Luxury limo is the real deal

Fly to Australia for the morning and the last thing you normally want is rain. But once the initial frustration had worn off, once Sydney's slick streets and spray-clouded traffic had dropped behind us, I realised there was indeed a silver lining to these black clouds.

For it's relatively easy for an expensive kilometre-eater to look good when eating kilometres, even on the potholed tarmac of the Pacific Highway. But that same, 5.3m kilometre-eater in the wet? With 650Nm of torque on tap? Surely a recipe for disaster at worst; for disappointment at best.

But the Bentley Flying Spur lived up to its name even in these conditions. Heavier than the GT with which it shares a drivetrain it may be. Longer, certainly. But it's been so well designed that the compromises not only don't damage the driving experience, they underline how much better suited to the sedan this drivetrain is.

The Flying Spur uses the same 6.0-litre twin turbo W12 engine as the Continental GT coupe. It's a compact unit that outputs the same 411kW and 650Nm of torque - coming in anywhere from 1600rpm - put to all four wheels via the same ZF six-speed auto gearbox.

The brakes offer the same competent set-up too, with the same 405mm ventilated front discs; the biggest fitted to a production car.

The top speeds come down a piffling 5km/h to "only" 312. But surprisingly the 0-100km/h time is the same claimed 5.2 seconds - brisk in anyone's language, let alone that of a limo.

The bigger car's achieved this thanks in part to only 90 additional kg in weight. Drastic slimming measures include a rear subframe in aluminium, instead of the GT's steel.

The interesting point about these cars is the Flying Spur isn't an afterthought. The two were developed side-by-side. But the GT was released first to rejuvenate Bentley's image in the wake of its purchase by VW.

The Flying Spur has followed to broaden the range, with the drophead coupe expected in 18 months - and confirmed for New Zealand just last week.

Viewed in the rear-view mirror, the similarities between the GT and the Flying Spur outweigh the differences. But the car's greater size is revealed from the flank while the rear is pure Bentley; elegant, but hardly sporting.

Which is fine. Even the GT isn't pure sports car, for all its panache. It's a powerful kilometre-muncher with style. But it's the Spur that better suits the engine.

The GT's persona suggests a howling supercar, and for all its torque the powerplant doesn't have the character you expect. But it suits a luxury limo. The Flying Spur may be heavier, softer and 300mm longer between the wheels, but Bentley's engineers know what they're doing.

The basic suspension equation is the GT's, and it's fitted to a car as stiff as the coupe. But the VW-sourced adjustable air suspension gets new dampers and different software to direct them. The result is well-controlled in terms of handling the lumps and bumps of rural B-roads. No doubt Britain's notoriously uneven road surfaces contributed to the car's development.

The Spur grips and carves round corners with a level of agility entirely unexpected. And it still feels stable at speed.

Don't try this at home, folks, but at over 249km/h the front of the car drops 10mm and the rear 25mm, to reduce lift.

There's a fair amount of body roll, but it's all kept in control.

I found "comfort", one of four suspension settings, a little soft on these roads. The mid-setting worked fine, though tap the gear lever to sport and it not only alters the gear protocols but changes the suspension setting and tightens the steering.

It's easy to forget this thing's only 83mm shorter than an Arnage and not much lighter - it's so well controlled.

Or it was, until we overcooked a lumpy corner when the Spur did a brief, but lurid shimmy before the wheels gripped.

The traction control's deliberately tuned to give the driver some leeway; in situations where the likes of an E-class Mercedes would be lighting up like a Christmas tree, the electronic nannies leave you to it, interceding only as a last resort.

We suspect few would encounter that last resort as the car will tolerate the sort of spirited driving you don't expect from a limo.

Yet it still offers heaps of space - the luxury goes without saying.

Hop aboard and, as in the GT, there are no visual clues to the VW technology beneath the skin. You get the same strong dash as the coupe - the same lashings of leather, the hand-lacquered wood veneer, the touches of chrome and the lovely attention to detail revealed by the knurled metal caressing your fingertips.

But you get more. The 11-way seats of the GT with their integrated headrests become 16-way; the upper seat separately adjustable to the lower, for example.

The improved accommodation continues in the back. Where the GT's exaggerated rear pews can carry adults - those happy to compromise on leg-room, anyway - the Spur offers more than just easier access from those rear doors.

The back seats are capacious; they offer their own temperature controls and massager; and for $12,880 the four-seat option allows captain's seats that electronically recline.

As for the boot, you could lose a lot of luggage back there - this cavern's over 1.2m long.

Quibbles? The European launch allegedly revealed slightly too much wind noise at high speeds - the sort of speeds that would get you jail time in New Zealand. At real-world speed and on real-world roads, it's almost too quiet. Floor it and the engine's subtle wuffle becomes a gut-warming roar, but there's none of the crackle on the over-run that spices the GT's tones.

While I'm a fan of the GT's looks, I started to wonder why you'd buy one. This car's got more character; an engine that suits the persona; wonderful levels of control; and would swallow an entire family without any vulgar need to rub shoulders.

Indeed, it begs the question - why would anyone fork out around 150 grand more for an Arnage? Because they like the command driving position, the added gravitas and the bespoke nature of the beast, perhaps.

Certainly, Bentley says the Spur doesn't seem to be denting Arnage sales; some arriving to view the smaller car get distracted by the larger. And others are then seduced by the GT's more shapely rump.

The coupe dramatically improved Bentley sales, and the appeal has proved lasting. Where hardcore sports cars attract early adopters, the $355,000 GT is still selling - 16 have gone here so far this year, a 166 per cent increase year-on-year.

Orders are already rolling in for the identically priced Spur - a Bentley that not only offers the luxury you expect from the brand, but one which actually works in the real world.