2026 Bentley Flying Spur review: Does plug-in hybrid ruin it?
good day i’m Paul so today we’re driving the updated Bentley Flying Spur plus a couple of other cars in the updated Bentley range including the GT the GTC and also the Bentega Speed as well so it’s going to be a pretty busy couple of days if you do want to check out our video of the Bentega Speed I’m going to leave a link in the description below but today I’m going to focus primarily on the Flying Spur we’re going to look at the new drivetrain they’ve added to this which is similar to the drivetrain of the GT Speed that we drove a little while back so plug-in hybrid V8 going to run you through the changes on the outside have a look at the inside and then we’ll go for a little spin as well so if you want to skip ahead to other parts of this video you can use some of those time codes up on the screen or if you’re on YouTube you can scroll down and use the chapters below let’s get started now sorry about the quality of this video i’m shooting all of this on my own look at me go uh so the updated Flying Spur it looks pretty similar on the outside it didn’t get the radical design change that the uh Continental did and that is primarily due to the fact that this launched I think some 2 years after the Continental did so they’ll probably do a facelift at some point but uh they’re not changing a huge amount so there are some changes to the lower grill section there um also that grill material and some changes around the back but um aside from that nothing sort of too crazy so this spec is the Flying Spur Core so basically the base model this is available as an Azour as well so that is uh one step up from this in terms of what you’re getting inside the cabin but the entire range now comes with a twin turbocharged 4 L V8 with a plug-in hybrid drivetrain so run you through the specs on that a little bit later on when we’re inside the car but this really is quite imposing it looks fantastic in person and I love the fact that they haven’t gone too hard on the styling it really just lends itself to being a Bentley there are so many customization options something like 40 billion options available on the configurator and that is before you step into Mulliner which is a spec that’s available in this car as well where you can go to town on specifying it the way that you want look at these alloy wheels they look fantastic so 22 in in size this is um I mean just enormous presence on the road with that machined finish on the outside there piano black on the inside it looks absolutely sensational uh they’ve made some changes to the way that the design works depending on the spec that you go for so that’s primarily based around tail lamps and and the way that they look depending on the spec you go for some changes there to that lower rear section primarily though this looks very much the same as previous versions of the Flying Spur one of the big changes you’re going to see here is in the boot because plug-in hybrid drivetrain means you get slightly less boot space they have to fit a 30 odd kwatth battery somewhere in the mix and unfortunately it means that you are going to get a little less boot space as a result of that still not the end of the world but just something worth keeping in mind powered tailgate there as well love the proportions of this car it just really cuts a fine line as it h moves through the air i also love down the front here sort of Rolls-Royceesque the Bentley logo can disappear into the bonnet there as well so that is kind of a cool feature too now I’ll show you what the inside looks like we actually drag raced one of these uh in one of our drag race series videos so if you do want to check that video out there is a link in the description below so this is available in a number of trims inside the cabin like you can really go to town on how you want this to look i loved uh Bentega Speed that we drove the other day it actually had like a stone insert up here 6 mil thick i don’t even understand how they shave stone to to allow it to be inserted into the car but this is a more traditional wood grain setup and then these are the seats got the Bentley logo there piping down the side so again you can customize how that appears for you okie dokie get rid of this uh GoPro turn that wheel a little bit as well so ahead of the driver there you’ve got a digital display you can change what appears on there how it appears how big you want it really is a number of different uh options you can have there beautiful steering wheel too so again a lot of customizations you can actually do to that love this so this is an optional feature it’s a rotating display so you’ve got three dials here but at the push of the screen button here that rotates around and it’s quite an impressive system because there’s a number of motors behind the screen here and each time it rotates it adjusts its accuracy as it goes so it’s quite a complex setup there’s a number of patents that Bentley had to go through to create this and to make it work as well as it does but that then hides the infotainment screen if you don’t want to see it which is a handy feature i love this as well so uh basically if you do want to stop the air flow through these vents Bentley calls these organ stops love how they come up with these very British names for everything heap of piano black down here which I’m not a big fan of but um again you can see the color of the the leather on that gear knob matches the interior color as well so gone to town on customization there too uh you’ve got buttons here to adjust your blinds so you can see that in the uh in the rear vision mirror there that goes up and down which is quite a good feature and you’ve got them built into the doors as well they can be controlled there i can also control that opening too which I can do from the back very handy feature um take you to the back seat so you can have a look in there there’s a stack of room in here they’ve done a great job with packaging um so I’ll move this out of the way we’ll hop in the back there this one has the optional uh entertainment screens in the rear you’ve got a separate display down here as well a little bit tricky to see but this allows you to change things like your audio temperature and then also your seat functions and of course you can adjust your seats here on the door as well you know forwards and backwards and play around with that this also allows you to control the blinds on the side pretty cool setup there and have a look at these cushions as well just when you want to have a kit you just rest your weary head in there as well and that sort of takes care of you which is kind of cool um up the top here as well you’ll see some more uh lights and switches for things like the the blinds we can open and close those you can either have light on you or no light whatever you desire plus some vanity mirrors over here as well to see how beautiful you look um so yeah that is the inside of the Flying Spur quite a beautiful setup and if you have a look at this compared to something like the the Maybach uh S-Class I mean this just feels about a thousand times nicer and uh I think that is what these buttons do oh that’s cool so that drops your thing which then sort of just crushes your knees not the best feature in the world um so yeah look I think that uh this really does feel a lot more luxurious than something like an S-Class and you know you are paying the price for it uh we don’t know pricing yet for the Australian market but given that this was quite an expensive car to start with I think uh you can expect to pay a few dollars uh especially when you consider the fact that most people will option a stack of things on these it’s not like they just come from the factory looking like this you spend a lot of your money on options going up from the base specs okay so it is time to go for a bit of a drive so turn the car on by pushing this being a plug-in hybrid uh everything sort of fires up it starts off in electric when you uh sort of are defaulted into Bentley mode and that is just the the standard drive mode the vehicle sort of turns on in you got Bentley comfort uh custom and sport now it’s interesting when I drove this car uh at its at its launch the speed version of the Conti with this new drivetrain i was pretty impressed with I guess just how well integrated everything is and unlike the uh Bentega Speed which uses a ZF transmission this one uses a dual clutch and it’s really it’s not that bad and normally dual clutches I’m not a huge fan of but this one really steps it up in terms of the way that it performs and the way that it responds to your inputs and the way that it pairs with this plug-in hybrid drivetrain because again you run into a lot of issues with uh dual clutches and just standard transmissions with plug-in hybrid drivetrains cuz they have to change gears even when they are in electric mode like it is now now let’s talk about the battery system before I run you through the internal combustion portion uh this is around 30 kW hours in capacity usable capacity is less than that and that gives you around 80 km worth of driving range and and Bentley surveyed their their uh customers and basically discovered that that is about all the driving range they need they discovered that most of their customers have garages and driveways where they can actually charge their vehicles so it is kind of that perfect compromise between getting you electric only drive range and also not robbing too much of your boot space like we saw before you know you have less boot space because you have a battery that eats into that capacity now that’s all paired to a really interesting engine so 4 L twinturbocharged V8 and this whole drivetrain kind of carries on the Bentley philosophy so it means you’ve got an all-wheel drive system it has an ELSD a Torsson limited slip differential in the center really is a drivetrain that that Bentley has refined to the point where it works so well in these vehicles it gives you the traction that you need a lot of other cars in this segment are rear wheel drive as a default and you have all-wheel drive available whereas this just sticks with that formula of all-wheel drive uh all the time and uh that’s about all you need terms of the combined power outputs 500 kW of power almost 1,000 new m of torque and this isn’t even the speed version the speed version takes it up a notch and really sort of smashes it out of the park there in terms of the figures so uh I think it shows you that they’ve really worked on kind of forgetting about efficiency yes you get efficiency out of these systems because they are you know electric part electric but ultimately they’ve gone here for an option that is going to give you explosive performance when you need it and uh the efficiency when everything is switched off terms of the individual components the electric motor that’s sandwiched between the engine and the transmission uh produces 140 kW of power and the internal combustion engine alone is just under 400 kW so they’re pretty healthy numbers and it means that when you are driving on electric only like we are now you can ease into the throttle and it picks up and moves really nicely it doesn’t feel sluggish there are a lot of plug-in hybrids that when they are in electric mode don’t really feel like they have enough pick up and go whereas this just accelerates nice and smoothly and you feel confident that you’re able to get that acceleration you need to keep up with traffic and not feel like you know you are sort of held behind the entire time you can see the regen kicking in just there as well as I roll onto the brake it uses regen plus the friction brakes to slow the vehicle down it is only when you uh activate the kickown switch that it then turns the internal combustion engine on so that’s in Bentley mode comfort whichever mode you’re in that is when uh it does that so right now if I just come and sync the boot in internal combustion engine kicks on and it gives us the explosive pull of that entire package uh which is just a really good quick setup there isn’t any lag it dives back through the gears with that dual clutch uses the electric motor as torque fill turns the internal combustion engine on and then gives you that punch in the back now in terms of acceleration we’re talking about 0 to 100 in just under 4 seconds so for a car that weighs over two tons that is a pretty impressive figure when you think that this isn’t really a car that is designed to be crazy fast in terms of acceleration it is designed first and foremost as as a tourer it is interesting that they’ve been able to just give it that sort of dual personality where it’s nice and comfortable most of the time and then when you need it to go it sort of picks up and moves uh you know with with incredible pace and this isn’t even the performance version and this is just the the uh I guess the base uh base version with a couple of extra trimmings inside the cabin now being a Bentley ride is important and comfort is important so mentioned earlier that the vehicle starts in B mode but if you do switch it over to comfort mode uh that is when the adaptive air suspension is given the command to really soften everything out and even here on these enormous 22-in alloy wheels it feels so comfortable they really are masters of giving this the ride that it needs it has a 48vt anti-roll system that keeps everything in check and and it’s these systems that this car really benefits from because it gives it the ability to have that dual personality without having to even think about anything you know you just select the mode that you want to be in and away it goes okay let’s put this into sport mode we’ll go for a slightly sportier drive and just see what this sounds and feels like it’s still got that that raspy little exhaust note sounds so good and a stack of punch there as well like this plug-in hybrid drivetrain they’ve just done a great job with giving it that emotive feel behind the wheel without being over the top and you’ve got the ability to rifle through gears over here now we did drive the Bentega Speed as well and while that has the option of the Acropovich exhaust to give you that sort of menacing snile this doesn’t have that but it still sounds loud enough for what it is it’s not over the top but it’s loud enough to to give you an idea that this is actually a V8 they haven’t completely muted it out which I think is really important uh yes you want to be able to drive comfort and and quietly but you also want to be able to hear this thing every now and then as well god just gets up and moves really nicely confident brake pedal feel as well so from that point of view they’ve done just a really good job of integrating the whole regen system with the brakes jeez it’s got some absolute mumbo i should point out as well that uh Bentley has put this drivetrain into the GT and GTC i’ve driven both of those so actually just had a little run in the uh GTC beautiful day for it as well like nice and crisp but sunny uh kind of delivers the same driving experience as this uh four seat convertible you know it isn’t as rigid as this in terms of chassis so you get a little bit of flex there but that is pretty standard amongst other four seat convertibles as well but you do get all of that experience of the exhaust note that perhaps you don’t get in here because it is so insulated the other thing worth calling out as well is that the entire range now comes with four-wheel steering so you’re getting the ability to tuck it in and and do those tighter turns and get that extra dynamic agility through corners without uh really having to to sacrifice all that much yes it adds a bit of weight but I think the benefits are there in terms of how agile the car becomes and it’s not over the top when you’re going through corners some cars with overactive four-wheel steering just feel like they’re constantly trying to lead the vehicle whereas this is so subtle that it doesn’t really interrupt anything and you’re getting the benefit of being able to do tighter U-turns at lower speed so Bentley Flying Spur with the plug-in hybrid V8 what do we reckon look I think this is a car that doesn’t really compromise anything you’re getting the performance you expect to get out of this you’re also getting efficiency if you do want to drive it without the internal combustion engine switched on so I think really it is a car that some of its parts just show you that Bentley is focused on still delivering that driving experience without going too overboard with the eco efficiency stuff so from that point of view I’m pretty impressed with it and I think that they’ve done an excellent job with it now if you did enjoy this video please make sure you like it share it with your mates and if you haven’t done so already subscribe to the channel press the bell icon as well but until next time take it
Bentley has rolled out its plug-in hybrid drivetrain to more of its models and this time around it’s the Flying Spur that benefits from a plug-in hybrid drivetrain. Is it any good? Paul Maric takes the new Flying Spur for a spin to find out.
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
2026 Bentley Bentayga Speed review: RIP W12
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 00:40
Interior: 03:23
Driving: 07:26
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