Coast-to-coast in Bentley's big new coupe cements its status as one of world's finest grand tourers money can buy
Serendipitous
In a rare moment of serendipity, not long before I climbed behind the wheel of the all-new Continental GT at Bentley’s HQ in Crewe, managing editor Marton Pettendy was extracting his tired carcass from the hot seat of an almost identical car 16,500km away on the Gold Coast.
As luck would have it, such is demand Down Under for the replacement for the ancient 15-year-old Conti GT that Bentley chose to launch the new one simultaneously with Europe, hence the unusual automotive tag-team.
With the first drive filed by Marty, my job is to take the big Bentley Continental GT coupe on a longer journey, away from the typical controlled launch environment.
And it’s a task I’m relishing, especially when we collect ‘our’ sparkling grey Continental GT under clear blue skies on a sunny late summer’s afternoon.
Baptism of ire
We’ll leave it up to you to judge whether the redesign of the Conti’s familiar styling cues has been a success, but basking under the golden rays in the metal, the lower and wider stance gives it the visual punch the old car lacked and always needed.
‘Purposeful’ best describes the throbbing, bassy tones that erupt from the twin exhausts shortly after stabbing the throttle.
It takes all of 4km to shatter the illusion that Crewe could double for somewhere in the Mediterranean when the weather turns sharply on a knife edge and our dream drive turns into more of a soggy affair.
Beginning with a few specks of rain, then an odd gust of wind, thick dark clouds slowly draw themselves across what was once azure blue sky. With headlights now on full, it doesn’t take long before it begins to pour.
Since the few hours left of today involves both a considerable amount of filming and photography, this is not good news but with little choice of any alternative dry location we point the Continental GT’s considerable snout west for the northern Welsh village of Cerrigydrudion.
By the time we arrive at the unpronounceable Cerrigydrudion, conditions – if anything — have worsened, temperatures have plunged and visibility is poor.
Not that there’s actually much to see anyway in the small hamlet. We’re actually here not to practice our Welsh but to hit the stretch of road that lies beyond the village that, bizarrely, has become something of a mecca for drivers of some of the fastest cars on the planet.
Known by car enthusiasts as the ‘Evo Triangle’, it’s here that the British performance car magazine that lends its name to it has famously tested six- and seven-figure supercars for more than two decades.
For good reason
Once you’ve escaped the small village there’s a 30km stretch of some of the finest sweepers in the UK, separated by tight and twisty corners and undulating black-top, providing a proper test for even the finest handling cars.
Better still, if it gets too busy, quieter local roads nearby and in the neighbouring Snowdonia National Park should keep you entertained for days. If you’re looking for the best driving roads this side of Scotland, this is where to come.
We’re not the only ones here though and, as we arrive, watching a pair of slow moving Porsche 911 GT3 RSs tread carefully through puddles 20mph below the posted limit doesn’t exactly inspire us with confidence.
Nor should it; along the route there’s supposedly plenty of supercar-shaped holes in the scenery, or at least that’s what some of the fables and mythology surrounding the road suggest.
Not that the Bentley Continental GT could care less.
Snow plough
Behind the wheel it doesn’t seem to have noticed the torrent of water streaming down the roads, the fallen leaves, or even the mini-mud slides.
Where lightweight supercars tiptoe around, this heavyweight bruiser of a coupe ploughs on undisturbed.
Despite being considerably more powerful than the old model, with the twin-turbo 6.0-litre W12 producing 473kW/900Nm (up from 423kW/700Nm), the traction afforded by its four driven wheels defies belief.
Spool up the turbos from a standstill and the Conti GT launches with such force and so little drama it feels quite capable of replicating its official 3.7-second 0-100km/h claim in two inches of water.
Switching platforms from the old car’s ancient Volkswagen Phaeton underpinnings to the all-new Porsche co-developed MSB architecture has also done the Bentley coupe a power of good.
Tip the 2.2 tonne Bentley Continental GT into a tight bend now at speed and, instead of missing the apex by a couple of zip codes, the new one grips harder than you would ever imagine.
Push more and this mechanical grip will even transition into the faint whiff of oversteer under power.
OK, it’s not quite a Toyota 86 — it’s ultimately far too heavy for that — but thanks to its trick 48-volt roll control system and advanced three-chamber air suspension, combined with adaptive dampers, the big Bentley offers blistering cross-country pace.
We just wish it was a bit smaller for British roads. On occasional stretches of the Triangle the road narrows to such an extent that meeting an equally large oncoming vehicle risks an unfortunate stone wall/aluminium body interface — which isn’t worth thinking about in a half-a-million-dollar car.
Plan B
By now poor videographer Damo is soaked to the skin and slowly turning blue, so after a quick discussion we vow never to holiday in late summer in north Wales and leave before the next big downpour.
It’s while heading west to our hotel that a plan is hatched for the next day to test the Bentley’s true GT credentials — a sea-to-sea drive from the west coast of Wales to the eastern Lincolnshire town of Skegness; a journey that will encompass everything from remote narrow B-roads, to wider country roads and highways.
Better still, the weather looks like it might return to tropical temperatures of around 12-14C with little chance of rain.
That night we accidentally stay in a small boutique hotel famous for its gourmet food. It’s proves a poor choice.
Within 10 minutes we managed to offend both the owners and paying guests by going to dinner in our sodden clothes, ordering the ‘wrong’ things, asking for ketchup and daring to pour our own wine.
The charm offensive continues early the next morning as the Bentley’s W12 rudely erupts, accompanied shortly by Damo’s noisier-still rattler of a diesel Benz van.
Back in the Bentley and the Continental GT cabin remains a welcome place to soak up the miles ahead, although its W12 remains an enigma.
Happier to rev than ever before, it’s a shame the conjoined pair of narrow V6s doesn’t have more of a repertoire.
The best we can say is the sound it makes is ‘interesting’, rather than life-affirming.
That said, despite the lack of screaming V12 or bellowing V8, we’d imagine most real owners would relish not the noise the Bentley makes but the astonishing levels of refinement it dishes up at speed.
Other than some tyre noise, at a typical 110km/h the large 6.0-litre mill is barely turning over, leaving you time to enjoy the $17,000(!) you’ve splashed out on your premium sound system.
Not so rosy
Strangely, the slower you go in the Continental GT the more the cracks start appearing in the Bentley grand tourer’s armour.
The old version was perfect at the low-speed wafting, but crawling around Sheffield’s suburbs we’re disappointed by the ride served up by the air suspension that, even in comfort, is unsettled.
Worse still, in the slow urban grind the new ZF-sourced eight-speed dual-clutch transmission lets the side down, unable to smooth both up- and down-changes, and even throwing in some ugly driveline shunt.
After an uneventful drive through the busy but breath-taking Peak District and pretty Lincolnshire Wolds, we make it to our end destination — the coastal town of Skegness.
‘Skeggy’, as it’s known to its locals, has had a bad rap in recent decades in the UK but has become fashionable (almost) in recent years on account of its white sandy beaches, fine seafood and population of seals and wildlife that frequent the surrounding shores.
Despite the influx of new visitors to the tired old Victorian town, the Bentley Continental GT’s arrival doesn’t pass unnoticed.
In fact, within moments it becomes something of an Instagram magnet, receiving plenty of glowing reviews for the British coupe’s imposing, rakish and downright exotic looks.
But perhaps the biggest compliment we can pay, after 24 hours and more than 700km behind the wheel, is that — aside from crying out for a proper automatic transmission —the Bentley Continental GT is more useable that an Aston Martin DB11 for everyday use, while managing to feel special in a way that a Porsche 911 Turbo or a Mercedes S-Class Coupe just doesn’t.
Towering options costs aside, after our extended drive we can finally declare that not only is Bentley yet another case of being the very Best of British, its latest Continental GT might very well be the best large coupe in the world.
Keyword: Best of Bentley: Cruising in a Continental GT