From the Archives – The Bentley Continental GT

**Spec:** 2004 Continental GT Coupe, 6.0 petrol W12, 552bhp, 479 lb ft, 4WD, twin turbocharged and lots of wood… *(Originally tested in 2013)* Where do I begin… The Bentley Continental GT was a real opinion divider when it was launched in 2003, a lot of people were not too keen on the styling and the message it gave, but the nouveau-riche and professional footballers were in a frenzy over its positively modern look compared to the existing models. The biggest dividing point was the VW influence though, the classic six and three quarter litre Bentley V8 had been replaced by a twin-turbocharged version of VW's six litre W12 engine from the rather pedestrian Phaeton. Personally, I liked it. I liked the way it looked, I like the 550bhp and I liked the fact that unlike pretty much all Bentleys of old this one might actually be a reliable option for people who would otherwise look at the more sterile and less interesting German options when it came to a big luxury GT car (not that there was much to choose from!) Fast forward 10 years, and I am finally holding the key to one. Now this wasn't technically my first time driving a Bentley with this powertrain in, I had a quick blast in a Flying Spur a few years prior to this but not enough to really get a feel for it. The car in question was now nearly 10 years old, with around 40,000 miles on its odometer and, I am not going to lie, you could start to tell inside. The outside still looked as fresh as it did the day it rolled out Crewe, but the infotainment system was starting to look very dated compared to similar cars of its class and the leather hadn't held out that well either – my CL500 was a year older with nearly twice the miles on the clock and the perforated leather seats in that still looked like new, whereas the Continental's started to show that shine that appears after thousands of hours of bottom shuffling over the years. In all fairness, though, it was still a beautiful car and inside was still a wonderful place to be. Big comfy cream leather armchairs surrounded by a blue and cream stitched leather cockpit and those famous Bentley veneers and then that Breitling clock in the centre console. You knew from the second you sat down, you were in a Bentley… One thing I have always loved about Bentleys is their kind of brutish edge, even the old Arnage made a lovely sound on start up as that great big V8 cranked over, and the GT was no different. A sound that I later learned only got better when you got on to a piece of open road. Driving the Bentley around town and on short runs to the shops and back were characteristically pleasant, with it being roughly the same dimensions as my Mercedes, it didn't feel oversized or difficult to manoeuvre around buses and the like, and the steering was nice a light at low speeds and of course, it was beautifully quiet inside. I also found it surprisingly easy to park, but that may have been because I am used to parking big 4x4s like the L322 Range Rover and other big barges, but either way, it wasn't any more difficult. It also had great presence as you cruised down a high street. People looked at it and admired it, unlike the Ferrari where people looked at it, and then called you a cock… I always assume that when people are looking at a Bentley pull up, they are expecting some well-presented gentleman to appear, like Daniel Craig or someone (so they must all have been very disappointed to see me getting out to grab some milk and a paper…) This is all very well, and expected of a car with such a luxury and prestigious heritage, but what is it like when you finally get out and open the taps… Well, to put it simply, fantastic. There are a lot of things wrong with how it drives like the fact that it weighs about the same as my Discovery, and the handling isn't to dissimilar either, but I really don't care. One thing I know is that 550bhp plus big comfy seats equals a very happy James. When you plant that right foot down, it just goes. It accelerates in a way a car this heavy really shouldn't and it sounds like thunder. There are a lot of cars out there with big engines that make a lot of noise when you pin them, but it is a very non-descript sound, and then there are sounds that let you identify that one car from a mile off. Some examples are the Porsche Flat 6 engine, the Ferrari N/A V8 and the Aston V8 in the Vantage. The Bentley is another one of these in my opinion. It just has this unique deep bellow that just feels very British, and I can't really explain why. It's like being at Twickenham for a sold-out England game, it's an incredibly unique sound that just makes you feel all warm and patriotic… It also just eats up the tarmac and you feel like if you left your foot where it was, the needle would just keep going on and on and on. It gathers speed at such a rate but you just don't really feel it. I mean there is obviously a bit of road noise from the awful run-flat tyres and that exhaust note is also there humming in your ear, but you feel like you're on more of a cruise ship than a speed boat. The stoppers are good too that bring this yacht to a standstill in very reasonable time. For the money and everything else, there are better choices out there, both with the used car game and the new car game, but in my free time I like to plan road trips, and if time money allows, go on them as well and I have driven over to the continent a few times and loved it, but now whenever I plan them, I always plan them with the GT in mind. To me it is the perfect long road trip car. I know that I could load a suitcase in the boot, fill up the tank and drive all the way to Monaco (via a fuel petrol stations) and get out without so much as a need to stretch… The only car I would chose over the GT coupe for a drive like this is the GTC – I am not normally one to go for a droptop over a coupe, but when you're driving along that Riviera with that 30-degree sun, you want the top down. I have toyed with the idea of just rolling the dice and buying one for a very long time, about 5 years now as they keep getting hit by the depreciation stick harder and harder but at this point in my life I need to at least pretend that I am being sensible, but who knows how I'll feel in a few months when I have had the Disco for a bit longer. A lot has changed in the Continental range since 2004, including the introduction of a new (and dare I say better) V8 and a lot of work has been done to modernise the interior and accompanying gadgets, but it still looks a few behind some of its competitors like the S63 AMG Coupe, but it will always have that one trump card up its sleeve, that name, Bentley.