MALIBU, Calif. – After I first moved to New York Metropolis within the early Nineties, two careers earlier than I turned an automotive author, I labored as a preschool trainer in Brooklyn. I rode my bike to work from Manhattan every day, over the Brooklyn Bridge, probably the most bountiful alternatives for car-spotting in a metropolis with the nation’s lowest charges of car possession. Probably the most notable car I noticed commonly was a stately and really violet Bentley sedan. The one factor extra outrageous than its Azure Purple exterior colour, and the distinctive rumbling of its signature 6.75-liter V8, was its self-importance license plate. Seeming to suggest that its proprietor was a proctologist or gastroenterologist, it learn, MD TUSH.
As I drove that automotive’s descendant, an excessively purple Bentley Flying Spur Hybrid, I couldn’t cease considering of MD TUSH, whomever they had been. Their flash. Their panache. Their dedication to being seen – even from the elevated bike path of New York’s unique suspension bridge. One may argue that that is a part of the job of an event automotive like this, a $204,000 (base value) sedan that’s so long as a Chevrolet Tahoe. It’s alleged to make an impression.
So it is counterintuitive that the Flying Spur Hybrid all the time begins off in EV Drive mode, which prioritizes the only use of the rechargeable 14.1 kWh lithium-ion battery pack. It decidedly does not make an impression. I suppose that one can’t low cost the ingredient of shock. However in that mode – considered one of three accessed by means of a metallic button on the middle console’s button-resplendent floor – the large four-door skulks off with eerie silence, and can proceed to take action for about 25 miles on the European WLTP cycle (EPA certification has not but been accomplished, however it’s going to probably be decrease than the EU quantity), whereupon it wants 2.5 hours to cost with a quick charger of unspecified voltage by way of a conspicuous port on the left rear fender.
As a preview of Bentley’s promised all-electric future – which can start with its first absolutely battery powered-vehicle in 2025, en path to a full-line voltaic conversion by 2030 – the Flying Spur has some attract. With its silence, thrust, and uncanny eeriness, electrical energy fits ultra-luxury limousines.
However whereas the electrical motor gives a not-insignificant 134 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque – sufficient to propel the 5,523-pound behemoth as much as 80 mph, finally – it’s principally meant for low-speed use round city, notably in city locales which have or are about to ban (or closely tax) the usage of ICE automobiles within the metropolis middle.
As a stopgap compliance automotive, this makes some sense. Nevertheless, like Bentley’s earlier effort at hybridization, the Flying Spur Hybrid sports activities some challenges. With its new 2.9-liter twin-turbocharged V6 including 410 hp and 406 lb-ft to the electron sipper, the PHEV has a mixed complete of 536 hp and 553 lb-ft. That is only a bit lower than the 386-pound-lighter Flying Spur V8, however acceleration does not endure as a lot as you’d anticipate: the 0-60 mph time of 4.1 seconds is simply one-tenth of a second slower than the V8. The difficulty is it does so in a fairly un-Bentley-like method. The powertrain doesn’t really feel as easy as a automotive from the Flying B model ought to. There’s one thing barely coarse about its motion, its emotion. One thing nearly reaching, just like the engine is working more durable than it ought to to realize its duties.
It additionally feels oddly indecisive when within the two different drive modes: Hybrid, which blends energy sources to maximise effectivity, and Maintain mode, which successfully locks out the all-electric vary so there’s nonetheless some accessible while you attain a kind of EV-only city facilities. As a substitute of a constant, and satisfying, thrum, the powertrain switches modalities with the capricious fervor of a cat with the midnight crazies. Electrical! Engine! Each! Engine! Electrical! It’s noticeable, which it shouldn’t be in a Bentley, all of the extra so as a result of the model gives a devoted gauge within the cluster that charts solely this. It’s the primary time I missed the times of previous, when automobiles like this didn’t even hassle with a tachometer. Rolls-Royces nonetheless do not.
This touchiness additionally one way or the other took away from the automotive’s driving, dealing with, and braking capacities. In earlier engagements, the non-hybrid Flying Spur completely astounded with its agility, the end in a part of its trick four-wheel-steering system, its energetic anti-roll bars, and the disc brakes housed inside 20-, 21-, or 22-inch wheels, every of which is roughly the scale of Polyphemus’ contact lens. The mountain and canyon roads pushed right here in Malibu are among the many most supreme in America. But I didn’t really feel the identical wonderful, joyous giddyup of the W12 or V8 within the Spurple Reign. I attempted the game mode, dubbed “Bentley,” and even toyed with the Particular person setting for the pc managed throttle, steering, and transmission. It was far above common, however it doesn’t matter what I did, I couldn’t get the spurs into this Spur.
Thankfully, the cabin maintains a lot of the qualities that make a up to date Bentley such a particularly nice place. The dolphin-colored leather-based on the seats and steering wheel would possibly as effectively have clicked like Flipper it was so enchanting. The purple leather-based in every single place else would’ve made Prince really feel at dwelling. The non-obligatory five-figure Naim stereo completely pulverized, reworking the brand new Weeknd album into nihilistic disco bucket wheel excavator. The carbon fiber trim is little question among the many most interesting accessible, however personally, of the 56 billion methods Bentley says you’ll be able to configure a Flying Spur, carbon fiber wouldn’t be on the construct sheet for my $250,000 sedan. Crewe’s veneers are among the many finest on the earth so why skimp on the marquetry in favor of, effectively, plastics?
Nothing is skimped on within the again seat, which I loved much more than the thrones up when given a possibility to be chauffeured. It reclined, it lacked superfluous LCD shows. (Thanks, I’ve my very own superior display right here in my hand.) It even had massagers, one thing that purple butt physician’s Bentley didn’t possess, regardless that, in contrast to this imperfect model of an almost good sedan, it might have been precisely on model.
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