As expected
of a Bentley,
the immensely
customizable interior
features tons of real
wood and leather.T
he previous two generations of the
Bentley Flying Spur had Volkswagen
DNA under their luxurious skins,
their platforms shared with VW’s
highly underrated Phaeton sedan.
The 2020 Bentley Flying Spur shares
its platform with a Porsche. And it’s a
better car for it. In fact, the 2020 Flying
Spur—effortlessly fast, opulently detailed,
and brimful of raffish charm—is the best
Bentley sedan of the modern era.
Powered by Bentley’s mighty W-12
engine, the 2020 Flying Spur is built on
an extended version of the VW Group’s
MSB platform, which underpins various
Porsche Panamera models as well as
Bentley’s Continental GT coupe and
convertible twins.
More important, the front-engine/
rear-drive architecture allowed StefanP E RFORMANCE
AND PRESEN CE
BENTLEY DEVELOPS THE DEFINITIVE MODERN LUXURY SEDAN
Sielaff ’s design team to finally give the
21st century Flying Spur the front-
wheels-forward stance of a classic British
luxury car. As such, the new Flying Spur’s
front axle centerline is 5.1 inches farther
forward, allowing a long hood without a
pronounced front overhang.
It’s the singular dimensional change
for this generation that, visually, changes
everything. And it also changes the way
the Flying Spur drives.
With their engines mounted ahead
of the front axle, Flying Spurs of the
previous generation were nose-heavy
beasts that worked their front tires
hard when asked to change direction
in a hurry. Not so with the new MSB
platform—especially with its rear-wheel
steering, active anti-roll system, and
torque vectoring by brake, which makesthe new Flying Spur feel more agile,
more alert, and remarkably composed
in the twisties.
It’s still a hefty thing, though. It’s almost
as long and wide as a Lincoln Navigator,
and its wheelbase is 3.3 inches longer.
That said, the Spur easily handled the
tight switchbacks on our drive along the
narrow roads clinging to the mountains
that tumble down to the glamorous Côte
d’Azur in the south of France.
But this Bentley’s milieu is grand
touring on fast, open roads. The
626-horsepower W-12 allows the
Bentley to claim a 0–60 time of just 3.7
seconds—with the speedo needle gliding
past 100 mph just 4.5 seconds after that.
Claimed top speed is a stonking 207 mph,
making this majestic Bentley the fastest
production four-door in the world—
faster, even, than the 680-hp Porsche
Panamera Turbo S.WORDS ANGUS MACKENZIE74 MOTORTREND.COM FEBRUARY 2020