Jonny is in Beijing testing out the Bentley Flying Spur.
Welcome back to fifth gear and welcome to beijing this is the world’s fastest-growing luxury car market and i’m here to put the new bentley flying spur through its paces over the last decade luxury car sales in china have rocketed by 36% with over a million sold in 2012 so if the flying spur can’t cut it in beijing bentley might as well go back to the drawing board
Business is booming so quickly here the bentley have had to open 12 new dealerships in 2013 alone and they expect 60% of all flying spur sales to be from here china the flying spur is bentley’s fastest ever four-door thanks to a twin turbo w12 engine but with beijing an almost constant gridlock it also needs to be easy to drive slow beijing is just so densely
Populated there’s 20 million people living here and there’s over five million cars which doesn’t count crazy things like that motorized rickshaws electric bicycles all kinds of madness so in order to drive a car out here in china i’ve had to get my provisional driving license and here it is they also gave me a chinese highway code although i suspect i’m the only
One that’s looked at it as people just stood in the middle of the road despite weighing two and a half tons and being over five meters long the flying spur is easy to thread through these streets varied you sit up high which gives excellent visibility the crows and the steering is light and accurate although it’s madness outside in the rush hour it’s ever so quiet
And composed in it as you would expect the levels of comfort are immaculate as the adjustable suspension is actually softer than its predecessors the tear bag suspension system on this the going round town on these terribly potholed roads it’s got much more of a magic carpet right than it used to when lee’s gone to great lengths to keep the car quiet and calm the
Doors are shaped for minimal wind noise with soundproof glass all around they tested twelve different tires before settling on the most refined there’s even special acoustic underfloor paneling to absorb road noise inside here you’ve got ten metres squared of wood veneer that’s a huge amount of tree in this carson web and then you’ve got 14 whole leather hides so
That’s 14 complete cow backs somewhere in here when lee expects their chinese customers to be chauffeur driven during the week before taking the wheel at the weekend so i’m going to swap seats this is where the action is on the spur because this is where chinese consumers really want to spend their money so you’ve got a a normal armrest here beautifully stitched
But paulista you’ve got yourself a proper fridge and i’m currently chilling some bin 65 chardonnay just in case interestingly most bentley buyers in china are between 25 and 35 which explains the focus on infotainment and connectivity the car’s got its own wi-fi hotspot and this box of tricks which allows me to control almost everything from the backseat get this
I can tell you what speed my man at the front is driving and i can tell you what distance we’ve covered and i can tell you what the time is according to my brightening clock at the front i can also casually put the rear blind up without needing to fumble for any buttons it’s all here i can do all the aircon from here i can do the aircon at the front so i can tell
The chauffeur how hot or cold he or she should be so now i’m gonna control this screen here i’m gonna start playing around this works as a mouse so as i run my finger on around the phone it’s acting as a mouse on this big screen that’s world domination for me i like it i like it back here i got plenty of head room although i’m not totally convinced i’ve got more
Knee room than i would have in a long-wheelbase jag xj or an s-class mercedes around town the new flying spur is quieter smoother and more refined than before from the front seat and the back but bentley should thrill as well as soothe so i’m going for a blast after beijing towards the great wall of china i’ve not had a chance to really uncork it yet this gives
Me a chance to stick the big b into sport mode and start playing with these paddles so i like the fact that the pedals for the transmission are fixed in other words they don’t turn with the steering wheel so it’s just like a racecar this thing’s four-wheel drive it puts all 616 horsepower down to the ground straight away no messing about through this mechanic or
For drive system the grip the grip is astonishing you just don’t think of it as being a two and a half tongue look so you’re because you can pick into corners and it will just a bear hug you on the tarmac it’s something else the flying spur has conquered the traffic jams the highways and the back roads of beijing in a city where owners want rear seat luxury and
Front seat thrills it feels totally at home a hundred and forty thousand pounds is a lot of cash but as this is a car to suit every mood i reckon it’s excellent value you you
Transcribed from video
Fifth Gear: Bentley Flying Spur Review By Fifth Gear
