On this episode of Ignition
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00:00 This week on Ignition, we sample Bentley's new economy engine, but don't worry, it's
00:05 no wheezing diesel.
00:06 It's a 500 horsepower V8, and we're here in Spain to test it.
00:29 We're here in northern Spain's Rioja winemaking region at the fabulous Frank Gehry design
00:34 Marques de Riscal hotel and winery.
00:36 The wine cellars next door have almost 8 million bottles of wine, but before we can crack into
00:41 one of them, we're going to make an hour-long drive over to the brand new Navara racing
00:44 circuit and take the full measure of this new thrifty twin-turbo V8.
00:50 I'm here in Spain test driving the new twin-turbo V8, which Bentley claims will perform just
00:54 as well as the W12 while getting 40% better gas mileage.
01:03 So they're charging 10% less for the V8, but frankly I'd pay extra for it.
01:07 I love the way this thing sounds.
01:08 There's just no beating the verbal of a V8.
01:12 The performance is perfectly adequate, and I just like that it's a lot more straightforward
01:17 and simple than that funny Siamese twin VR6 setup in the W12.
01:22 Naturally, the acceleration of a 500-horsepower twin-turbo, no complaints there.
01:28 I have to admit, my backside isn't finely calibrated enough to notice a 55-pound weight
01:33 loss on the nose.
01:34 This car is still a big, heavy car.
01:37 It understeers at the limit, but hey, that's what Bentleys are about.
01:40 If they made it out of carbon fiber, we wouldn't recognize it as a Bentley.
01:47 Up in the mountains when it was snowing and so forth, I did have it in sport mode, but
01:52 the car has plenty of compliance.
01:54 It only tenses up when you absolutely need it.
01:57 Feels quite comfortable, feels quite confident in the snow as well as it does at 200 kilometers
02:01 an hour on the auto route.
02:03 Bentley hasn't announced pricing for the US or EPA fuel economy figures yet, but they
02:09 promise us it'll be about 10% less expensive than the W12, and it'll get 40% better gas
02:14 mileage.
02:15 That's pretty impressive, but it brings up the question, can it possibly perform like
02:18 a Bentley?
02:19 Let's go to the track and find out.
02:29 Fortunately we've lucked out and the snow went away here at the Circuit Navarra.
02:35 This morning, the car felt huge on those little roads, and they always do.
02:41 It is a wide car, so finding your way on those little bitty winery roads is difficult.
02:49 Here at Circuit Navarra, we've got all the space in the world, and the car really seems
02:54 to shrink.
02:58 Not to mention you get to listen to that lovely sound over and over again.
03:08 These carbon ceramic brakes really shine here at the track, where you can do hot lap after
03:13 hot lap with no discernible difference in performance.
03:20 Measuring 0-60 in a Bentley Continental couldn't be easier.
03:23 The new 8-speed automatic, you can just leave it in drive, it shifts a little beyond the
03:27 red line in each gear, that's as much as you can hope for.
03:30 Shifts are very quick.
03:31 So it's a simple matter of sticking it in drive.
03:34 With all-wheel drive, you don't even need to switch off the traction control or stability
03:37 control because there's no wheel slip anyway, especially with these big 21s.
03:43 So all we do, put it in drive, we've got a brake torque just up to about 2800 RPM, let
03:49 my foot off the brake and off we go.
03:52 Awesome.
03:55 60 miles an hour comes up in 4.2 seconds.
04:02 The quarter mile, 12.7 at 110.3 miles per hour.
04:06 They say it'll go 188 miles an hour, 10 shy of the W16 model, but here again I kind of
04:14 wonder if there's maybe a little bit of marketing in play here because one of them technicians
04:19 said he's seen 193.
04:22 Now one of the things they did to get 1.5% of those fuel economy improvements was to
04:27 put low rolling resistance tires on the car.
04:29 Now we might expect that to lower our braking performance, so let's give it a run, we'll
04:34 get her up to 60 miles per hour, throw out the anchor, 106 feet.
04:47 Here again the V8 has outperformed the W12, stopping at 106 feet instead of 113, but we've
04:54 got carbon ceramic brakes, which I don't think our last W12 had, and this car is wearing
04:59 21 inch rubber, so probably not the low rolling resistance that they talk about on the advertising.
05:07 They like this circuit, it's only been open for a couple of years, hasn't seen a lot of
05:11 use, F1 hasn't stopped here, although it is built to Formula 1 standards.
05:16 Again even here at Circuit Navarra, I kind of wish this S mode of the transmission was
05:22 a little bit more forthcoming with the downshifts.
05:25 Here I am in a very tight turn and it's left me in fourth, no good.
05:29 Now when I step my foot all the way into it, downshift's just fine, but the best of these
05:35 systems pre-select those gears for you.
05:43 And just listen to that, you do not get that in the W12.
05:49 All this sort of lends credence to my earlier idea that I think I'd actually pay extra for
05:55 the V8 over the W12.
05:57 I mean after all, how many chances do I have to go 198 miles per hour relative to the number
06:02 of times I get to go 0-60 in 4.2 seconds?
06:05 I think that's more accessible performance and it's better in the V8.
06:16 Several styling cues differentiate the V8 powered GT Coupe and GTC convertible.
06:20 The most noticeable ones being the gloss black mesh grille and more aggressive lower air
06:25 intakes in front, the horizontal figure eight exhaust tips in back, and B badges with red
06:30 backgrounds instead of black.
06:34 As for lateral acceleration, at .86 G, it ties the W12 Continental GTC we just tested
06:40 back in California.
06:42 The starting price of about 174 grand, Bentley hopes to lure buyers away from Mercedes-Benz
06:47 CL AMGs, Aston Martin DB9s, Audi R8s, Porsche 911 Turbos, and Ferrari 458 Italias.
06:55 This big, gorgeous, exquisitely crafted coupe seems like a perfect alternative to the Mercedes
06:59 or the Aston Martin, but it seems a completely different animal than the live, nimble 911
07:03 R8 or 458 Italia.
07:05 And well, it should be.
07:06 Bentley's been building big, substantial, powerful tourers ever since Ettore Bugatti
07:11 famously criticized them for being the world's fastest lorries.
07:14 It's comfortable in that skin, and if this 4.2 second V8 points to the future of fast
07:18 trucks, sign me up.
07:20 the comments.
07:26 [music]