Bentley Continental GT Speed 2007 Review

Stiff Upper Brit

In the end, of course, it all comes back to horses.

We may talk these days in kilowatts, but when James Watt himself first devised a measure of work in 1782 to describe his steam engines to coal-mine owners, he estimated the potential of a mine pony. This unit of 33,000 foot-pounds per minute, he called one horsepower. In fact, Watt had observed the figure at 22,000 ft-lb, but exaggerated it by 50 percent to help sell his engines. See? The automotive industry, born just over 100 years later, would owe James Watt a lot.

Horsepower was always very much on the mind of Walter Owen Bentley, motivating his invention of aluminium-copper alloy pistons prior to and during World War I. It was a strong selling point for the cars he began developing under his own name in 1919.

Their performance and racing success made customers hungry for more, prompting Bentley from 1923 to offer higher-performance road variants. The first 3.0-litre Speed model, by way of twin carburettors and higher compression, liberated an extra 10 ponies to boast 82 horsepower.

Bentley's latest Speed model, the 6.0-litre Continental GT Speed, has the power of 600 horses.

You experience them best in the sort of terrain where grand-touring coupes run free. Right from WO's day, Bentleys were bred for high-speed adventuring across Europe: for long-legged, big-lunged galloping on motorways, matching pace with spivvy sports coupes; for utterly effortless climbing and firm-footed handling through the high Spanish sierras; for warming comfort and communication through hand-crafted leather and steel.

This certainly describes the standard Continental GT coupe, which continues to corral 552 horsepower (412kW) in its twin-turbocharged, 6.0 litre W12 engine while using 3.5 percent less fuel than before. The GT Speed, however, has even more pace on the flats, more contemptuous overtaking and acceleration, more grip and poise in the mountains, more responsive turning and stopping ability.

The Speed's heftier heart comes about through various friction-reducing changes (most notably, better gas-flow management in both the crankcase and catalytic converter), a four-times faster brain-box, and stronger yet lighter con-rods to allow a 0.2-bar boost increase, to 1.7 bar. The silken six-speed auto and all-paw drivetrain are also strengthened at several points for the Speed.

The W12's outputs now read at 600hp (449kW) and 750Nm, the latter a full 100Nm (or 15 percent) up on the standard GT. Zero to 100km/h acceleration drops by three-tenths, to 4.5 seconds, and overtaking increments fall by one- to two-tenths. With a top speed of 326km/h, it's also the fastest Bentley ever.

Underneath, the Speed dispenses with the GT's rubber mount between the front subframe and the long members, a technique first tried in the GT Cabriolet to reclaim torsional rigidity. It brings the Speed an appropriate and discernible gain in steering feel and response.

The handling is enhanced elsewhere by weight savings (aluminium front uprights shed 35kg), firmer rates and lower ride heights (10mm front, 15mm rear) for the electronic air-strut suspension, and the option of carbon-ceramic brakes that trim 11.5 kilos from each corner and boast eight-piston front calipers.

If the Speed seems to have a more regal bearing, it's because the engine's airflow demands prompted the radiator to be tipped 15 degrees more upright. From its proud head to its rounded rear musculature, the GT Speed has a perfect, equine equal. It's the horse that has for centuries tamed the Spanish plains, sprinted sure-footedly through its loose, rocky ranges and stood face-to-face against its comparably famous compatriot, the fighting bull.

Long before there were Bentleys, the fastest, most prestigious transport on the continent was the Andalusian. We were not about to gallop in the modern equivalent through the very heartland of its breeding without paying respects to what was long ago described as "the noblest animal in the world".

Andalusia (or Andalucia in Spanish) is the southern-most of Spain's 17 communities, and includes several provinces and the tiny British colony of Gibraltar. 'Andalucia Nacion' graffiti daubed on farm walls throughout the south-western province of Cadiz are a reminder that the Spanish Civil War (1936-'39), let alone Spain's transition to democracy (1978), remain well within living memory.

The centre of Cadiz province rises into the sierras, where smooth-surfaced roads wend, stretch, climb and compress, and the more adventurous British tourists trundle to see authentic cliff-clinging pueblos blancos ('white villages'). Many return to the holiday coast with their rental Renaults and Nissans heaving with crates of another Cadiz specialty, sherry.

On the flat, dry-looking plains between the mountains and the Atlantic coast, dotted with olive plantations that look like threadbare carpet, lies Jerez de la Frontera, site of the motor racing circuit since 1985. It's at the head of the Ruta del Toro, the 'bull route' loosely defined by the A381 motorway.

One of the most famous studs on the route, near the ancient town of Medina-Sidonia, is Los Alburejos. On the gentle hills of this sun-drenched 800-hectare property, crowned by the ruin of the 13th-century castle Torrestrella (Tower of the Stars), four generations of the Domecq family has bred Spain's most celebrated fighting bulls - and many of the beautiful, proud Andalusian horses that face them.

"In summertime we put them here in the wheat field, and sometimes you see the females and the bulls all together - it's beautiful," smiles Isabel Domecq, an accomplished equestrienne. Her grandfather, uncle and two brothers have all been (or still are) professional bullfighters.

"You can put the young cows in with the horses. Bulls and cows are both aggressive, but the cows not as nasty as the bulls." And our brilliant red Bentley in the driveway? "Don't worry. Bulls are colourblind."

The Domecqs, originally of the French aristocracy, are pretty much royalty in sherry-making, bullfighting and horsemanship. In the 20th century, patriarch Alvaro Domecq y Diez (1917-2005) was a lawyer, fighter pilot and later mayor of Jerez, where there stands a large statue of him. A bullfighter from the age of 17, he was credited in the 1940s with reviving the sport of rejoneo, or bullfighting with a lance from horseback.

The rejoneador repeatedly provokes the bull to charge, close enough that he may jab the rejon (lance) into the bull's neck as its horns sweep for the horse's exposed sides. No Mike Tyson pay-per-view special, Domecq could fight more than 50 such corridas in a season.

Domecq's motto is still writ large on the stable walls: El hombre no puede dominar al caballo, si no se domina a si mismo ("The man cannot control a horse if he cannot control himself.") Perhaps it should be writ large on driving licences, too.

Domecq y Diez retired in 1950 and bought the Los Alburejos property, to commence breeding his own bulls under the name Torrestrella. His son, Alvaro Domecq Romero, surpassed even his father's success as a rejoneador, fighting professionally from 1959 until his retirement, atop of his game, in 1975.

Alvaro Jr promptly indulged his parallel passion: equestrian riding. The Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art, which he founded in Jerez in 1975, is now one of the two most famous riding schools in the world (the other being in Vienna, Austria). Andalusian horses are not just prized for their easy-going temperament and their courage in the bullring: they also dominate haute ecole dressage.

"They are very sensitive, [and] very nice to ride," says Isabel Domecq, whose family gathers to ride at Los Alburejos every weekend. "They are also very clever horses, and kind horses. They compete a lot, because their movements are really nice.

"They carry their heads very high, and they have a very wide breast, a thick neck. They have very round forms ... they are very much like the Velasquez - you know the Spanish painter? Those horses are Spanish horses."

On our way to Los Alburejos, the twisting roads of Sierra Margarita had perfectly highlighted our GT Speed's sharper and stiffer front end, its majestic overtaking response and the superb feel and bulletproof strength of the optional (and expensive) carbon-ceramic brakes. Bentley obviously didn't set out to build a 2.35-tonne track-day car and it hasn't; merely, a more focused grand-tourer.

But with narrow villages along the route, corner vision often obscured by the thick A-pillars and few opportunities for the big, broad Benters to stretch its tweed breeches, we were also reminded that it's sometimes horses for courses.

Domecq explains that, during the course of a bullfight, three or four horses will be used. They will be chosen according to the characteristics of each breed.

"Spanish horses are really good for bullfighting, but when the bull comes into the ring it is very strong. You don't use first a pure Spanish horse. You use a cross-blood horse, because you need the speed of the English horse, the flexibility and resistance of the Arabian horse, and the Spanish horse, they have a big heart and are very easy going.

"When the bull is a bit weaker, you use Spanish horse - show off, nice looking, long hair, doing high dressage for the people. You train the horses to do different tasks with the bull. The Spanish horse is nice for everything - it's nice for bullfighting, nice for dressage, it's nice for just enjoying the ride."

And that, we thoroughly had.