REVIEW: Bentley combines its ultra-opulent Mulliner trim with the Continental GT Speed's W12 - let's see if it's worth that £257,700 price tag...
Predictably, it’s an almighty thing on the road, being utterly resolute yet showing plenty of poise. It’s pretty almighty on a private test facility, too. A diary clash meant that, to photograph this car, we had to piggyback another shoot, one taking place at Millbrook Proving Ground. As such, it would have been rude not to get out the telemetry gear and run some numbers.
Sitting at the start of Millbrook’s mile straight in the W12 Mulliner’s near-silent, double-glazed interior, with its milled-aluminium surfaces, endless stitching, quilted-leather door cards and other haute-level Mulliner finishing, you struggle to believe that 7.5sec later you will be doing 100mph. Mostly because that time would make this palatial Bentley faster to triple figures than Porsche’s 991-generation 911 GT3 RS.
But telemetry doesn’t lie. Such refinement and material richness shouldn’t go hand in hand with this sort of pace, yet this a juxtaposition the Continental pulls off better than any other car, and the W12 Mulliner better than any other Continental. As that mammoth engine pumps 664lb ft of torque to four corners almost throughout its 6250rpm scope, and in an unbroken torrent, thanks to a still-excellent dual-clutch gearbox, you reside calmly in the eye of the storm.
Special mention also goes to the damping, especially in the Goldilocks Bentley driving mode, which feels custom-developed for British cross-country routes, because it is. It allows the body to breathe with the road, yet just when you feel all that heft is about to get away from you, it’s delicately brought back to heel. Superb. This car also slides neatly if you goad it, thereafter quickly straightening up and maximising its prodigious levels of traction.
So, is it the ultimate Mk3 Continental? Depends how you frame it. At this price, you might not appreciate plastic gearshift paddles or the conspicuous lack of Android Auto. Consider also that the V8 S costs far less, is sweeter to drive and listen to and is hardly lacking in material comforts. In the case of the epic Mulliner W12, you really have to want excess, as if it were a commodity. Also know that this Mulliner costs what the 812 Superfast costs.
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