Bentley Continental GT Speed review
8
Bentley’s electrification effort finally takes in its core two-door GT coupé
Published:
18 April 2025
- Introduction
- Design & styling
- Interior
- Engines & performance
- Ride & handling
- MPG & running costs
- Verdict
- Introduction
- Design & styling
- Interior
- Engines & performance
- Ride & handling
- MPG & running costs
- Verdict
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Exotic ‘2+2’ sporting coupes hardly come any more different than the Bentley Continental GT and the Porsche 911, and yet Crewe seems to be following Stuttgart’s philosophy as it develops its modern luxury grand tourer into its third decade.
Just as ‘all-new’ model generations of the Porsche can be considered in pairs (the 2004 ‘997’ being a technical development of the ‘996’, ditto the 2019 ‘992’ of the ‘991’), Continental GTs have developed similarly. The second-generation GT of 2011 refined and improved the chassis of the 2003 original, and now the fourth generation has refined and improved the Porsche-developed platform and body of the third.
When, in 2023, Crewe announced the end of production of the W12 engine that powered the GT for so long, we all knew major change for the Continental series must be afoot. That change now manifests itself as the first plug-in hybrid Continental coupe that Bentley has made, and also its most powerful GT yet: the Bentley Continental GT Speed Hybrid.
The car has taken on a new electronic architecture to facilitate that under-bonnet change; features a new active suspension system which, it’s claimed, extends its dynamic repertoire; and gets quite widely revised exterior styling and cabin technology, the former intended to sprinkle some of the stardust of the firm’s ultra-rare limited-series cars – the Bacalar and Batur – on this series-production model.
https://www.drivenbuy.co.uk/autocar?car_make=bentley&car_model=continental-gt-speed&review=new&source=https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/bentley/continental-gt-speed
Verdict
Model tested:
Rating: 8
Bentley Continental GT Speed
PHEV powertrain tech makes Bentley’s fastest GT quicker, but not necessarily better
Good
Towering performance
Plush cabin
New hybrid efficiency and zero-emissions running
Bad
Punchy price by Continental-series standards
Boot space reduced
Lacks some tactile feedback and on-the-limit predictability
DESIGN & STYLING
8
Pros
Batur-inspired look is at once fresh, eye-catching and appealing
V8 PHEV powertrain keeps engine downsizing concept at arm’s length
Cons
There’s nearly 200kg of extra bulk here, in an already heavy car
The easiest way to tell this fourth-generation Continental GT from its predecessors is literally staring you in the face. This is the first time since the 1950s that Bentley has dispensed with a quartet of headlights for a series-production model. The new GT’s twin lamps have integrated ‘eyebrow’ running lights, and different internal designs depending on the model.
For now there are two of those – the GT Speed and GT Mulliner – both using the same new hybridised 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 powertrain. The material differences between the pair mostly concern body trim wheel design, equipment level and cabin specification. A less powerful, ‘High Performance’ PHEV will slot into the line-up later at a lower price point, taking the place of the normal, sub-Speed GT derivatives. Meanwhile, this is also the first time a convertible Continental GTC has been launched at the same time as its fixed-head peer.
Dark smoked rear lights are another feature of GT Speed derivative trim. They light up red when you brake, but I still prefer the red lenses of other derivatives
The GT Speed adopts new two-chamber active air suspension (the third-generation car had a three-chamber system) augmented with new twin-valve adaptive dampers. It continues with a clutch-based active four-wheel drive system and a torque-vectoring active rear differential, as well as with ‘Bentley Dynamic Drive’ active anti-roll bars and four-wheel steering, although it isn’t yet clear how many of those systems will also appear on the cheaper Continental GT ‘High Performance’ Hybrid.
Bentley’s newest hybrid powertrain, meanwhile, is already known to us from the Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid, and produces the same total system outputs of 772bhp and 738lb ft. Only Lamborghini has conjured more power from the same hardware for its latest Urus SE PHEV.
The hybrid system is actually composed of a different V8 than appeared in the third-generation GT, running without cylinder deactivation and using twin monoscroll rather than -twinscroll turbos. Neither technology is necessary because of the influence of the 188bhp, 332lb ft permanent magnet synchronous motor mounted upstream of the eight-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox. It can power the car all by itself for an official electric range of up to 50 miles, or torque-fill for any latency in engine response when running in tandem with the V8.
The motor draws power from a 25.9kWh drive battery carried under the boot floor. It’s more typical for manufacturers to package these things within a car’s wheelbase, but Bentley is instead using new technology to address an old problem here: weight distribution. The GT has always had a slightly nose-heavy apportion of this, which more recent generations have only mitigated (the last W12 GT Speed’s weight was distributed 54:46 on our scales, a GTC V8 S of 2023 52:48).
The new GT Speed Hybrid has an as-tested weight distribution of 49:51, so in one sense it has cured the malaise. But, predictably, it has also added to Crewe’s perennial, overarching weight problem. Our test car weighed 2462kg with half a tank of fuel: 183kg more than the last, W12-engined GT Speed we tested in 2021.
To look at it another way, the car’s homologated standard kerb weight is within 100kg of the Porsche Panamera Turbo S E-Hybrid mentioned earlier, and that may not make it seem like such a burden. But only the driving experience will really tell.
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
Model tested:
Bentley Continental GT Speed
Price:
£236,600
Price as tested:
£296,550
Claimed weight
2459kg
Weight on scales
2462kg
Wheel size (as tested)
275/35 ZR22 104Y (f), 315/30 ZR22 107Y (r), Pirelli PZero
Length
4895mm
Width (with/without mirrors)
2190/1954mm
Doorspan
4260mm
Height
1397mm
Height with boot open
1770mm
Wheelbase
2851mm
INTERIOR
9
Pros
Sumptuous material richness
Generous cabin packaging for a 2+2
Cons
Loses some boot space
There is something particularly enticing about the cabin ambience that results when a manufacturer like Bentley, a habitual provider of opulent luxury in painstaking handmade terms, embarks on a rousing performance treatment. Precisely because it doesn’t seek to save weight or compromise on richness, it can end up creating a real of sense of occasion, and a boldness beyond its usual brief. Somehow you get more of everything, less of nothing.
The cabin of the new Continental GT Speed feels a lot like that. Its layout is very familiar because, while some of the materials used have changed, and the car’s display and multimedia technology has been uprated, this is fundamentally the same cockpit that the third-generation GT had. And so it’s lavishly finished, enveloping and comfortable, and traditional in as many ways as it is progressive.
I’d happily set aside several days to figure out what combination of hide and veneer to have in my Conti. On the basis of the brochure, open-pore koa wood with damson leather would be my pick, but it would take a visit to the factory trim shop to be absolutely sure.
Our First Edition test car has Bentley’s optional top-level massage seats, both heated and ventilated, with ‘postural adjustment’ pneumatic pockets under your backside and back. As ever in a Bentley, they don’t quite let you sit fully sports-car-low, because Crewe prefers its own compromise on visibility and ease of access. They’re a little slim in the backrest, but not at all aggressively bolstered, and very comfortable over distance.
A generous number of physical secondary controls are provided on the centre console, while the metallic finish on the ‘organ stop’ vent shutters, column stalks and steering wheel spoke knobs really does feel as authentic as it looks.
Second-row passenger space is unchanged: it’s generous for a 2+2, but taller adults won’t want to sit there and there’s only room for two, with oddment storage in between.
Boot space is reduced. The 800mm of loading length in the third-generation GT comes down to a 730mm maximum, presumably with hybrid-specific systems taking up some room. There’s enough cargo space left over for one larger suitcase, or a couple of smaller ones, but no longer enough to call this a generous touring load bay by modern GT-class standards.
Multimedia
The GT’s 12.3in multimedia display’s layout, appearance and usability regime have all changed. There’s still a toolbar of shortcuts on the right margin of the screen, but there are also lots of physical hard keys underneath it and on the centre console that make adjusting something – from ADAS functions to radio stations – rarely more than a simple two- or three-stage process (there are also particularly tactile knurled physical heater controls).
You don’t get Bentley’s rotating infotainment screen as standard, but it’s a lovely addition. Press the ‘screen’ button once and the display rotates quietly away, to be replaced by a trio of analogue dials that could be borrowed from a 1950s R-Type Continental. Or hold down the button and a third side is revealed, covered in even more of whatever delectable fascia veneer you have selected from Bentley’s catalogue.
INTERIOR DIMENSIONS
Model tested:
Bentley Continental GT Speed
Price:
£236,600
Price as tested:
£296,550
Driver’s headroom
1010mm
Driver’s legroom
1100mm
Throttle pedal offset
185mm right
Rear headroom
900mm
Typical rear legroom
630mm
Boot height (seats up/seats down)
400mm
Boot length (seats up/seats down)
730mm
Boot width (seats up/seats down)
840-1380mm (seats don’t fold)
Boot capacity (seats up/seats down)
260 litres
ENGINES & PERFORMANCE
8
Pros
Sizeable leap in outright pace
Lots of V8 richness when you want it
Cons
‘Automatic regen’ drivability quirks don’t feel so luxurious (but can be turned off)
Transition from regen to friction braking is detectable – and can be slightly problematic
The last, W12-engined Continental GT Speed was, back in 2021, already a 2.2-tonne luxury coup. capable of 60mph from rest in less than 3.5sec. Even the GTC V8 S we tested in 2023 managed 0-60mph in 3.6sec.
And yet the impact that performance-tuned PHEV technology has had on this car still feels significant. The GT Speed Hybrid needs just 3.1sec to hit 60mph, and 7.0sec for 100mph.
Plug-in Conti has had its V8 exhaust sound redesigned, without the artificial enhancement now common in rival models. And the ‘torquefill’ function of the electric motor during gearchanges means, except when going flat out, you mostly now only hear those changes; you feel nothing.
There’s a hint of barely contained violence about this GT Speed Hybrid when fully unleashed in launch control mode: of tyre sidewalls being pulverised, suspension struggling to contain a lifting prow and squatting tail, and force being exerted that needs effort and concentration from the driver, as well as from many electronic governors, to keep in check.
In calmer moments, the car has plenty of accessible speed, lots of V8 richness and mostly good drivability – and, typically, it’s pretty uncompromising in its good cruising manners. It sounds enticing, responds with not just potency but linearity when you accelerate, and can be enjoyed in a variety of different ways. This is a really multi-faceted car.
But there are a few caveats. The third-generation Continental GT switched from a torque-converter gearbox to a dual-clutch unit and, at the time, we noted just the occasional bit of uncouthness from the driveline when engaging drive or reverse, unbecoming of a Bentley. The addition of an electric motor into that driveline, and a combustion engine that does even more stopping and starting, seems to have made those shunts and clunks just a little more prevalent – even though they don’t present persistently or regularly. There is also occasionally some high-frequency noise emanating from the car’s powertrain electronics sandwiched between the cabin and boot, which just piques your attention in a way that a top-level luxury operator probably shouldn’t.
Because it’s a hybrid, the new GT has brake energy regeneration systems that slow it down automatically in traffic, or ahead of junctions, and make the brake pedal’s otherwise well-calibrated action less progressive at the same time – until you find the right driver assistance systems menu to disable them on its central touchscreen, that is.
Myriad other modern luxury hybrids have these systems, too; but in super-luxury territory, where the last word in perfect, predictable drivability is expected, they leave the GT’s sense of indulgent smoothness that bit behind Bentley’s usual mark.
PERFORMANCE
Model tested:
Bentley Continental GT Speed
Price:
£236,600
Price as tested:
£296,550
0-62mph – claimed
3.2sec
0-62mph – tested
3.2sec
0-100mph – tested
7.0sec
30-70mph – tested
2.5sec
30-to-70mph in 4th – tested
4.7sec
Standing 1/4 mile (time & speed)
11.2sec at 129.2mph
Top speed (claimed)
208mph
Power to weight
314bhp per tonne
Torque to weight
300lb ft per tonne
Specific output
na
rpm at 70/80mph in top gear
1336/1527rpm
Stopping distance from 30/50/70mph
9.4-/25.3-/50.3m (5 deg C, damp)
RIDE & HANDLING
8
Pros
Manoeuvrable and quite agile
Not short of body control or intent on quicker roads
Cons
Tactile steering feel and Bentley-typical ride finesse are clearly both still works in progress
While it falls several leagues short of anything you would call uncomfortable, the GT Speed Hybrid certainly has a firmer, slightly terser-feeling ride gait than its predecessors used to.
There are the usual selectable drive models to adapt the car to your mood and the environment it’s in (Sport, Bentley, Comfort, Custom). In all of them, the car retains a distinguishing sort of ride isolation of a kind you don’t tend to get in, say, a Ferrari or Aston Martin, although an air-sprung Maserati or Mercedes would be closer. There is a certain closely held waft about the ride in Comfort mode, although this charismatic ‘breathing’ with long-wave undulations largely disappears in the firmer modes.
The GT Speed’s cabin chrome comes with a dark smoked tint to it that, as fashionable as it may be, doesn’t quite cut it. Call me a fuddyduddy if you like, but a Bentley with duller brightwork is a lesser Bentley in my book
The Speed’s default dynamic character, however – that ‘just get in and drive’ demeanour – certainly seems a little firmer- and busier-riding than you expect, and is also more prone to upset by an input of just the right frequency. Sharper ridges elicit a louder thump from the axles than you foresee; bigger lumps can cause the dampers to grab at the car’s mass a little abruptly; and undulations can be fussed over, apparently just diverting the wheels that bit beyond their comfort zone.
What’s the payoff? There is certainly extra wieldiness about the GT Speed’s low-speed handling, and more than enough outright grip, body control and stability for quicker road driving when you want it. This is a big, heavy car that you can thread through sequences of fast bends with confidence, and throw around traffic islands with some exuberance.
But, four-wheel steering or not, this isn’t a car that handles so neatly or tamely beyond the limit of grip as it does within it. Its steering also lacks the tactility and transparency of the best third-generation GTs, which felt like it had been incrementally honed and improved over many iterations to quite a high standard. The GT doesn’t handle nervously, or anything like it, but its steering has sacrificed that final sheen of intuitive, discreetly communicative precision, whose absence we also noted when in 2021 we tested the last-generation GT Speed, which blooded the car’s four-wheel steering set-up.
Track notes
Circuit testing confirmed that the GT Speed Hybrid has remarkable body control for its weight, and no shortage of lower-speed agility.
Leave the ESC in its default setting and the car’s power is effectively contained and its composure ensured, the hybrid system being prevented from cueing up drive-related mid-corner understeer, and the chassis from falling into trailing-throttle oversteer. It will do both if you turn the governance systems off, however, and really start throwing some load at the contact patches – sometimes within the arc of the same corner. Suddenly, with the safety net taken away, 2.4 tonnes being manipulated and managed in many different, previously less detectable ways starts to feel counterproductive – and like too much for the tyres to transmit.
Ultimately, this car’s active steering and driveline systems make it quite a handful on the limit of grip. Its tendency is towards stability and understeer at speed, but it can take attitude quite suddenly in tighter bends on a trailing throttle, and on slippery surfaces – albeit only with the ESC disengaged.
NOISE
Model tested:
Bentley Continental GT Speed
Price:
£236,600
Price as tested:
£296,550
Cabin noise – idle
na
Cabin noise – 30mph
56dbA
Cabin noise – 50mph
61dbA
Cabin noise – 70mph
65dbA
Cabin noise – max revs in 4th gear
78dbA (3rd gear)
MPG & RUNNING COSTS
8
Pros
Plenty of electric-only range
Quick to recharge when cruising
Cons
Expensive by broader Continental series standards, if not by those of rivals
This GT Speed at first seems to represent a sizeable price hike for the Continental coupe.. The piece of the puzzle missing until very recently has been Bentley’s plan to bring a cheaper ‘High Performance’ GT Hybrid into the range underneath it.
If the GT Speed Hybrid – starting from about £240k and likely to nudge £300k after the de rigueur options – seems a little steep, then, a regular GT PHEV is now set to appear from ‘just’ £200k. Which isn’t too big of a jump from the £185k GT V8s that Crewe was offering as recently as 2023.
Either way, the GT remains a seriously expensive luxury proposition, of course. Compared with some exotic GT coupes from Bentley’s nearest rivals, however – the Aston Martin Vanquish, Ferrari 12cilindri, or all-electric Rolls-Royce Spectre – it doesn’t look exorbitant – especially given its new-found ability to cruise silently under electric power.
On that subject, we were quite impressed to see how close the GT Speed Hybrid got to matching its claimed all-electric range in mixed EV-mode driving on a full battery charge (50 miles claimed versus a test average of 47 miles). It’s not an insignificant amount of zero-emissions usability – but just how much impact it would make on this car’s aggregated fuel efficiency – or how much an owner would care – is tough to predict.
RUNNING COSTS
Model tested:
Bentley Continental GT Speed
Price:
£236,600
Price as tested:
£296,550
Claimed fuel economy
217.3mpg
Test fuel economy – track
9.9mpg
Test fuel economy – 70mph touring
28.0mpg
Test fuel economy – average
32.6mpg
Fuel tank capacity / Battery capacity
80 litres / 25.9kWh
Claimed range (EV only)
50 miles
Test range
621/540/547/47 miles (test ave/touring/everyday/electric)
VERDICT
8
Verdict
Model tested:
Rating: 8
Bentley Continental GT Speed
PHEV powertrain tech makes Bentley’s fastest GT quicker, but not necessarily better
Good
Towering performance
Plush cabin
New hybrid efficiency and zero-emissions running
Bad
Punchy price by Continental-series standards
Boot space reduced
Lacks some tactile feedback and on-the-limit predictability
Few exotic car brands have managed to integrate electrification seamlessly, and find customers who embrace it fully. Those that have faltered are in the majority.
This isn’t Bentley’s first swing at it, but we’d say it’s already had more convincing results elsewhere. The Continental GT Speed should be Bentley’s dynamic standard-bearer. This one – lavish, fast and multi-faceted as it is – left us, as interested drivers, wishing for something simpler, lighter, more genteel and ultimately more engaging.
Crewe has responded to the times admirably here – but we wonder if this PHEV technology will be better suited to a regular GT, tuned for a more relaxed dynamic brief, than when it’s charged with making such a heavy luxury car aim at first-order performance status.
This is certainly a car with new abilities, very good in lots of ways. However, it is outstanding in fewer of them than we expect of a Bentley, and also lacks just a little warmth of dynamic character and deep-seated likeability.
