Bentley Bentayga review

We don’t want to speak ill of the dead, but smooth, deep chested and potent though it was, the W12 never suited the Bentayga as well as the V8. This 4.0-litre twin turbo is used in everything from the Audi RS6 to the Lamborghini Urus, so there’s nothing particularly specialised about it, nothing bespoke to Bentley. And yet it suits the Bentayga to a tee. Smooth at low revs, eager and responsive higher up and equipped with a soundtrack that is noticeable and enjoyable when it needs to be.

It also does speed more than well enough. Even when fitted in the heaviest version – the 2,514kg EWB Mulliner – the 542bhp V8 is capable of hurling the Bentayga to 62mph in just 4.6 seconds and on to 180mph. It simply wouldn’t suit it to go faster. But it’s the manner of this performance that suits it so well – as attested to by its torque, a massive 568lb ft available from a mere 2,000rpm.

And what of the hybrid version?

Let’s just say that it does a particular job, having enough pure electric range to allow emissions-free urban trips, but the technology isn’t cutting edge – it doesn’t permit fast charging, can’t use the V6 to generate battery charge and the 126bhp e-motor isn’t strong enough to move the car’s frame without the V6 firing. A V6 that sounds too reedy and isn’t as thunderous and well-mannered as the V8.

The Hybrid has its advantages – namely, the ability to drive on electric power for up to 25 miles – and is worth looking at if you want to run your Bentayga as a company car or regularly drive into towns/cities with low-emissions zones. You can read all about the Bentayga Hybrid by clicking on these blue words or reading about our experiences of living with one for a few months.

Is the Bentayga fun to drive?

The Bentayga remains absurdly neat to drive given its 5m-by-2m size and 2.4-tonne kerb weight. The extra width in its rear track has sharpened up the steering a bit and reduced another ounce of effort from its already relaxed driver. Choose to travel at a sedate pace and it’s so easy-going, the handful of semi-autonomous driver aids feel utterly superfluous.

Up your speed and things don’t get much tougher, unless you’ve turned onto your favourite stretch of backroad and suddenly discovered it feels half as wide as usual. With the help of a deeply clever 48v anti-roll suspension system – as deployed on the quick Audi Q7s the Bentayga bears relation to – its chassis acts like one if not half its size, then maybe two thirds.

It can be genuinely good fun: the way the rear of the car hunkers right down under hard acceleration, or when you aggressively chase the throttle right on the exit of a corner, can be laugh-out-loud hilarious. Perhaps enough to shatter any grumpy petrolhead predispositions about how ‘Premier League training ground’ the Bentayga looks when you first clap eyes on it.

The Hybrid doesn’t feel as resolved, owing to the added weight of the battery and nature of the powertrain, but it’s not meant to be in any way sporty or dynamic. It’s still comfortable, and that’s what really matters.

How does the new Speed version stack up?

Overlook its failure to read the room and it’s a lot of fun. As noted, Bentleys are cars with a very particular character, a certain heft and depth of quality being prime among them. The new Speed is noticeably faster than the outgoing version – 3.4 seconds to 60mph versus 3.9s for the W12-engined car – but there’s more to it than just sheer force and the numbers. The Bentayga has always managed its mass with a haughty confidence, and Bentley’s engineers have managed to wring more out of it even as the car heads towards pensionable age.

How so?

Well the engine is still combustion-era in all its raging, snarling pomp. A sports exhaust helps beef up the soundtrack, which is even more old-school and barrel-chested if you go for the Akrapovic titanium set-up. And if you’re shopping around in this sort of territory, why wouldn’t you? It’s a £7,740 option, but think of the bragging rights.

Comfort and Bentley driving modes remain as before, but the Sport setting has been thoroughly recalibrated. Damping stiffness is increased by 15 per cent, the steering is more feelsome, and the transmission ups its game for crisper gearshifts. But the real party trick comes via torque vectoring (by braking) for sharper turn-in and an even more amusing sense of physics being mercilessly bullied on corner exits. There’s also four-wheel steering and Launch Control for the first time on a Bentayga. The former is more useful than the latter.

And, if you’re on a loose surface, the ESC loosens the reins sufficiently to allow for some amusing drift angles. We drove the car on a trail in Montana with some precipitous drops on either side – this curtailed truly vigorous lairiness – but it still moves deftly. OK, so the Bentayga Speed isn’t as sharply dialled in as a Ferrari Purosangue or the Lamborghini Urus S – both of which feel much smaller and lighter than they are – but it’s still impressively dynamic. All the while delivering a real and perceived quality the Italians can’t quite muster.

Note, you must spec the optional carbon ceramic brakes to get access to this new extrovert part of the car’s personality. The best bet is to spring for the Dynamic Specification, which bundles the ceramic stoppers together with the 23in wheels (a £10,370 option all in). Levelling up is a Bentley speciality, and very good for business, as the labyrinthine options list attests. 

How do the regular brakes cope?

Yes, good point, well made. They’re fine up to a point, but stopping always takes much more apparent effort than going. You’re aware of just how much kinetic energy is not being harnessed.

Does it feel like a proper Bentley?

In truth, if any car is made for the incongruous, profit-embiggening switch to SUVs, it’s a Bentley. Already knowingly hefty – with few sops to lightweighting or litheness in the company’s saloons and coupes – the Bentayga really does just drive like a taller Bentley, and thus ought to be vastly less upsetting to the purists than a Urus or Purosangue.

And its manners are impeccable when you’re not being an imbecile, its cabin as quiet and cocooned as a Flying Spur’s and that extra bit of visibility it lends you over a saloon is yet more calming.