Bentley Flying Spur V8 (2014) first official pictures

By Ollie Kew

First Official Pictures

25 February 2014 14:00

This is the politically correct Bentley Flying Spur. No really – the Flying Spur V8 has a downsized engine: a twin-turbo V8 rather than the existing car’s bi-turbo W12.

It’ll be revealed at the 2014 Geneva motor show, along with a boosted Continental GT Speed model mustering even more power for 2014.

No surprises here: the Flying Spur V8 borrows the twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 from its Continental GT V8 cousin. VW Group aficionados will know (though Bentley would rather you didn’t) than the 4.0-litre twin-blown V8 is in fact the same engine used by Audi in the S6 and RS6, and the hot A7s – the S7 and RS7.

In Bentley tune, the V8 develops a nice, round, 500bhp and a healthy 486lb ft. All four wheels do the driving, via an eight-speed automatic gearbox than can be interfered with via steering column paddles inside the Flying Spur.

Massive traction and huge power are enough to punch this two-tonne road-barge to 60mph in a scant 4.9sec (0.6sec slower than the 616bhp W12 model), and 189mph flat out.

Yet because the engine switches off half of its cylinders under light load, working as a regular in-line four-pot, Bentley claims you’ll squeeze 520 miles out of every tank of super-unleaded. See, we did say this was the politically correct Bentley. We should petition David Cameron to get one as a state car…

Aesthetic differences for this 'entry level' model are limited to pinched ‘figure eight’ exhaust pipes, red Bentley badging in place of the more usual black, and black rather than chrome grille inserts.

The biggest difference will be the price. Though official numbers for the Flying Spur V8 are undisclosed, you can bet on a saving of around £10,000 for the V8. So, you’ll be looking at around £140,000 to have you name in the Flying Spur V8’s order book, which opens in spring 2014.

By Ollie Kew