2020 Bentley Flying Spur First Edition: A Welcome Refuge in a Trying Time
Hoo boy, look at that!
I know, right? It’s gorgeous. That’s the new 2020 Bentley Flying Spur First Edition, resplendent in iridescent Hallmark Silver. It’s my quarantine limousine, this week. (If you must be stuck at home when your state shuts down all unnecessary travel, it’s better to have a Bentley in the driveway than a Buick, I say.) I’ve been able to drive it to the store a couple of times, to check on my mother-in-law 30 minutes away and on a jaunt through the less-traveled back roads of Southeast Michigan, maintaining my social — and financial — distance from all the lesser rides on the road.
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How much does it cost?
Always the first question. We’ll get to that later, be patient.
Well, it looks expensive.
It feels expensive, too. The styling is an evolution of the previous model, but with a more pronounced face, more dramatically creased fenders, a lower roofline, and … well, a more generic back end. (I guess not all of it got amped up when the stylists went through it.)
But it most definitely turns heads, especially when painted in this lovely metallic gray that actually works well with the Blackline Specification trim that eliminates most of the Flying Spur’s chrome. Some folks think that this dark trim package doesn’t really work for a proper British ultra-luxury car, but Bentley has always been the sportier brand when compared with Rolls-Royce, that other super-premium British car brand, so I think the look works. It feels longer and lower than the previous car, less upright and formal. I like it a lot more than the last version.
What’s with the flags on the D-pillar panels?
Well, this is the Flying Spur “First Edition,” a special run of models that feature some unique touches to the styling. First Edition badges are present on the dash, exterior sail panels and tread plates, while you have a choice of embroidery for the seats — either the First Edition badge or the winged Bentley badge.
Most notable are the illuminated Bentley Flying B hood ornament (or “bonnet mascot” in Bentley-speak) that retracts into the hood when you lock the doors or push a button on the large multimedia screen. That screen is the Bentley Rotating Display, which features three panels — the plain piano-black veneer, the multimedia display or a classy three-dial gauge panel with a track timer, exterior thermometer and compass. So, if you don’t want a screen there or a blank veneered panel, push a button and it rotates to a third option — kind of like James Bond’s license plate on his 1964 Aston Martin DB5 from “Goldfinger.”
It looks a bit fancier than that, though.
It is. Bentley also includes a number of normally optional features and packages with the First Edition Specification, such as the Mood Lighting Specification (adjustable interior lighting colors), the Touring Specification (lane assist, night vision and a head-up display), and the Mulliner Driving Specification (fancier “Lofted Diamond” three-dimensional seat upholstery and 22-inch wheels).
It feels considerably more special than any of the Bentleys I’ve driven in recent years, including the Bentayga SUV or the previous Flying Spur. The materials quality is there, easily rivaling Rolls-Royce’s latest offerings, including the exceptional Cullinan SUV I sampled in 2019. The stitching in the seats, dash and steering wheel is flawless. The leather looks, feels and smells like the most luxurious jacket you’ve ever come across. The piano-black trim with a brushed-chrome trim that lined the cabin in my test car was not what I would have chosen to accentuate the monochrome Cricket Ball burgundy interior, but it was still perfectly assembled and looked dynamite.
And the comfort of all the seats including heat, massage and multiple power adjustments is exceptional. There isn’t a bad seat in the house.
What’s it packing under the hood?
Eventually I did stop luxuriating in its glorious backseat, taking Zoom meetings from the massaging, heated, padded leather thrones, to get behind the wheel to see how it handles itself. The Flying Spur is powered by one of the most unique engines in the world: a twin-turbocharged 6.0-liter W-12 engine making a whopping 626 horsepower and 664 pounds-feet of torque. It’s essentially two narrow-angle V-6 engines joined at the block and sharing a common crankcase, or four banks of three cylinders each.
It’s ridiculously complicated, quite heavy, exceedingly rare and gloriously powerful. All that power is shunted through an eight-speed transmission and divided up among all four wheels, as rear-biased all-wheel drive is standard.
A 12-cylinder engine has to feel pretty special. How is it different from lesser engines?
The beauty of any 12-cylinder is in its inherent smoothness. On the highway, it just hums along with almost no vibration at all. Even when sitting and idling, it just purrs. The most unusual experience comes with acceleration, which arrives in a seamless rush; you don’t feel any transmission shifts, but it’s accompanied by a whooshing roar that doesn’t even sound like a typical car engine. If anything, it kind of sounds like a city bus. There’s no visceral thrill from it like you’d get from a big V-8 — it’s just a power plant instead of a fuel-to-noise converter.
With that many cylinders, what’s the gas mileage?
Shhhhh …the aristocracy cares not about such trivialities. (It’s terrible; the car weighs as much as a Chevrolet Tahoe SUV).
Being that heavy, it must be pretty wallowy on the road.
Not in the slightest. Yes, it does feel like the great big sedan that it is, and there’s really no disguising that kind of weight. But its suspension is a surprising mix of firmness and excellent body control. The Bentley doesn’t deliver the silent, wafty experience that you’d get in a Rolls-Royce, and even on the Comfort setting for the suspension, it still transmits bumps and road noise into the cabin thanks to those 22-inch wheels and surprisingly high manufacturer-recommended tire pressures. But pop it into Sport mode and it gets responsive, frisky and decidedly more athletic.
The steering is heavily boosted, so steering feel is marginal at best, but this is fine. It’s by no means a sports car or even a sporty sedan, but if you’re looking to eat up highway miles in high-speed control and comfort, it’s practically unparalleled. The Flying Spur won’t encourage you to be spirited in your driving, but it won’t deny you that fun either.
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All right, then I’ll ask again: How much does it cost?
Sigh. Fine, we’ll go there: The sticker price on this 2020 Bentley Flying Spur First Edition is a cool $281,175 (including a destination charge). And of course, the next question is, inevitably, “Is it worth that much?” Well, for people who have that kind of money and value such purchases, yes, it is.
As someone who will never in his life have the kind of money to spend on a car that costs as much as a very nice house … I still think it’s worth it. It’s an exclusive product, it feels decidedly special, and what you’re really paying that much money for is the ability to customize it however you want. You can choose from literally dozens of paint colors, just about any combination of interior color and pattern you can imagine, various leathers, color schemes, wood veneers, carpet trim and more. If you have enough cash, Bentley will actually paint it any color you want and throw in custom-dyed leather, too. Try out the Bentley configurator online — you can spend hours just playing with all the different possible combinations.
Now you just have to win the lottery, eh?
Tell me about it.
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