The Continental Flying Spur
The iconic, age-old Raffles Hotel in Singapore, dubbed by some as the “Grand Old Lady,” has a Bentley Continental Flying Spur as its in-house limousine for VIP guests. It is beige, with a beige interior. That should say it all.
And yet, to leave it at that would be missing the point of the Continental Flying Spur, somewhat. The dynamic new S-Class V12 Mercedes and BMW's 7-series V12 – not to mention the almost-sporty A8 and Phaeton W12s, both sharing the same parentage (and basic engine configuration) as the Bentleys – all have “lesser” siblings with smaller engines, weight figures, and price tags, making the very rare 12-cylinder variants posh versions of essentially mass-market cars. The Bentley, however, starts and ends the Continental Flying Spur range with the one model, the mighty, twin-turbocharged, 6.0 liter, W12.
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And let's be honest here, anything more than that would simply be too much. Rolls-Royce – and precipitously, the “old,” Rolls-Royce-owned Bentley – would quote their power figures as being “adequate,” the exact figures were always undisclosed. This, despite them being rather inadequate by today's demanding standards. The Continental Flying Spur, however, has a supremely powerful 552 horsepower beast of an engine that responds lustily to every last millimeter of throttle travel, because of its table-mountain of torque, sustained from 1600 rpm to near redline.
Without a smooth driver at the helm, and with that sort of power, those being driven risk feeling sick for a number of reasons: the relentless, often-scary thrust and a slightly unsettled ride conspire to induce mild bouts of nausea for those in the cavernous back seat. But driven as a luxury car should be – swift, but smooth – the Flying Spur acquits itself beautifully as a limousine. The high-speed ride on Comfort mode is beyond reproach, as is the feeling of space and luxury in the marvelously appointed cabin. Quality is a word that underestimates the sheer superiority this car exudes over more mass-market 12-cylinder upstarts.
As a driving tool, however, it is not quite so engaging a drive as some of its younger-feeling competitors. Chief offender in all of this is the steering, which is smooth but has very little feedback, whatever the speed. As such, the general cornering feel is heavy, with early understeer coming into play just after turn-in and staying there no matter what one does with the throttle. Admittedly, the limits of this car are fairly astonishing, and in the right hands this car could cover ground very quickly indeed.
I have no doubt, however, that the Flying Spur will in all likelihood only be driven hard very, very few times in its otherwise dignified life, meaning that surfeit of urge – and the early-onset understeer – will probably never be felt. Which means that this massive sedan is, despite its promising on-paper specification, less of a sporting saloon than its competitors and more a relaxing, effortless, wafting luxury car.
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