Bentley Continental GT Convertible review

It's exceedingly refined, roof up or down. So you won't notice you’re doing multiples of the speed limit until you’ve been pulled over and thrown in prison, which is mildly irritating.

Bentley claims the cabin is as quiet as the old coupe’s, and we believe them. Sit in traffic and there's no telltale murmur of pedestrians that usually give away the fact you're in a soft-top.

Indeed, there are so-called ‘luxury’ cars with proper, non-folding roofs with louder cabins than the GT Convertible’s. And when you’ve got the roof down (and windows and wind-break up), there’s basically no turbulence to speak of. Your hair will survive the journey intact. The light breeze might even give it a bit more volume. Keeping you warm with the roof down are a pair of air vents that blow hot air on the back of your neck, heated seats and heated armrests.

Does it feel worth a quarter of a million pounds?

The interior is very good indeed; techier and better made than an Aston DB11’s, and more opulent than a Ferrari Portofino’s. Everything that looks like metal is metal, ergo everything that looks like leather is leather and everything that looks like wood is wood. All the stalks and buttons (there are loads) are beautifully damped. Its party piece is the optional rotating infotainment screen, which lets you hide the 12.3in display behind either a plain piece of veneer, or a collection of analogue clocks (a compass, temperature gauge and stopwatch). The instrument cluster is a version of VW/Audi’s Virtual Cockpit, and there’s a superb head-up display too.  

The infotainment system itself looks like it borrows the basics of its interface from the Porsche Panamera, with a vertical menu down the side for switching between media/climate/nav and so on. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are present and accounted for. The base stereo is a 10-speaker, 650 watt setup by Bentley itself. But you’ll want to upgrade to either the 16-speaker, 1,500 watt system by B&O or the 18-speaker, 2,200 watt system by Naim. You really, really will.

Seating is for four, though you won’t use the rear two (it’s either carry three passengers and sacrifice your hairdo, or pick your favourite and keep the wind-break) and while it’s obviously not as spacious as the coupe, there’s still space enough for everyone’s luggage. The boot remains the same size - roof up or down.