2025 Bentley Bentayga Speed | PH Review

Before driving the new Bentley Bentayga Speed, my question for its engineering team was going to be simple: why isn’t it a hybrid? Not only does its pure petrol configuration buck the market trend, but also the prevailing approach of VW Group buddies with which Bentley shares some of its tech.  The Cayenne Turbo GT and Urus SE both soar past 700hp with the help of a plug, the latter using its electrical assistance for genuine dynamic flourishes.

Beside them, the new uber-Bentayga’s 650hp could, to the least rational among us, appear a touch meek. But with around 200 kilos less to shift than it would as a PHEV, its quoted performance figures are still nothing less than startling. It’s the first Bentayga Speed to slum it with eight rather than twelve cylinders and the first with four-wheel steering, too. Its 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 produces its 627lb ft torque peak from just 2,250rpm and is good for a 193mph top speed (up 3mph on the old Speed) and 0-60mph in 3.4 seconds (down 0.4sec). 

The latter is best uncorked by Launch Control – a Bentayga first, and one of the many options unlocked by a £10,370 Dynamic Pack whose carbon-ceramic brake headline act boasts 440mm discs. Ticking that box is the only way to get 23-inch wheels and another Bentayga first, an ESC Dynamic mode which ‘permits exhilarating drift angles or power-on oversteer where appropriate’. All without an e-motor to cheat-code you into a slide like its Lamborghini cousin.

Its Bentley and Comfort drive modes remain the same as other Bentaygas, ensuring the Speed sacrifices none of their plushness, while Sport sharpens the steering, stiffens the suspension by 15 per cent and perks up the brake torque vectoring system, which allies with the variable 4WS and looser ESC to help pivot you into corners like no Bentley 4×4 before it. ‘[Our] engineers have created the most powerful and dynamic Bentayga ever,’ reads the bumf, ‘without losing an iota of what makes a Bentley, a Bentley.’ It’s with that in mind that I first potter out into the epic Montana scenery, focusing on its luxe credentials first and foremost.

The interior of a Bentayga has always stood out beside other Bentleys for some of its shared architecture with its German cousins; increasingly, though, it stands out for its steadfast use of physical switchgear, the car’s full decade since launch (!) acknowledged by some pleasingly traditional user interfaces. It’s an anachronism in all the right ways, and it’s easy to condone when there’s still proficient tech tucked beneath it. There’s a fine line between espousing tradition and looking like a throwback, but this car treads it precisely. And thankfully Bentley’s engineers have no intention of giving up on buttons for whatever comes next…

Its instrument panel is digital, with fresh fonts and embellishments including newly patriotic ‘made in Britain’ flourishes. Bentley has no plan to outsource production from Crewe, and as Chinese carmakers flex ever bigger muscles to compete with European heritage, the Bentayga’s homemade claims are an evolving USP.

It lopes along effortlessly, its enlarged turbochargers making simple work of slip roads and overtakes with even the merest hint of throttle travel. While it does a decent job of ironing out road surfaces, it doesn’t isolate you from them entirely. The benefit of this slight tension is a newfound clarity to its steering and composure to its responses that many performance SUVs struggle to achieve even with a properly pummelling ride. The wheels tend to thump authoritatively over trickier bumps, though, and the standard 22s feel an easy recommendation over these optional 23s.

The start-up Bentley mode remains a lovely cover-all for daily driving, prioritising comfort without sacrificing focus, with a smoothly assertive calibration of its ZF transmission and just the right amount of lean allowed by its 48v anti-roll system. The V8 gurgles away in the background, its soundtrack deliciously present under an insistent throttle but politely ebbing away at all other times, not dissimilar to the storied W12 before it. Sport mode proves fun for short blasts – and it’s the only way to spark ESC Dynamic mode – but the ‘box inevitably clings onto its lower ratios, and the optional Akrapovic system is all too keen to crudely splinter the luscious landscape around you. It’s also cackle-out-loud fun when you’re in the mood for it, mind…

A moody Bentley was only too happy to indulge via a sprawling gravel course amidst a vast Montanan ranch, an appropriate terrain to test the voracity of this newly accommodating chassis. A looser surface perfectly demonstrates its inherently sorted balance alongside an alluring appetite for mischief – the balance of its 4WS shifts with the conditions and allied with the other tech on board, it helps point the nose at the apex with devilish haste. Especially if you’ve deliberately provoked the rear axle with a nice, eleventh-hour brake.

The Speed never shrugs off its weight, but a smooth, progressive steering rack relays an intuitive breakaway of its rear axle, and this is a laughably easy – and crucially fun – car to hustle along, its inescapable heft only exaggerating the mischief. The Urus SE did the same thing on Nardo’s gravel circuit with some complex hybrid coding; this car does it with brake torque vectoring and a baritone V8 solo. 

With my head now wrapped around where its limits lie, I lean harder on it back on tarmac, its swagger feeling surefooted but clearly dynamic when you’re in Sport. It feels pretty sorted in any mode, however, and is undeniably a nicer road car when it’s on smoother roads with the comfort amped up. 

Should you spend £7,740 on its titanium Akrapovic pipes? Well, it saves 12.5kg over the standard sports exhaust, despite doubling the tailpipe count, which is naturally small fry when it slices a 0.5% portion from a car’s kerbweight. I can see it being hard to resist for pure loutishness – Bentley predicts half of its US buyers will tick the box, and about a fifth of European orders – but a late-night ride home in the old titanium-piped Speed lingers in my memory for the sleep that eluded me as it buzzed fussily down the M6. If you’re specifying the plush 4+1 seat option to use your Bentayga as a part-time limo, it may be best avoided.

But this car has a ‘last of the last’ vibe, an admission recognised by Bentley engineering boss Dr. Matthias Rabe, who bought his own 991 GT3 Touring with that exact mindset. The exhaust is a flagrant extravagance, but so is a Bentley, full stop – a Dacia Bigster will do much the same objective job for a tenth of the cost. With the Akrapovic box ticked, this latest Speed is loud, silly, and won’t allow you to slip anywhere unnoticed. Perfect for the typical super-SUV crowd, then, and a moment of wistful joy from a brand whose carbon-neutral factory and typically forward-facing philosophy might otherwise have left cars like this behind. 

It is easily convincing enough for my original question on hybridisation to be replaced by a more interesting one: ‘when does the Continental GT get this powertrain?’ Matthias is a vision of professionalism even when cornered by a jet-lagged journo hyped-up on American kaw-fee, but the glint in his eye that accompanies a hushed ‘you’ll have to wait and see’ suggests a future Conti Supersports (or similar) ought to get a similarly unsullied V8. Recent spy shots suggest that may occur quite quickly; in fact, Bentley is probably keen to shoehorn in any ICE-only specials before the electrified grasp of its Beyond100+ strategy irrevocably tightens.

Fab as this car feels, pottering around in an exclusively petrol-powered Bentayga may strike some users as a guilty pleasure given the imposing scale of Bentley’s luxury SUV – but experiencing the enveloping sound and dynamic prowess on display here in a lower, lighter, slinkier model ought to have the opposite effect. 

Engine: 3,996cc, V8 twin-turbo
Transmission: 8-speed automatic, all-wheel drive
Power (hp): 650@6,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 627@2,250-4,500rpm
0-62mph: 3.6sec
Top speed: 193mph
Weight: 2,466kg
MPG: TBC
CO2: TBC
Price: from £219,000