Paper Tayga

The new Bentley Bentayga is big. Very big. In lots of ways.

At 2,440 kilos, 5.1 metres long and 2.2 metres wide, it’s physically big for a start. With a 6.0 litre W12 engine pushing out some 600 horsepower, it also has big muscles. Thanks to that monster engine, it’s capable of big speed, going from zero to 60 mph in four seconds dead. It then goes on to a big top speed of 187 mph.

It also comes with big price tag, starting at £160,000 before it’s sprinkled with even the most rudimentary of optional extras. As Bentley’s first foray into the SUV sector, it’s even a big deal for the company, arguably crucial to its big plans to win a particularly big share of big spending by sundry big egos the world over. Big-ness all ‘round.

Neatly nailing the aspirations of its target market, the company makes big claims for the Bentayga, describing it as “the fastest, most luxurious and most exclusive SUV in the world.” Perhaps the biggest thing about the car, though, is the size of the mistake the company made when it came to its styling.

Following the established trend for arty auto types, the Bentayga is styled with a close family resemblance in mind, with the Bentley Continental clearly the inspirational sibling of choice on this occasion. As a result, Bentley’s bouncing baby off-roader has the appearance of something that started out looking good, but was then tampered with by someone who mistakenly believed that adding more metal is the same as adding more pretty. Taking a malformed leaf out the Porsche Cayenne book mayhap.

The front quarter, at least, leaves you in no doubt that this is a Bentley, with its stretched grille an exaggerated caricature of the Continental. Impressing other golf club members and intimidating other road users is all but guaranteed.

Matters, unfortunately, become all the more confusing from the rear. While a first glance may suggest an Audi Q7 outline, the trained eye will then inevitably pick out the greater sculpting and the none-too-subtle winged-“B” badge.

The Audi resemblance, of course, is down to its shared skeleton. Bentley, Audi and Porsche are all part of the VW Reich, with each brand’s SUV sharing  a common architecture – insomuch as the word “common” could ever be truly applied to a Bentley.

Reassuringly, the interior is anything but common. The bovine semi-genocide that was needed to create the acres of leather that clads that vacuous cabin’s surfaces must have been bloodthirsty in the extreme. Thankfully those steers in question did not actually die entirely in vain. The car’s quilt-stitched, butter-soft expanses do, indeed, look and smell extremely sumptuous.

Overall, the interior is just the merest smidge less cavernous than its luxury SUV daddy, with Range Rover providing more space, particularly in the rear. The Bentayga, though, is offered with a choice of rear seat arrangements, with the conventional two-and-half position bench clearly the more practical.

Those purchasing with a chauffeur in mind might, however, prefer the strict two-seater rear pew. The two front seats are replicated perfectly in the rear, offering better support, as well as a throne-like sense of importance – albeit at the expense of a little leg room when compared to the bench arrangement. A seven-seater layout option is apparently promised for later editions.

Every tactile sensation communicates a general feeling of opulence, courtesy of the marque’s characteristic over-engineering. Doors swing open with vault-like solidity, as though granting well-oiled access to a fortified bunker. Buttons move with a smooth, tightly fitting solidity. Even the slightly shrunken, very chunky, steering wheel offers no wobble or flex when tightly gripped.

It is not hard to get the impression that the Bentayga would be the only means of transport left available to any survivors of a nuclear apocalypse.

Despite its scary appearance, the Bentayga has a rather well mannered voice. In most modern uber-chariots, a press of the starter button produces a hooliganesque battle cry, with the engine automatically bursting into life with an unnecessary squirt of revs.

Perhaps Bentley does still retain something of its one-time brand values as a gentleman’s express. Its start-up revs, after all, still emit nothing less than a deep, restrained and self-assured rumble.

The Bentayga’s bellow – even at full throttle and higher revs – is never less than impressive. Is it, though, as tear-to-a-grown-man’s-eye beautiful as similar SUV offerings from Range Rover or Mercedes ? Well maybe not. It would seem that, this time, serenity has been prioritised ahead of entertainment value when it came to exhaust design.

While the new Bentley certainly speaks (relatively) softly, then, it still carries a very big stick. Its 6.0 litre W12 engine (like two V6s sharing the same crankshaft, sideways on) is tuned to deliver most of its oomph low down the rev range, precluding the need for over-excitable excursions into the upper reaches of engine pitch.

Its peak torque of 664 lb-ft is available from 1,350 rpm – barely more than idling speed – going on to 4,500 rpm with no notable let up in force. Despite the combustion air being forced into the cylinders by turbo chargers – rather than always-on superchargers – there’s no hint of lag. Simply press your loafer to the go pedal and the Bentayga does precisely as it is bid.

The sensation of speed, though, is somewhat disconcerting. Its responsiveness and sheer ferocity is on a par with the very fastest of the out-and-out sports models. To experience that kind of pace perched so far off the asphalt seems almost to confound the very laws of physics.

Such laws are further bent out of shape when the Bentayga negotiates a bend. Having electromechanical power assistance, rather than more tactile but inefficient hydraulics, a heave on the tiller produces a swift and obedient darting of the nose. It’s what happens a split second later that’s really quite odd.

The Bentayga comes fitted with active anti-roll bars. As soon as its massed ranks of sensors detect a change of direction and weight transfer, the system stiffens, preventing roll. Not only does this keep the tall body from rolling alarmingly under strong cornering forces, it also means the car “sets in” to its cornering stance almost immediately. This results in a bizarre level of agility for so large, heavy and tall a car.

Handling is neutral, though tending slightly towards a safe and predictable under-steer. While driving fast is easy and fairly satisfying, it lacks the sense of involvement offered by a true sports car. If you can afford a Bentayga, though, you can probably also spring for a couple of Porches in order to indulge your racier tendencies whenever they should arise.

While active suspension is nothing new on a road car, the Bentayga difference comes with its electronically-controlled anti-roll bars, rather than more usual shock absorbers. Active shocks tend to be less forgiving of rough surfaces, giving vehicles just a little less of a silky ride. With air suspension and smart anti-roll bars, wheels are freer to move independently, soaking up bumps, while still rolling into the bends.

When not trying (and failing) to stand the big Bentley on its door handles, the straight-line cruising ride is indeed serene, with its soft suspension soaking up all but the deepest potholes. That understated exhaust, combined with a lusty engine that need not rev too hard to deliver its power, means little sound or vibration reaches the cabin, even at triple-digit speeds.

As a tall SUV, a degree of off-road performance is to be expected of the Bentayga. Even Bentley, though, admits that it’s not exactly a star performer in matters of the muddy kind. As with almost all such vehicles, though, it’s likely nothing more adventurous than the occasional trip into a slightly quaggy pony club car park will ever be required of it.

Unlike true off-road cars, there’s no low-range gearbox to allow gentle progress across very steep, slippery or uneven surfaces. Bentley claims that a low range is unnecessary given the huge pulling power on offer. Mostly this is true.

Wheel travel isn’t as long as real off-roaders, either, leaving a wheel propped up mid-air at even relatively modest terrain angles. Thankfully the air suspension allows the ride height to be raised for clearing the lumpier bits of your passage.

Bentley, it would seem, has been fairly pragmatic in engineering priorities. The Bentayga is very, very good on the road, which is pretty much exactly what its customers are buying it for and at £160,000, it needs to be, as well as comfortable and impressive. Off-road it’s merely okay, which is plenty good enough. It also has to shout its “Bentley-ness” – conspicuous consumption only works if it’s ostentatious enough to be noticed. Another box ticked there then.

In all likelihood it will prove hugely popular with its ultra-rich niche market, keen to display their wealth while desperate to express individuality (and clinging to the fashion for big four-by-fours, of course). Accordingly, Bentley is proud of its paintwork and interior list, as well as the extensive and expensive options to facilitate such expressions.

This is, perhaps, the best high-end SUV on the market, adapted for the kind of driving its customers actually engage in. It’s also the most expensive and on the down side it feels a tad cynical – a “me too” admission, bending a brand to cash in on a fad.

One can’t help but feel Bentley doesn’t belong on an SUV. Then again, neither does a Porsche badge – and the big, ugly Cayenne has sold like hot cakery.

 

Bentley Bentayga

Engine: 6.0 litre
W12 twin-turbo

Power: 600bhp @ 5,000-6,000 rpm
Torque: 664 lb-ft @ 1,350-4,500 rpm

Transmission:
eight- speed automatic through four-wheel drive

0-62mph: 4.0 seconds

Top speed: 187 mph

Price: from £160,000 (HK$2,000,000 plus import tax)

 

Above: If that doesn’t whet your appetite, it’s likely nothing else will