Goodwood Test: 2021 Bentley Flying Spur Review

The Flying Spur is Bentley’s big, four-door luxury super-saloon, a car that Bentley hopes will perfectly toe the line between luxury and performance. With the recent departure of the Bentley Mulsanne, Bentley’s other saloon offering (having been on sale for a decade, and a car that used the ‘L-Series’ V8 that first appeared in the Bentley S2 back in 1959), the Flying Spur needs to do an awful lot and do it all very well.

The old Mulsanne was an imposing 5.7m long the Flying Spur is shorter, but at 5.3m long and 2.2m wide (that’s longer than an extended wheelbase Range Rover) it is still absolutely massive. For such a big car, however, it’s the details that really impress. The cut crystal-effect headlights, the new (optional) illuminated Flying B mascot, the sharp creases in the Flying Spur’s aluminium flanks, the rifled tail pipes. Everything has been executed simply and elegantly, with the exception of the plastic “B” vents just above the front wheels, which are fake and feel altogether rather cheap.

The Flying Spur has a certain muscular presence to it, the kind of aura you don’t get with a similarly long Audi A8 or Mercedes S-Class.

You’d imagine then that such a large car would feel heavy and cumbersome? Well it is heavy, weighing in at 2,437kg, but cumbersome? Hardly. The Flying Spur has a twin-turbo W12 with 635PS (626bhp) and 900Nm of torque, the largest front brakes fitted to any car in the world, four-wheel-drive, four-wheel-steering, an eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox, air suspension and electronic anti-roll bars. This is no bus.

On paper the Flying Spur’s performance stats are mind-blowing. But when accelerating, the usual tell-tale signs of speed are quieter than you’d imagine. The W12 is audible but not shouty, and there’s very little wind or tyre noise. Just a heavy kick in the back.

The ride isn’t quite as soft as that of a Rolls-Royce but, as a Bentley, it really shouldn’t be – it should be quiet and composed, but ready to give the road a good kicking when necessary. It does that brilliantly, removing all but the sharpest road imperfections with ease.

The new Flying Spur has four drive modes, namely Sport, B (for Bentley, as you might imagine, and the default mode on start-up), Comfort and Custom, all of which affect the air suspension, the gearbox, the engine response and torque distribution. For the long-distance cruise you’ll want Comfort, for the relaxed drive over mixed roads you’ll want B, and for the times when you want the car most awake you’ll want Sport.

For a car this large and this heavy the Flying Spur should not be able to stop or steer anywhere near as well as it does. There are times when that weight is apparent, when the ten-piston calipers and 420mm front discs really have to prove their worth, but there’s a bite right at the top of the brake pedal that really reassures and the electronic anti-roll bars keep the Flying Spur flatter than you’d expect. The gearbox is mighty impressive, too, moving up and down through the ratios with lightening speed, although the trade-off is an occasional jumpiness at manoeuvring speeds.

Four-wheel-drive lets you steam out of corners without worrying about anything, but the miracle worker is the four-wheel-steering system. At speed you have stability, and at normal speeds you have a much more usable car than a first glance would lead you to believe. As mundane as it’ll sound, the turning circle at low speeds is exceptional and feels quite spooky. (The turning circle of a Honda Civic is 11.3m, while the turning circle of a Flying Spur is 11.05m…)

With the exception of the 3D leather on the door cards (part of the £9,535 Mulliner Driving Specification), which is impressive to look at but feels a tad odd, the super-soft cushion head rests in the back that you don’t get in the front and slightly noisy air-con (the rest of the car is so quiet) there’s very little to dislike in the Flying Spur’s interior.

The seats, front and back, are comfortable and supportive, helped by their seemingly infinite adjustability but also by the fact they are heated, cooled, and offer five different types of massage with five varying levels of intensity. The leather is visibly hand stitched, and perfectly imperfect. Every button and every stalk is well finished and sturdy, and there’s a jewel-like knurled finish to so many of the controls without it feeling chintzy.

The best part of the interior, though, has to be the central rotating display. It’s £4,770 but at the touch of a button the centre of the dash rotates to change from just a smart, blank space to reveal a 12.3-inch touch-screen or three analogue dials (an external temperature gauge, a compass and a stop-watch). It looks brilliant and it includes 40 moving parts, has its own ECU and took three years to design. Again, it’s all in the detail.

Alongside the rotating screen and the massaging seats there’s plenty of useful tech everywhere. The instrument cluster is digital (although the hardware is shared with a few other cars from the Volkswagen group), there’s 4G, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, wireless charging, double glazing, soft-close doors and so on. There’s a removable smartphone sized screen in the rear, too, which can be used to set the cabin temperature or ‘conceal’ the Winged B.

Frustratingly, adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist and a head-up display are all part of the optional ‘Touring Specification’ (which also includes a night-vision system), at a cost of £6,290. You would have thought £168,300 would get you adaptive cruise control, wouldn’t you?

The Flying Spur does things the old Mulsanne couldn’t and wasn’t supposed to do. The Mulsanne was a capable brute, but the Flying Spur is faster, cleverer and better to drive. It is a shame that wonderful 6.75-litre V8 has gone, bringing to an end a 61-year story, and perhaps the W12 is less characterful, but what it might not have in rumbly charm it makes up for in capability.

Forget that there are some Volkswagen bits and bobs dotted around, most you can’t see, a few you can. The way this cossets and confounds in equal measure makes it a proper Bentley.