Look at all those dashboard lights! While going for its top speed, the reviewers asked the Bentley Bentayga Diesel to hold all the calls and stop all the electronic nannies. Of course, you wouldn't want to be disturbed in an SUV going 270 KM/H.
A few days ago, The Grand Tour established that performance SUVs can't hold a dog, can't outrun a horse and won't be able to tow a boat to a fishing lake in Canada. But we doubt those facts will stop the latest Bentley Bentayga V8 Diesel from selling well.
The Bentayga is all about the headlines. When the W12 came out, CEO Wolfgang Durheimer said it was "the most powerful, most luxurious, fastest and most exclusive SUV in the world." And while the Lambo Urus might have changed a few of those things, the Bentayga Diesel is still king of its segment.
That's because even though its 4.0-liter diesel engine is the same as that of the SQ7, its top speed has been de-restricted to 270 km/h (168mph). A standard sprint to 100 km/h is supposed o take 4.8 seconds, which is also pretty impressive. Something like an Alpine XD3 Bi-Turbo already matched it in 2015, while the SQ7 pips it by 0.1s.
It takes a little longer than that to reach 100 km/h in the video. The acceleration isn't mind-blowing, but still acceptable for such a heavy vehicle that can occasionally go off-road. The extended top speed means that you can at least overtake most German cars since they are limited to 250 km/h.
The real giveaway that you're looking at an 8-cylinder Bentayga are the figure-of-eight exhaust tips. There's also a 550 horsepower petrol V8, which shares its engine with the Panamera Turbo.
It's quite nicely specified too, with burgundy a brick red on the dash and carpets, coupled with cream for the rest of the leather.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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