Lewis Shaw
A Bentley Continental V8 with a little extra. This is good news: since the arrival of the second-gen GT in 2012, the ‘base’ 500bhp 4.0-litre V8 has been our pick of the engines over the more powerful 6.0-litre W12.
But this V8 S, says Bentley, is a car pitched at V8 owners ‘who want more’. It’s priced at £139,000, some £16,000 more than the regular V8, which places it above the regular 567bhp W12 but below the range-topping, 616bhp W12 Speed on the price scale.
What do I get for my extra 16 grand?
More powerrrr. Twenty-one horsepowers more, to be precise, taking the twin-turbo V8?s output to 521bhp and cutting the 0-60 time to 4.3 seconds, the same as the regular W12. V-max? 192mph. Sufficient.
Torque is up, too, from 487lb ft to 502lb ft, the whole lot on tap from 1700rpm right the way through to 6000rpm. Such grunt reaches all four wheels through an eight-speed ZF auto recalibrated to hold onto the gears for longer.
So should I buy one?
If you’ve 140 grand to spend on a very fast GT, then yes, yes, yes. True, the standard Continental W12 offers more power for slightly less cash, but the V8 S is cleverer than that. It’s a car concerned with the detail rather than merely the headline figures, and all the better for it.
Read full Review and see more images at Top Gear
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