Bentley describes the up to date hybrid Flying Spur Pace as a four-door supercar

A number of years in the past, you’d have been forgiven for pondering that the tiresome battle over energy rankings in luxurious vehicles was over. The arrival of electrification, with its fearsome energy outputs and ultra-rapid acceleration instances ought to have put paid to the squabbling over horsepower and cylinders and displacement and torque curves.

Not a little bit of it. Bentley launches its revised and up to date Flying Spur limousine with the tagline ‘essentially the most highly effective Bentley four-door ever’. The fourth era model of this admirable machine doesn’t do a lot in the best way of visible overhauls (in comparison with its intently associated Continental GT sibling, which acquired a extra radical make-over earlier this 12 months). As an alternative, it’s primarily in regards to the numbers.

The stats aren’t all pitched at old fashioned bragging rights, though with 782PS and a 3.3 second dash to 60mph, this sedan is firmly in supercar territory. Bentley is extra within the 47 miles of pure electrical vary the hybrid powertrain delivers, occurring to focus on its 515-mile touring vary, in addition to the very fact it ‘outperforms earlier W12 Pace on each metric: torque, energy, acceleration and emissions.’

That’s vital for some, because the previous W12 Pace had a bespoke 12-cylinder engine at its coronary heart, a mighty piece of engineering that outlined fashionable period Bentley refinement and talent. That engine is now not, to the unhappiness of some, however as Bentley notes, it may’t maintain a candle to the combo of electrical energy and a brand new V8.

Visually, the brand new Flying Spur affords a couple of aesthetic updates to the third-generation mannequin, though they’re fairly delicate (a brand new grille, bumper and diffuser and wheel choices). The extra substantial modifications are to the automobile’s electrical system and powertrain, with a brand new electrical structure that handles components just like the Efficiency Energetic Chassis, Bentley Dynamic Trip, and All-Wheel Steering. All this wizardry helps cloak the Flying Spur Pace’s appreciable dimension and bulk, making it begin, trip and cease like a a lot smaller, defter automobile.

One other space of enchancment is the inside, the place choices on leather-based alone run to 700 color mixtures, and that’s earlier than unleashing the infinite potentialities made accessible by Bentley’s Mulliner coachbuilding division. High-flight audio comes from both Bang & Olufsen or Naim, and there’s now the flexibility to specify Bentley’s ‘Wellness Seating Specification’ on the 4 principal seats. This method makes use of sensors to measure physique temperature and posture and subtly adjusts the strain to minimise fatigue.

The Flying Spur has come a good distance because it was simply Bentley’s nod to the limousine commerce and the old-fashion saloons that outlined it within the Sixties by means of to the Eighties. Now firmly established because the model’s technological showcase, the fourth era automobile can lay a reputable declare to being the most effective government conveyance on the planet, personal jets included.

Bentley Flying Spur Pace, worth tbc, for extra info go to BentleyMotors.com, @BentleyMotors