First Drive

  • Reviews

    The 2014 Bentley Continental GT V8 S Is Driven! (REVIEW)

    Bentley still appeals to those with an appreciation for strong, Old World traditionalism. Cars wearing the storied Flying B have been discussed in wood-panelled drawing rooms by men wearing earthy tweeds and corduroy through clouds of fragrant cigar and pipe smoke, for decades. It is a company that has spent nearly 100 years building cost-no-object automobiles, for rich drivers who require a tremendous way to waft above the Sturm und Drang of mortal motoring.

    The Bentley Continental GT, while unmistakably a party to that legacy of wooly privilege, has always seemed better suited to the nouveau riche than the landed gentry. The Mulsanne and the Continental Flying Spur still carry forward the brand’s heritage of unfathomably fast, gargantuan sedans, while the GT has been busy inveigling an entirely new class of buyer with its lottery-win good looks.

    This is grand touring of not just distance, then, but time and tradition as well…

    > Read Full Review at Autoblog

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    2014 Bentley Continental GT V8 S

     

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    2014 Bentley Continental GT V8 S

    The New Bentley Continental GT V8 S Revealed at the NAIAS 2014

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  • Reviews

    Top Gear First drive: Bentley Continental V8 S (REVIEW)

    So what is it?

    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
    First drive: Bentley Continental V8 S - Carhoots

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  • Latest Release/ Reviews

    Look at Me! 2014 BMW 4-series Convertible Driven (REVIEW)

    Americans care about precisely one thing in a convertible, and at the risk of blaspheming our national anthem, we will transcribe it thusly: O say can you see me? We are an extroverted people, our convertibles meant to be driven with the top down such that everyone can see how much we’re enjoying the sun and fun. Germans, on the other hand, have this peculiar notion that when you quite literally peel back the roof of a coupe there are further considerations beyond the afternoon weather forecast. For them, structural stiffness, interior noise, and all-season utility count as well, so it’s not surprising then that the new BMW 4-series convertible gets good marks in all three categories. READ MORE ››

    Look at Me! 2014 BMW 4-series Convertible Driven
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