With 641bhp, the lighter 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 is more powerful than the old W12, and puts out only a fraction less torque. This is not quite the most power that has been extracted out of this engine: that honour still rests with the 657bhp Lamborghini Urus Performante. Performance is suitably monstrous – think 193mph and a BMW M5 Touring-beating 0-60mph time.
Bentley says it was clear that customers would prefer pure petrol for the performance version of the Bentayga and that the V8 PHEV powertrain from the Continental GT wouldn’t be just a straight drop-in, because it’s quite a different package to the V6 system in the existing Bentayga PHEV. I can believe all that, but surely it would also apply to the Continental GT and Flying Spur? Anyway, it’s certainly no bad thing, since a heavy battery and a complicated drivetrain rarely do performance cars many favours.
You can most easily tell the Speed apart from the other Bentaygas by its vast 23in wheels (optional, but most owners will have surely them), which are required for the 440mm carbon-ceramic front brake discs – the largest of any production car. Those and the big spoiler.
For all the added power and aggression, the suspension calibration in Comfort mode is supposedly as per the regular Bentaya, so on paper this car should still have manners. Engage Sport mode and the damping rates go up 15% versus the regular car and the mapping for the eight-speed ZF transmission and the throttle response are been sharpened.
There’s the fruity new optional exhaust system from Akrapovic (that titanium construction saves 12.5kg) too and retuned stability-control electronics.
It means that if you have the Speed in its ESC Dynamic setting, the brake-based torque-vectoring is now more assertive in its attempts to have the chassis pivoting sideways, before letting the driver to carry yaw forward with the throttle. A gimmick? Sure, but entertaining on gravel, where to some extent mitigates the Bentayga’s lack of mechanical rear limited-slip differential.
The apportioning of drive between the axles is, as ever, done via a Torsen centre differential, although the variable torque split favours the rear for longer in the Speed than in the regular Bentayga.
The 48V active anti-roll bars that form part of Bentley’s Dynamic Ride system for the Bentayga (and that can apply up to 959lb ft in 0.3sec) have also been given a Speed-specific makeover, and they have to work a little less harder than before: this new V8-powered Speed is 25kg lighter than the old W12-fired one. The weight distribution is also better.
