THE BEAST IN A SAVILE ROW SUIT

Dressed to thrill, Bentley’s new Bentayga Speed hides a twin-turbocharged V8 ready to roar

- BY SONY THOMAS Special to Gulf News

here’s something fundamentally contradictory about a fast SUV. It’s a paradox, a rolling oxymoron — like a cathedral on roller skates. But then, Bentley has always excelled at reshaping contradictions into marvels of automotive engineering. And when the British marque calls a new Bentayga the “most dynamic and exhilarating” ever, it warrants a closer look.

When the original Bentayga launched in 2015, it was a fusion of Crewe’s time-honoured craftsmanship with performance figures that nudged into supercar territory. Then came the first Bentayga Speed, powered by a mighty W12, which took that formula and turned up the heat, pushing the boundaries of what a luxury SUV could be. Now, with this new V8-powered Bentayga Speed, Bentley dials it up even further — sharpening the performance, enhancing the dynamics, and promising a more visceral, more exhilarating experience than ever before.