The 2014 Bentley Flying Spur. Don't call it a Continental.
Bentley got tired of people deriding the Flying Spur as a mere four-door Continental — or worse, a nouveau Volkswagen Phaeton. It's one of the fastest production sedans in the world, for Jeeves' sake. To wit, Bentley is rolling out a new Flying Spur for the Geneva Motor Show, one that had been previously teased — now that we get a full look at it, we're glad that it distinguishes itself from the Continental .
The new Flying Spur — it's just Flying Spur now, no Continental prefix — gets squared-off styling that brings it more in line with the Mulsanne than ever before. For once, the quad headlights are relatively the same size, instead of zit-like afterthoughts. The blocky lines look awkward from some angles — as if it's a cartoon car owned by Montgomery Burns — but when viewed from profile, it starts to slowly make sense.
More from the Geneval Motor Show
Those rear haunches are difficult to style right, but Bentley's designers have narrowly snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. The gently rounded rear end is reminiscent of one of those Rolls-Royce Silver Spirits that they started building the 1980s and forgot to complete production, the kind now driven by hairy Venice Beach irony traffickers and Rodney Dangerfield's villains.
But enough about the styling: there's still a real, and capable, automobile underneath. The 6.0-liter W12 engine now produces 616 hp and 590 lb-ft of torque. Sixty miles per hour is now achieved in 4.3 seconds, which is a full second faster than the Porsche Boxster. Top speed is still 200 mph — no wimpy governors here, chap. Despite any connotations of fast lorries, this Flying Spur is 110 pounds lighter than the outgoing model, thanks to the use of high-strength metals. The Continental GT's optional twin-turbo V8 will not be available, at least not yet. But both cars share an 8-speed ZF transmission — and the Flying Spur is still AWD, with 60 percent of torque going to the back. Combined fuel economy will be 19.2 mpg.
