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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
The three earliest names have long been replaced and the Continental-based models updated since I first got to know the good folks at Bentley Motors’ Boston headquarters
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
Still, until we see the results of this new SUV venture the Continental series continues to be the Shepherd Loaf sourdough bread and D’Artagnan white truffle butter (or Echiré if you have a simpler yet still very refined palate) of the Bentley lineup,
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
Bentley offers five GT trims and four of the GTC, the Speed just tested being at the very top of the convertible’s pecking order. A number of changes occur from the GTC’s most affordable V8 to the model tested, including outward and internal visuals plus modifications under the hood, the base model’s robust 500 horsepower eight-cylinder replaced with a particularly potent 12 that makes an already quick four-place convertible incomprehensibly fast.
To
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
All
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
Porsches are wonderful, but if we’re choosing to go down the road of comparison it would make more sense to add BMW’s upgraded 600 horsepower M6 Cabriolet to the conversation and then we’re back at Mercedes and that just noted Brabus, so let’s just leave such competent albeit lower class riffraff alone and remember that those fortunate enough to purchase a Bentley aren’t so easily wooed away to a lesser brand just because some skunkworks
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
To put things into perspective, Bentley first won Le Mans two years before Mercedes-Benz even came into existence, three years before BMW started building rebadged Austin 7s, 24 years before Porsche sold its first road car, and 52 years before Klaus Brackman and Bodo Buschmann tuned their first official Brabus Mercedes-Benz, the British luxury car manufacturer founded five years prior in 1919.
It’s as if 97 years of performance oriented luxury heritage is distilled into the very car I’m driving, my gorgeous Glacier White
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
Back to earth, what I love about the entire Bentley lineup is their total livability despite exotic classification. The GTC Speed is a car you can comfortably commute in daily, and then while on the way home snag some takeout at a curbside deli, pick up your laundry, grab a cool frappe via drive-thru, all before easily
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
Yes, the GTC Speed provides a level of comfort the low-slung variety can’t match, starting with one of autodom’s most supportive driver’s seats finished in some of the highest quality leathers made. Diamond-quilting and bold red and black colouring add a classic touch, while surrounding hides, piano black lacquered hardwoods, and bright metals immediately remind that Bentleys are not processed with the auto industry’s usual cost-cutting methods, but instead labouriously handcrafted to the point that every square inch is a work of art. Of course, pretty well every feature one could imagine is integrated within the cabin, some 2016 updates including a handful of new buttons, knobs and toggles, new LED
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
Don’t get me wrong as its auto climate control will keep all occupants ideally comfortable, the integrated navigation will get you where you’re going accurately, and its superb audio system seems almost as powerful as its under the hood performance, but the GTC Speed’s finer details are enough to make a person weak at the knees, and that’s just when moving along slowly enough to notice.
Unless you’ve driven a Bentley it’s impossible to perceive how two and a half tonnes (5,500 lbs) can feel so light and nimble, the GTC Speed defying natural laws
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
No doubt aerodynamics play a role, the 2016 GTC Speed receiving a modified grille along with a new front bumper and lower fascia incorporating larger, sportier black mesh intakes, plus front and rear fenders with more pronounced flair, the former incorporating new B-shaped chromed engine vents, a redesigned composite rear deck lid finalizing in a sharper trailing edge, a reworked rear bumper
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Photo: Karen Tuggay, Canadian Auto Press |
If you’re reading this with an intention to purchase, the GTC Speed’s $340k base price won’t be an issue. My tester was optioned out further with a heatable steering wheel, ventilated and massaging front seats, a neckwarmer integrated within the seatback, contrast stitching, Wi-Fi, and more for a total that passed right on by $350k. Compare it to other exotics and the GTC Speed actually represents very good value, while the respect it earns borders on reverence.
Beautiful, distinctive, rare and unbelievably capable, the Continental GT Convertible Speed combines the best of luxury grand tourers with near supercar levels of performance for an experience unlike anything else available.
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