2014 Bentley Flying Spur: Uber-Luxury Sedan Makes its Mark in China! - Ignition Episode 68
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 Hey everybody, I am standing on the Great Wall of China.
00:28 Why?
00:29 Because on this week's Ignition,
00:31 I'm driving the Chairman Mao rolling around
00:33 in his Grave Edition Bentley,
00:34 or as they call it, the new Flying Spur.
00:37 (upbeat music)
00:39 (engines roaring)
00:42 (upbeat music)
00:46 (upbeat music)
00:57 (engines roaring)
01:00 What is the new Flying Spur?
01:02 Well, the big news is that it's no longer
01:04 the Continental Flying Spur.
01:06 They've dropped that because they really
01:08 want to differentiate it from the two-door.
01:10 So it's no longer just a four-door GT.
01:13 Couple external changes to note.
01:16 One is they've actually swapped the headlight position.
01:18 So traditionally, Bentleys have had the big lights inboard,
01:22 smaller lights to the outside.
01:24 Now the big lights are outside,
01:25 and the reason they say is that it kind of accentuates
01:28 the width of the car, kind of like the wide Pontiac thing
01:31 in the '60s where you just push everything out
01:33 to the corners as far as you can.
01:35 (upbeat music)
01:37 The new Flying Spur also has some
01:41 ridiculously creased haunches.
01:45 Rumor has it, and I don't know how much I believe this,
01:48 but Martin Winterkorn is a very high-ranking dude
01:51 at Volkswagen, apparently every time he sees one of these,
01:54 he just kind of strokes the haunches
01:56 'cause he can't believe that they were able
01:58 to stamp a crease like that in the metal.
02:01 Don't know if that story's true,
02:02 but it's a pretty impressive crease.
02:04 Moving further back down the car,
02:07 you get to the unfortunate taillights.
02:10 And I say unfortunate because they're rectangular,
02:12 and they look like they're from a Mercedes E-Class.
02:15 Now British taillights are supposed to,
02:17 first of all, be small, and second of all, be round.
02:20 I mean, look at like an E-Type or old Bentleys
02:22 with these tiny little beautiful taillights.
02:24 And these, yeah, they have that oval in 'em
02:26 to match the exhaust pipe,
02:27 but I think they're just kind of a mess,
02:29 and it's really the one bad part
02:31 of the exterior of this car.
02:33 (upbeat music)
02:35 Now for the power junkies, some very good news.
02:44 The old Flying Spur only made 552 horsepower,
02:48 and as you know, that's barely enough
02:50 to get out of bed in the morning.
02:52 This new one, 616 horsepower,
02:55 and it's not even the speed model.
02:58 Torque is also way up.
02:59 It now makes 590 pound feet of torque.
03:03 What that means is we have a car
03:04 that's not only capable of a ridiculous 200 miles an hour,
03:08 which I guarantee you no one will ever do with this thing,
03:11 but a car that can probably hit 60 miles an hour
03:14 in the very low four second range.
03:16 And this is what that feels like.
03:21 Yeah, Flying Spur, massively powerful.
03:24 It's just such an incredible surge of torque.
03:27 You have that all-wheel drive,
03:29 and just the car goes.
03:31 Truly incredible.
03:33 Plus, they did the smart thing,
03:35 and they put big brakes on the car
03:37 that'll just haul it down very quickly.
03:40 As far as handling goes, it's good.
03:42 I mean, you always gotta remember
03:44 this is a 5,000 pound vehicle.
03:46 It's also an all-wheel drive vehicle,
03:49 so the steering is a little numb and a little detached.
03:51 It will go around a corner well,
03:53 but remember, again, this car is being launched in China
03:56 because the Chinese, they like to be chauffeured around.
04:00 They want a limousine, and that's why they spend
04:02 so much time and attention on the rear seat.
04:04 So yeah, it's a limo.
04:07 It's a 200 mile an hour limo, but it is a limousine.
04:10 Part of what makes it so nice to be in
04:12 is the air suspension.
04:14 There's four modes to it,
04:15 and when you're in the softest mode,
04:17 the full comfort settings,
04:18 at speed on the highway, it's a little disconcerting,
04:21 but it's perfect for cruising around Beijing
04:24 at seven miles an hour,
04:25 which I'm gonna guess is the average speed.
04:27 If you put it all the way over into sport mode, it's good.
04:30 The car is really tied down,
04:31 but I think the sweet spot is actually the third setting,
04:35 where you're not quite full stiff,
04:37 and you still have a little bit of the bounce
04:39 from the air shocks,
04:40 but the car is surprisingly glued to the road.
04:43 (upbeat music)
04:46 (car engine revving)
04:52 (upbeat music)
04:54 It's pretty nice.
05:04 First of all, I got a built in sunglasses holder here,
05:06 nice burled walnut veneer on that.
05:08 Also, of course, got my privacy shades.
05:12 Can't really call it a Bentley without those these days.
05:15 I have things like a picnic table.
05:17 I have leather and wood everywhere.
05:20 The base price of the new Flying Spur in the US
05:23 is about $200,000,
05:24 figure another three to 5,000 for tax, destination,
05:27 gas guzzler, all that kind of stuff.
05:29 Then you move up to the more exclusive Mulliner edition,
05:32 which is what we're riding in now.
05:34 That costs $212,000.
05:36 However, this particular car,
05:38 we're talking about $250,000.
05:42 Few reasons why.
05:43 One, I've got a fridge.
05:46 In fact, this car comes stocked
05:48 with a nice bottle of 98 Tattinger,
05:52 which is Bond's favorite champagne.
05:54 In fact, as some of you may know,
05:56 James Bond used to drive a Bentley in Goldfinger.
06:00 You might remember him saying to Q,
06:01 "Where's my Bentley?"
06:02 Right when he's handed the Aston Martin DB5.
06:05 We'll save this for later.
06:07 (upbeat music)
06:09 But the big money options in this particular Flying Spur
06:13 is the $7,500 name audio system,
06:17 which must be heard to be believed.
06:19 It's absolutely exquisite.
06:20 It's not quite as dominant as the one
06:23 in the big brother Mulsanne,
06:24 which is a full 2,000 watts.
06:26 I believe that this particular car stereo
06:27 is only 1,100 watts, but it sounds quite good.
06:31 And the other feature in this particular Flying Spur
06:33 is the new rear seat entertainment package,
06:36 or as they call it, the RSE.
06:37 What it consists of is two flat screen monitors
06:41 on the back of the headrest
06:43 and this little remote control here.
06:44 Let me pop this out.
06:46 And so what I've got is controls
06:48 for pretty much the entire car.
06:50 I've of course got rear seat climate
06:52 and I can control the temperature,
06:53 I can control my seat.
06:55 You can see I have my AC seat on right now.
06:58 In fact, I can take full control
06:59 of the front navigation system.
07:01 Look at this.
07:02 I can control the map, I can control movies,
07:04 I can play the radio,
07:05 I can scroll back and forth with songs,
07:07 I can change the volume.
07:09 It's pretty fancy.
07:10 Go here, I've also got, of course, my rear blind.
07:13 Right now I have my rear privacy shade down.
07:16 Perhaps I wanna let it up, let some light in,
07:18 let the people see me.
07:19 Then we've got my favorite little section
07:21 which is the vehicle data.
07:22 Check this out.
07:23 So go here and this is my absolute favorite thing
07:27 and this is a speedometer.
07:28 Sadly, within the inner ring roads of Beijing,
07:31 the average speed is closer to zero than not,
07:34 but as you can see, we're clipping along
07:35 at about 50 kilometers per hour.
07:38 (upbeat music)
07:41 And of course, because Bentley is partnered with Breitling,
07:43 there is a digital Breitling.
07:45 So if you buy a Flanker, you get not one,
07:48 but two Breitling timepieces, one of the dash.
07:51 Then we finally get to the RSE, the rear seat entertainment.
07:55 Go ahead and push this.
07:56 Right off the bat, you have a choice.
07:58 You can control just the left screen,
08:00 just the right screen, or both screens.
08:03 You push that.
08:04 Okay, so now I can use this like a track pad on a laptop
08:07 and I can go from application to application
08:10 and now if I wanna pull up a map.
08:12 It's interesting, they actually chose to use
08:13 a different map than the navigation system.
08:17 (upbeat music)
08:19 Final thoughts on the new Flying Spur.
08:29 What you need to remember is that here in China,
08:31 because of taxes, luxury cars cost double
08:34 what they do in the United States.
08:35 That means I'm riding around in a $500,000 car
08:39 or the equivalent thereof.
08:40 Is it worth it?
08:42 Luck, what do I know about buying things that expensive?
08:44 I will say, whether you're into massive power
08:47 or sublime luxury, front seat or the rear seat,
08:50 you will enjoy this car.
08:51 I know I did.
08:53 And why not stand out a little bit?
08:55 I mean, remember, in China, if you're one in a million,
08:57 you're actually one in 1,300.
09:00 (gunshot)
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