HALFWAY HOUSE

THE FLYING SPUR HYBRID SUGGESTS THAT BENTLEY'S HARD-DRINKING YEARS ARE ALMOST BEHIND IT.

- Mike Duff

IS IT TIME TO RAGE against the dying of the light? Not long ago, the idea of Bentley chasing either modernity or improved gas mileage would have had 'em rolling in the aisles. The English luxury brand was as traditional and unchanging as the rules of cricket, whatever those are. The famous L-series pushrod V-8 served in the company's products from 1959 until the retirement of the Mulsanne in 2020. That engine was originally a Rolls-Royce unit. Bentley's turbocharged versions, gentlemanly thugs perfectly suited to old-fashioned priorities, combined industrial-diesel levels of torque with the fuel economy of a helicopter. The turbocharged 6.0-liter W-12 that Volkswagen created largely for Bentley's use at the turn of the century was much more technically advanced but equally unlikely to be nominated for environmental awards.

Yet Bentley's world is shifting quickly. The brand's rush toward an electric future is largely driven by the Volkswagen Group's corporate politics; combustion engines will soon be thin on the ground in Europe. And Bentley has publicly committed to offer a plugin-hybrid version of each model by 2024, drop all pure combustion powerplants by 2026, and switch entirely to EVs by 2030. Against the boldness of that schedule, the company's first electrified model was a timid start. The Bentayga Hybrid SUV has 99 hp less than the V-8 versions and weighs around 500 pounds more. The new Flying Spur Hybrid gets closer to its eight cylinder sibling on both of those metrics.