Bentley Flying Spur 2025 review – ultimate luxury, supercar pace

It seemed sacrilegious, but we preferred the Continental GT with a V8. The W12 was an icon and a class-leading powerhouse in Bentley’s earlier days, but modern engineering made fewer cylinders the way to go if the driving experience was a priority. The Flying Spur is a different matter, though, with low-slung torque and refinement key. With the W12 now dead, Bentley has replaced it with an electrified V8 in its flagship saloon, but unlike previous iterations, fewer cylinders definitely don’t mean less performance. 

The only significant visual difference between this and the previous Flying Spur is the adoption of a new diamond-style grille, stepping away from the old vertical slats. This new car is undoubtedly Bentley, with the same exquisite detailing and stately presence we’ve come to expect from its flagships. The stunning £24,990 dual-tone paint of our Mulliner-spec test car draws eyes like you’re royalty – it had one onlooker so distracted they missed the changing traffic lights…

> Bentley Continental GT Speed review – driving the most powerful Bentley yet

Interior and tech

The story is the same inside, with those satisfying, tactile climate control pushers, the party-piece three-sided rotating display and a focus on comfort that makes a high end Mercedes feel ordinary. Every surface is treated to the finest materials, with everything from the cruise control stalk to the reverse of the detachable rear seat tablet featuring the same knurled chrome finish – even the insides of the cold-touch internal door handles come with the same. The 19-speaker, 2200w Naim sound system (a £7210 option) also remains the best of its kind, and is a reason to head out for a drive on its own.

Where many modern luxury cars opt for garish ambient lighting akin to a cheap nightclub, the Flying Spur’s is modest and reserved, in-line with the rest of the interior. Just about everything in the cabin is well considered, from the tasteful Bentley ‘B’ on the brake pedal to the satisfying damping on the central cubby door, and even the use of (more) chrome trim on the seat belt plugs. The central analogue clock is tasteful too, but is no longer Breitling-branded with this partnership having come to a close in 2021.

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The cabin isn’t perfect, though, with the (heated) central armrest a little high for my liking and lacking any internal storage. We praise physical buttons for their ease of use, and while they’re great to have in this case, their placement low on the centre console does make them difficult to use while on the move before their placement becomes muscle memory. A few minor rattles also surfaced in our particular test car when utilising all 2200w of its sound system, with the steering wheel developing a slight squeak at low speeds – a Bentley dealership would likely rectify such issues quickly and without questions, but they’re niggles you’d rather not have to deal with should you have just spent a quarter of a million pounds.

Engine, gearbox and 0-62 time

The new Flying Spur is a Bentley through-and-through, but slide into its cosseting seats and the first thing you’ll see is an electric-only range estimate, front and centre on the digital dash. Just over 40 miles is what we saw with its 25.9kWh battery full (Bentley quotes 50), but while silent running is great for economy (we saw over 35mpg on longer runs) and refined low-speed running, that’s not the only benefit electrification provides.

Combine a 592bhp 4-litre twin-turbocharged V8 with an electric motor mounted within the eight-speed automatic transmission, and you get a headline 771bhp combined power figure – for reference, the Bentley Batur took the W12 to its absolute limit as a £1.65m run-out special, and still falls short of that number. The all-important torque figure is just as impressive, with 738lb ft a good chunk ahead of the 664lb ft of the most potent W12 Flying Spur. While we have the Flying Spur ‘Mulliner’ here, specs are identical to the Speed, with this hybrid V8 powertrain the only one available in the lineup – there’s no V6 hybrid here.

This ‘Ultra Performance Hybrid V8’ powertrain, as Bentley calls it, is the same you’ll find at the heart of the new Porsche Panamera Turbo, Lamborghini Urus SE and Bentley Continental, and will soon make its way into even more models such as the next-generation Audi RS6. While the exclusivity of a hand-built W12 gave Bentley’s flagships an edge, there’s a reason VAG has the confidence to apply this new hybrid V8 to so many models – it’s truly impressive beyond just its numbers.

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Knock the central dial to Sport and that V8 bursts into life with a purposeful burble. Synthetic interior sound is absent, but valves in the exhaust system open in this most focused mode, making it surprisingly loud on the outside. The cabin remains refined and calm regardless, and in alternative modes, closed valves make the engine all but silent.

Having experienced just how well this powertrain executes a standing start in the Porsche Panamera Turbo, this was the first port of call. Feet flat and the revs rise to a hard limiter, before it catapults towards the horizon in a manner that seems completely at odds with its dimensions. A quoted 3.5sec 0-62mph seems modest, with the traction and pull it musters more akin to a Porsche 911 Turbo than anything else. You ought to secure those champagne glasses if you need to make progress… 

In all-electric mode it’s not quick, but there’s still plenty of pull to haul you up to the speed limit promptly, and in near silence. Fiddle with the hybrid modes via the dedicated button in the centre console and you’ll find ‘Hold’ and ‘Recharge’ modes, capable of maintaining the battery level or adding charge, making tethered charging a choice rather than a necessity. Should you decide to top the battery up in this way, though, prepare to see economy drop – the 35mpg you can manage in full ‘Hybrid’ mode will drop to 20mpg during charging, where you’ll gain around one per cent of charge per mile covered at motorway speeds.

While it won’t make much difference to most buyers (especially in the UK), it is worth noting that despite its substantial increase in output, the top speed of the new Flying Spur has taken a knock. The fastest W12-powered Flying Spur managed 207mph flat-out, making it one of the fastest saloons on the market, but the new car tops out at a comparatively modest 177mph. Regardless of this, the new car could convince you the speedometer is improperly calibrated, masking pace like you’re doing half the indicated speed.

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Ride and handling

Pull away silently in electric drive and the quality heft of the steering immediately becomes apparent. While some luxury cars opt for an ultra-light rack, the Flying Spur goes for more weight, giving you some clue as to the driving experience on offer. Rear-wheel steering is also much less disorientating at low speed than in some cars, seamlessly improving manoeuvrability and stability at speed. 

While some big cars shrink around you, the Flying Spur certainly does not – the bonnet stands tall and proud, with the retractable, illuminated ‘Flying B’ guiding the way. Ride is supple and luxurious in ‘Bentley’ mode, and while it’s not quite a magic carpet, it shrugs harsh, unsettling impacts off seemingly no matter how extreme the conditions get. It retains a constant level of refinement like not much else, making you feel as if you’re in your own bubble, detached from the outside world. 

In Sport mode the chassis lowers and stiffens noticeably, minimising roll and maintaining a level of body control that doesn’t feel possible given the luxurious ride. On more than one occasion I spotted a dip ahead, prepared for a jolt and momentary upset, and it simply never came. The way in which the Flying Spur manages its 2646kg mass makes you reassess your understanding of physics.

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Brakes are strong, thankfully, but the top of the pedal is a little soft and takes some time to get used to – this does make it very easy to slow to a seamless ‘chauffeur stop’, though, and is also perhaps the a byproduct of the blend of friction and regenerative braking. 

Knock it back to a more ordinary mode and the Flying Spur switches to its second personality, slackening the air suspension and throttle response to make it a pleasure to cover miles quickly. In Hybrid mode it uses its electric power reserves until you command more output than it can manage, when it employs the V8 to do the heavy lifting – the calibration of the hybrid system is excellent and once you understand the purpose of the charging modes (Hybrid, Hold and Charge), it adds real benefit.

One of the most disappointing elements of the experience is unusually invasive assistance systems, with lane keep assist on by default and constantly nagging at the wheel – the weight of the steering exacerbates this, with more input required to fight it. There is a dedicated button on the end of the indicator stalk to disengage the system, but having to do this each time you start the car doesn’t feel very Bentley. The speed limit warning tone is equally irritating, with the sound not dissimilar to the jarring, max-volume jingle played when you enter a multi story car park. 

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Price and rivals

Given its £226,500 starting price, there are very few direct rivals to the new Bentley Flying Spur. The Rolls-Royce Ghost is the closest match, but it’s significantly less engaging to drive and will cost you closer to £300,000 before options. Our Flying Spur test car was optioned with £24,990 paint, a £7210 sound system and £3215 bespoke interior, but even then, it’s still considerably cheaper than Goodwood’s alternative.

A more ordinary alternative is the new Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid, featuring the exact same powertrain as the Flying Spur (771bhp output and all) for a lower £168,700 price tag – cabin space, luxury and refinement all take a hit, but if you’re looking for the Flying Spur’s outstanding powertrain in a more compact, affordable package, the Porsche is a good alternative.

While the W12 injected personality into Bentley’s lineup, the new Flying Spur feels truly next generation, with electrification failing to detract from the class-leading luxury the firm has honed over the last century. The new Flying Spur isn’t a car you’re likely to take on a drive for the sake of it, but if you’re after flagship luxury that also caters to the driver, this is a prime candidate.

Bentley Flying Spur specs