Given how everything’s trending toward higher seating positions and price tags, it’s obvious we aren’t exactly lacking options in the six-figure super SUV space. From models with Maybach emblems to ones with prancing horses, it’s a market that’s spoiled for choice, and it’s about to get a little more crowded. The new Bentley Bentayga Speed may have lost four cylinders over the old one, but it promises to be even more powerful, even sharper, and even faster, provided you tick the right option box.
As you probably expected, the Bentley Bentayga Speed rides on the same platform as the Lamborghini Urus and Porsche Cayenne, except it fills a more interesting niche in Europe. See, all new Uruses are plug-in hybrids, and while North Americans can order the V8-only Cayenne Turbo GT, many European markets don’t get the most bonkers Cayenne anymore due to emissions concerns. This means that if you want a non-plug-in V8 SUV from the Volkswagen Group that makes north of 600 horsepower, it’s now Bentley or bust.
Yep, under the hood of the Bentley Bentayga Speed, you’ll find a 641-horsepower version of the family four-liter turbocharged V8, sending power to all four wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission. Bentley claims this combination is good enough to propel its SUV from zero-to-62 mph in 3.4 seconds, on the way to a top speed of—well, it depends on which brakes you’ve specced.
See, Bentley has wisely chosen to only unlock the highest top speed for customers who pop for the biggest, most advanced brakes. We’re talking carbon ceramic discs and calipers so massive, they only fit behind 23-inch wheels. Tick that box, find a long stretch of derestricted autobahn, and the fastest Bentayga should hit 193 mph. How’s that for a big number?
Granted, obscene power and straight-line pace is what you’d expect from Bentley. What you wouldn’t expect is a sort of optional drift mode. An available intermediate level for the stability control system allows for tightly controlled powerslides with a digital net to help you if things really get out of shape. It’s an absurd feature to have in a heavy leather-lined SUV, akin to watching a member of the Windsor family do a kegstand, and it makes you wonder how many owners will actually hoon their Bentley SUVs.
I can’t help but get the sense that a few engineers included this slidey mode because they thought it was cool, and if that’s the case, hats off to sliding one by the clientele. Curiously, this feature is also tied to the optional carbon ceramic brakes, likely as brake-based torque vectoring demands additional thermal capacity in heavy use. Still, considering the cost of replacement carbon ceramic discs and the fact that launch control is also included in this software bundle, it is weird that this stability control mode isn’t standard.
Even if you don’t tick the box for the carbon ceramic brakes, the Bentley Bentayga Speed still comes with four-wheel-steering for improved low-speed agility and high-speed stability, suspension that’s 15 percent stiffer in sport mode, a louder exhaust system, dark chrome, and a litany of badging. However, you really need the big brakes to get all of the Speed trim level benefits, and I can’t help but wonder what effect that might have on resale value.
On the one hand, it’s quite likely that examples without the carbon ceramic brakes will see lower resale value simply because they don’t get all the perks of the Speed trim. On the other, pads and carbon ceramic discs routinely run five figures for a full set, so perhaps the resale value delta might not be massive, simply due to the cost of consumables. Either way, if you or someone you know wants a ridiculously quick Bentley Bentayga Speed, tick the box for the carbon ceramics. In the ultra-luxury echelon, is there anything better than bragging rights?
Top graphic image: Bentley
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Looks like an entry level car from any other manufacturer. Bentley designers were just plain lazy with this one. Big engine in a stupid money bland looking car, so what.
Aren’t CC brakes impractical for daily use because they squeak or something? Odd to lock features behind for a Bentley SUV
Driving a performance car should be an adventure itself. About 25 years ago I went to Skip Barber at Laguna Seca. The last day we got to autocross the Viper GTS. It was a complete animal and fulfilled all expectation. It demanded respect.
Ok, I’ll bite: What’s the top speed with the standard brakes? Are you giving up 15 or 20 mph, or 40-50?
I gotta say, if we’re getting to the point where someone with the money to buy one of these things would do so with that interior, we really gotta have a conversation about wealth inequality.
As I said in my comment, this and the Urus (aka the dumbest and most embarrassing car on the road other than the Cyber Truck) are literally just gussied up versions of a $100,000ish car to begin with. Underneath the reskins they are quite literally just SQ7/8s. Same engine, same transmission, basically the same all wheel drive system, similar if not identical performance hardware (the S model Audis just got the drift mode too IIRC), etc.
I understand paying silly money for something that’s engineered from the ground up to be special, like a Rolls, a Ferrari, a McLaren, etc. Hell as dumb as it is at least the Purosangue is a ground up Ferrari with a V12.
…but paying silly money for a reskinned version of something you’ll encounter in the pick up line of any school that’s in a well to do part of town is breathtakingly stupid. I get that not everyone is an enthusiast who nerds out on chassis codes and shit…but can people not even be bothered to Google the cars they’re looking at anymore?
Not fully correct, the Cayenne gets better dampers, springs, etc
I will never discourage someone from choosing the Porsche version of a VAG product and I would do the same
There is no truer saying than “money can’t buy good taste”. I’d say in most cases today it can’t even seem to rent it.
I’d say these are the ultimate new money douche canoe, but the Urus really takes that prize.
I can’t be the only one who thinks this thing looks really ugly. As in- its not an attractive looking vehicle. If anything it looks like one of the weird Chinese knock-offs from a decade ago.
You’re not. That thing is absolutely hideous. Now it’s the Chinese designing interesting looking stuff.
Am I the only person who sees the Bentayga/Urus and immediately thinks “poser”? I get that MLB Evo is a well sorted platform but why would you spend an extra $200,000+ on one of the ultra luxury versions when you can get an SQ7 or SQ8 with the same engine and most of the handling goodies for under six figures? Dealerships are willing to play ball on them too, it’s not uncommon to see them with 5 figure discounts.
Unsurprisingly the general consensus is that the Audi versions punch way above their weight too. Hell you can find certified ones in the 50s and 60s all and essentially have like 85% of the Bentayga or Urus experience. Is the badge THAT important to people?
Don’t answer that question. Also-that 4 liter V8 is pretty notorious for being a chore to service and maintain. Do you want to pay Audi prices to have work done on it or Bentley/Lamborghini prices? I get that the average ultra luxe buyer exists in a world that I’ll never fully understand or be a part of and that in this day and age consumption must be as conspicuous as possible…but people don’t stay rich by spending recklessly and these vehicles seem particularly shallow to me.
Just get the Audi versions or spring for the Cayenne if you must.
No, and yes, to answer your first two questions.
Absolutely to your third, even if you asked I not. Buying the Audi doesn’t show off to the world that you can afford a Lambo or a Bentley. You can’t wave your wallet dick in the soccer-mom base version.
I don’t know how true this is for 5000+ lb SUVs, but for normal cars, in normal driving, the carbon ceramics are supposed to last the life of the car.
I’m not sure if “normal cars” and “carbon ceramics” have ever been used in the same sentence before.
Normal weight cars then.
Isn’t 2.5 tons pretty standard these days? BMW seems to think so.
Tennessee Ernie Bentley?