that Bentley has barely changed the exterior.

Though, a few new bits have crept in. Like dark tint exterior brightware, a new grille, front bumper and rear diffuser specifically for the Speed, new LED welcome lights in the doors, and more 22in alloy wheel options. If it ain’t broke, and all that.

But if you feel broken, the new Flying Spur will help mend you, via the optional ‘Wellness Seating Specification”, that includes climate-controlled seats that slowly adjust your posture and relieve pressure, so you don’t get tired. There’s semi-assisted driving too, park assist, and even filtered air conditioning that can talk to the sat nav so that if you’re in a tunnel, it’ll work harder to clean the air.

“Few vehicles on the planet can boast such a spread of ability,” says Bentley of this fourth-generation, four-door hybrid family saloon.