W12 Bentley Flying Spur Drag Races Rascally BMW M2 CS, Puts in Its Place

To be fair, Mat Watson, the host of the video and of the carwow channel, does call its driver a "boy racer". We don't know about you, but we tend to associate that term with guys revving their engines way too hard late at night or making a nuisance of themselves in supermarket car parks.

Nobody likes a boy racer and that's because unlike proper racers, they tend to do their fast driving on public roads. Obviously, Mat is using it candidly here, but generally speaking, it's not something you'd want tattooed on your forehead.

The car the BMW M2 CS is up against doesn't help either as it only highlights the loud, in-your-face nature of the Bavarian model. We're looking at a Bentley Flying Spur, a luxury limousine with sky-high pampering levels but also quite a serious punch.

The latter comes from the 6.0-liter W12 engine it hides under its very long and elegant hood. The engine effortlessly produces 635 hp and 664 lb-ft (900 Nm) of torque that travel through an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission to all four wheels.

The BMW, on the other hand, has half the engine both in terms of displacement and the number of cylinders, as well as aligning the latter in a straight line instead of a V shape. It doesn't, however, have half the power - with 450 hp, its power-to-weight ratio is actually better than the Bentley's, even if marginally (286 hp per ton as opposed to 260 for the limo).

The soundcheck is where the difference in interior atmosphere between the two really hits you. While there is no cabin footage from inside the M2 CS, we doubt you can hear the driver's foot pushing the pedal as crystal-clearly as you can in the Bentley. We've been in louder libraries.

The two cars then follow the classic carwow testing procedure: a standing quarter-mile drag race - or three, in this case - a 50 mph rolling race with comfort settings, a 50 mph rolling race in manual mode, and finally, a brake test from 70 mph. How many of these do you think the Bentley won? If you'll forgive our presumptuousness, we suspect you're probably off by at least one.