The Bentley Continental GT Speed
In the first part of our Driving Force series from the AW 2022/23 issue, LUX’s car reviewer gets behind the wheel of Bentley Continental GT Speed.
In this era of speed cameras and efficiency, the idea of a 12-cylinder car expressly made for two people touring the continent and called Speed, seems so impossibly incorrect that we had to try it. Our Bentley Continental GT Speed came in Damson, a rather tasteful purple close to black. The interior was also a deep purple, not of the heavy-metal kind but more what you might expect in the drawing room of the mildly wayward youngest son of an Italian count.
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Considering it is one of the faster models in a powerful car range beloved of footballers, as well as a wealth of a variety of other types, the Speed is remarkably un-blingy and understated. The engine hums: a tuneful moderate hum around town, a more purposeful hum on the highway and a ?tuning up at the opera? hum when accelerating hard, when it is accompanied by a tasteful ?whoosh?. It never makes any other noises, though; that would be out of keeping. The standard Bentley Continental GT is such a good car of the type ? comfortable, beautiful, powerful, fast and exclusive in feel ? you need a good reason to choose the Speed, with its extra horsepower, instead. Driving around town, the difference is marginal. It picks up with a tad more vigour and turns corners more sharply, but this is a heav...