Bentley Bentayga India review, test drive

The new Bentayga SUV is large, imposing, powerful, expensive, luxurious and just a little bit ostentatious. Every bit a Bentley, then.

Published on Jun 30, 2016 07:00:00 AM

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Bentley Bentayga India review, test drive

We haven’t moved in almost ten minutes, and tempting as it is to jump into the back seat while we wait, even I’m not that crazy. Luckily, I did spend a few precious minutes luxuriating back there earlier today and, well, it’s just as incredible as you’d expect. This may be a plus-size SUV, but seven seats? That’s for commoners. You could have five seats, but what would your staff think of you as you pulled up to the helipad with a bench in the back? No, you need the four-seat setup that we have here. The thrones are big, soft and unbelievably lavish. There’s more of that superb shaggy woollen carpet to soak your feet in, there’s the mandatory champagne fridge between the seats, and, of course, you can spec rear entertainment screens, in case you get tired of watching the world breeze silently by outside. Somehow, though, they’re more comfortable in ‘seat’ mode; reclining them just pushes your lower back outwards, like you’re in a dentist’s chair.

The individual rear chairs are just as big, plush and comfortable as the ones in front.

While I’ve been telling you this, a gap precisely one Bentayga wide has just opened up in the traffic, and I’ve gone for it. Conspicuous it may be, but that does have one advantage – it stops people in their tracks, leaving you free to get ahead of them.

Now, not content with just being the most lavish, luxurious and expensive SUV on the planet, Bentley also wanted to make sure the Bentayga was the most powerful. So forget V8s and don’t even utter the word ‘diesel’; this one gets an all-new 6.0-litre twin-turbocharged W12 that pushes 608hp and 900Nm through four permanently driven wheels. And it’s capable of breaching 300kph. The thing weighs 2.44 tonnes, but you wouldn’t guess it from behind the wheel.

As the last of the traffic is behind me, I make a break for the wide open highway in utter style. Foot flat down, the Big B squats down on its rear axle, the eight-speed gearbox makes a few quick clicks down and all of the torque meets the road in one, drama-free bolt. Suddenly, there’s not a single car behind me. I’m told it’ll do 0-100kph in 4.1sec. I glance down to see a number much higher than 100 on the speedo. It sounds like a tornado, this engine. It’s not too loud, it’s not brash, but it’s not exactly tuneful either. It sounds very mechanical, like several thousand bits of metal are working in unison, and that has a charm all of its own. Not that many would ever care, but for its size and power, you can get a pretty decent touring range out of the Bentayga, thanks to its 85-litre fuel tank and the fact that it can run on just six cylinders when it’s not being pushed. And that’s the other great thing about this motor. It can break a hole in the space-time continuum if you want it to, but if you don’t, it can behave very calm, civilised and refined – just like a Bentley should.

608hp W12 is surprisingly multi-faceted.

It’s why the default driving mode when you start it up is ‘Bentley’ – halfway between Sport and Comfort. Here, the car is adaptive, with the engine, gearbox and steering changing their character based on your input. In Sport, it lowers itself on its air springs, the ride and steering tighten up, while in Comfort, you get a floatier, magic-carpet-like ride. And yes, though I thought twice about tackling the truck traffic like a typical Mumbaikar a few minutes ago, in truth, it is surprisingly easy to get comfortable with this enormous SUV from behind the wheel.