Automotive Einstein

The numbers, put into perspective
The new Bentley Continental GT V-8 is 55 pounds lighter than the W-12.
That’s good, but not great. At least, the weight was removed where it matters most: on top of the front wheels.

Photo Gallery: First Drive: Bentley Continental GT V8 – Automobile Magazine

Photo Gallery: First Drive: Bentley Continental GT V8 – Automobile Magazine

The Mulsanne is the ultimate Bentley sedan, a car that combines tradition, engineering, and luxury like no other. It boasts aluminum front fenders and a composite trunk lid in a largely vain effort to save weight, but that hardly matters since there’s a twin-turbo V-8 under the hood sending an incredible 752 lb-ft of torque through an eight-speed automatic transmission. Bentley quotes a top speed of 184 mph, not bad for a 5700-pound sedan lined with your choice of eight standard wood veneers and twenty-four standard interior leather colors. (Any custom color you want is available through Bentley’s Mulliner specialty division.) Indeed, this is a car that deftly combines the old and the new. Bentley assembly specialists spend 170 hours handcrafting the interior of each car, and it shows. If you ever have the privilege of riding in a Mulsanne, you might just decide to move in and live there. Who could blame you? The infotainment system (featuring an eight-inch color screen, navigation, a 60-gigabyte hard drive, and Bluetooth) hides discreetly behind a power-operated veneered wood door. Likewise, a media player storage drawer, lined in leather, holds iPods and other devices that can be played on the standard fourteen-speaker stereo system or the optional 2200-watt Naim stereo. Deep pile carpets beg you to remove your shoes, dig in your toes, and stay awhile, but the truth is, you’ll want to leave your driving moccasins on, because the Mulsanne is as good to drive as to be driven in.

The Continental Flying Spur sedan is a long-wheelbase version of the Continental GT coupe and convertible. Unlike those two-door models, which have just been redone, the Flying Spur is still based on the first-generation Continental, which dates to 2003. Bentley is in no particular hurry to update the Flying Spur because it still sells quite well, and truth be told, it still looks great, even if the much newer, much more expensive, much more exclusive, and much more over-the-top Mulsanne has overshadowed it as the ultimate Bentley sedan. The all-wheel-drive Flying Spur’s claim to fame is that it manages, like all Bentleys, to overcome the laws of physics. It’s a large and heavy (5380 pound) sedan that summons the forces produced by its mighty twin-turbocharged W-12 engine to propel itself to speeds that would do any lightweight, carbon-fiber supercar proud: 194 mph in the Flying Spur and an incredible 200 mph in the Flying Spur Speed. With a sumptuous and spacious cabin that’s lined with richly detailed leather, wood inlays, and lamb’s wool carpets, this effectively means that the Flying Spur is a $200,000, 200-mph living room. We consider that to be quite an achievement. We suspect one of the reasons the Flying Spur is so popular is that it is actually fairly discreet. Unlike the Mulsanne, which screams, “I’m rich,” to anyone who so much as glances at it, the Flying Spur can slip through traffic largely unnoticed; many people perceive it as just an anonymous big fancy car and have no idea that it costs twice as much as a Mercedes-Benz S-class.

The all-new Continental GT coupe that went on sale in spring 2011 is joined for 2012 by the Continental GTC convertible, which shares its striking new sheetmetal, LED running lamps, and much-improved navigation system. The first-generation Continental, for its part, sticks around in the form of two special-edition, high-performance models: the $285,598 Supersports convertible and the $297,495 Supersports convertible ISR (Ice Speed Record). The ISR convertible is an homage to a world record run on the frozen Baltic Sea by Finnish rally champion Juha Kankkunen, who summoned the courage to take a similar version to 205.48 mph on the ice. If you can summon the courage to pay a grossly inflated price for what is essentially a limited-edition paint and trim package, by all means, indulge yourself in either one of those outdated droptops. Our money is on the new Continental GTC, which, at $215,595, looks fantastic and will save you enough cash to fully indulge yourself in Bentley’s never-ending list of sybaritic options. Both of the second-generation Continental models — GT coupe and GTC convertible — have exquisitely detailed and handcrafted cabins, a sumptuous array of available colors and fabrics, and a surfeit of speed. They are more than pretty, though. They offer the responsiveness of a supercar with the comfort and ease of operation of a luxury grand tourer. These two-door Bentleys handle, steer, and ride with a sense of purpose and substance that few cars can equal.

The Bentley Continental GTC sells mostly to current and previous Bentley owners. What will they think of the new version, the long-awaited follow-up to the original GTC, which had its debut in 2006? Well, conventional wisdom holds that luxury-car buyers do not like to be shocked by change, and they’re unlikely to be shocked by the new GTC.

Photo Gallery: First Drive: 2012 Bentley Continental GTC – Automobile Magazine

It’s a challenge for anyone to keep up with the constantly changing roster of cars on dealership lots. For car lovers it’s an even tougher task, because beyond knowing that a certain model exists, you need to know where it fits in the automotive firmament. That’s why we’ve gathered every new model due by the first half of 2012 and categorized them, not alphabetically or by some government-defined size class, but by their relevance to buyers, enthusiasts, and the companies that build them. Some cars thrust automakers into new segments, while others drive just like last year’s model. Some cars protect the sanctity of the manual transmission, while others advance performance with the latest technology. Some cars address rising fuel-economy standards, while others disguise obscene speed in stealthy sheetmetal. Here are the 85 new arrivals shaping the automotive world for 2012.

Photo Gallery: New Cars 2012 – Automobile Magazine

When the Bentley Continental GT was first launched, in 2003, it was three years before a convertible GTC joined the hardtop coupe. For 2011, the Continental GT was redesigned, and so far this year, Bentley has been selling the old-style GTC convertible alongside it. Oh sure, the company has rolled out its characteristic special editions to maintain the appearance of freshness (Continental Supersports ISR convertible, anyone?), but the brand’s keenest buyers know what’s coming: a new GTC. And Bentley executives say, they’ve been impatiently asking for it.

Photo Gallery: First Look: 2012 Bentley Continental GTC – Automobile Magazine