Blogging Bentley: Continental Flying Spur a $196,395 Treat

It isn’t often we have a car in the garage that carries a price tag commensurate with Hyundai’s entire lineup. And considering I’m the low man on the car-reviewing totem pole, it’s even less likely that when we do, I get to drive it. My recent assignments included a Nissan Murano, Honda Element and Chrysler Pacifica — nice cars all, but they’re not necessarily setting the auto world on fire. But last Friday, my luck changed a bit: I was handed the keys to a Bentley Continental Flying Spur.

It sat in a deserted corner atop the 2,000-space parking garage near our Chicago offices, and by midmorning some fellow had decided his Cadillac DTS was fit to share its company. Never mind that the Caddy’s 275-hp V-8 delivers less than half the output of Bentley’s 552-hp, twin-turbo W-12, but let’s not waste any more virtual ink comparing the two.

Unlike sportier cars in this price range, the Bentley’s styling is utterly simple, free of any bumper jewelry or performance add-ons. The only real eye-poppers are the front disc brakes — they sit behind 19-inch wheels, and they’re big enough to wait tables with.

Puttering around in downtown traffic, the car feels deliberately sedate. The accelerator has a heavy-handed resistance to it, as if trying to tell you it’s best to leave the V-12 alone. Indeed, those who dare push the pedal past its initial comfort zone should have some open pavement ahead. Pressed for modest power, the engine hurtled me from stoplight speeds to 50 mph in moments.

All of this happens seamlessly, of course. Even at highway speeds, where compact cars struggle to keep up, the engine lopes along: 50 mph feels like 30, 80 feels like 50. A buck-twenty feels like … no, I didn’t go there. Not that stopping from such a pace would be difficult — the platter-sized brakes deliver impressive stopping speed, and the automatic transmission blips its own downshifts to match.

A few minor quibbles with the cabin. It’s wrapped in rich materials — think leather footwells and wood ceiling consoles — but various elements fail to impart any tangible quality beyond what you’d get in a Mercedes S-Class. Some controls, like the steering-wheel audio buttons, aren‘t even up to Lexus levels. A lot of common luxury features, like swiveling headlights and sunshades for the rear side windows, were absent from our test car.

Before the jet set stones me for holding such opinions, bear in mind a great deal of the interior — the dashboard materials in particular — goes far beyond anything a lesser car could offer. It’s just that I expected the Flying Spur to ace every category. Tough standards, I know, but a car that costs $196,395 demands them.

Back to the totem pole for now. With days like last Friday, the view from the bottom ain’t so bad.