2017 Bentley Continental Gt W12 Supersport 1 Of 710 on 2040-cars

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Bentley Bentayga flops around on the 'Ring

Bentley CEO Wolfgang Durheimer said the coming W12 Bentayga SUV will be the fastest SUV on the market, drawing a response from Porsche R&D chief Wolfgang Hatz that the next-generation Porsche Cayenne will outdo the Bentley on the road, and with a smaller V8 engine. We're going to assume that post and riposte is over top-speed honors, because judging by video of a prototype Bentayga lapping the Nurburgring, it won't be a Continental GT with a lift kit and it won't even be a current Cayenne GTS. In this video the Bentayga looks built for luxury, not cornering speed, as the body rolls over to the outside and the nannies shift the nose back into line when the driver pushes it through curbs. Or it could be that like the Mercedes-Benz G-Class, the Bentayga comes with some intense off-road chops that preclude tight-ship turning. And admittedly, we have no idea how this prototype is set up, but Porsche will probably take it as more reason to be smug anyway. Related Video: The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Autoblog's adventures at the Nurburgring 24-Hour race [spoilers]

The brand-new Audi R8 LMS, said to share 50 percent of its components with the street-legal R8 shown off at Geneva, has won its very first race at the 2015 Nurburgring 24-Hours. The No. 28 car driven by Christopher Mies, Edward Sandstrom, Nico Muller, and Laurens Vanthoor for the Audi Sport WRT team out of Belgium finished only 40.279 seconds ahead of the No. 25 BMW Sport Team Marc VDS Z4 GT3 in second place, for the smallest winning gap since the race began in 1970. Those two cars traded the lead throughout Sunday morning and were less than a minute away from one another for the last two hours. They were part of a total 35 lead changes during the entire race – a record for the event – and both did 156 laps. Third place went to the No. 44 Falken Tire Porsche 997 GT3, one lap down. The Audis did what they always do: lurked close to the front, stayed out of trouble, then pounced when everyone else faltered. For the opening stretches the BMW Z4 teams owned it, running 1-2-3 for a while, but all of them hit trouble. When morning came and the race got over its yellow-flag fever, the No. 28 Audi was in front and stayed there. It was the third Nurburgring 24-Hour win for Audi in four years, the brand's first win only coming in 2012. Last year's winner, the Phoenix Audi team that set a race record by doing 159 laps, had both of its cars retire. One hit an oil patch about 12 hours in, spun and was hit by another car behind, taking on too much damage to continue. The other retired with engine issues. Other Notes Three cars crashed out of the race while leading, after the rains that weren't supposed to happen, happened about 90 minutes in. The No. 20 Schubert BMW Z4 led the first 50 minutes of the race, hopped a crest at Pflanzgarten, landed in a pool of water, and hit the wall on the 30th lap. Then the No. 30 Frikadelli Porsche, with a driver team that included ex-'Ring Taxi driver Sabine Schmitz, hit the No. 31 Mercedes SLS AMG GT3 on the approach to Carrousel and crashed out. Then the No. 1 Phoenix Audi, last year's winning car, took the lead but hit the wall after that oil patch near Pflanzgarten and was out of the race. Aston Martin celebrated a class win in the SP8 category with the No. 49 Vantage GT4 N430. This being the tenth anniversary of the Vantage running the Nurburgring-24, this year's car was painted in the same colors as the racecar from ten years ago.

2020 Bentley Flying Spur First Edition Road Test | $280,000 worth of drama-free splash

After reading Brett Berk’s First Drive review of the Bentley Flying Spur, I was intrigued. Not by the authorÂ’s propensity for shedding clothing (though that sure is Â… something), but by some of the carÂ’s numbers and its drivetrain features. Figures such as 626 horsepower and 3.7 seconds to 60 piqued my interest, as did torque-vectoring all-wheel drive and four-wheel steering. Bentley says the Flying Spur offers “breathtaking performance.” BerkÂ’s first drive was in Monaco, where a car like this pairs well with the luxury yachts. My time with the Flying Spur would be much less of a pantsless extravaganza. Instead, IÂ’d be fleeing quarantine cabin fever with my family, schlepping through the rain to run errands, waving to confused-looking neighbors and hopefully experiencing performance that would, as advertised, take my breath away. The Flying Spur feels a bit like a boat. ItÂ’s big, with a long hood stretching out into oneÂ’s forward view like the bow of a cabin cruiser. Add the isolated feeling provided by the suspension, and I could easily imagine myself skimming across a calm bay. The materials lend themselves to the nautical whimsy as well, with plenty of quilted leather and horizontal swaths of metal-accented wood that reminded me of my uncleÂ’s Lake Erie runabout. My first outing was with the family, and it was mostly spent on the highway. My wife, Cat, who is prone to motion sickness, had no troubles in the Flying Spur. Apart from sneaking in a few hard launches — eliciting chuckles from Cat and admonishment from my son, Wollie — I kept my driving sane and smooth. I mostly kept the car in Comfort mode. Driven as such, even with the brief moments of right-foot indulgence, the Flying Spur felt a bit underwhelming. The carÂ’s size suggests the existence of the 6.0-liter W12 under the hood, but its 626 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque are experienced differently in this Bentley. Hardly any sound makes its way into the cabin. Its highway calmness belies its actual swiftness. This was all well and good for the comfort of my passengers, but it didnÂ’t do much to evoke any feeling beyond that of leisure. In fact, IÂ’d have almost rather have been a passenger for this sort of trip. That way I could better soak in the craftsmanship that surrounds you inside a Bentley.