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    2020 Bentley Continental GT review: How to feel like a million bucks

    Bentley’s huge GT is among the best-looking coupes round.
    Steven Ewing/Roadshow
    It’s onerous to not fall in love with a Bentley Continental GT if you’re working up Alpine roads or soaking within the heat California solar in Napa Valley. This huge, trendy, luxurious grand tourer completely lends itself to that type of driving — and life-style.Fast ahead a few months, and I’m once more behind the wheel of a Continental GT, this time on an unusually chilly evening in Los Angeles, slumming it in stop-and-go site visitors on the 110 freeway in a rainstorm. This is not the type of carefree, lovely motoring that greatest reveals off the Conti’s attributes. Yet, on the identical time, it completely does.

    LikeUnparalleled ranges of inside luxurySuper-strong V8 powerOne of the best-looking huge coupes aroundMuch extra participating to drive than earlier than

    Don’t LikeOnly inexpensive to the 1%Borrowed infotainment tech lacks Android Auto

    Sitting in a Continental GT in site visitors is like being wrapped in your individual private fortress of solitude — and a lavishly appointed one, at that. The thick facet glass imply you possibly can’t hear the opposite vehicles as they chug by, the quiet solely interrupted sometimes by the swoosh of the wipers clearing the rain out of your windshield. At this 5-mph tempo, my consideration turns to the heated, massaging seats, delivering waves of rest up by means of the diamond-stitched leather-based. I care much less concerning the highly effective V8 engine underneath the Bentley’s lengthy hood and let the Naim audio system envelop me with my favourite tunes.At a standstill, you discover time to note the finer particulars. This is not my first time in Bentley’s new Continental GT, however I’m nonetheless completely impressed by so many little issues. I like the way in which the knurled suggestions of the steering column stalks and temperature-control dials really feel in opposition to my fingertips. I just like the metallic Cotes de Geneva end on the middle console, and the way in which it warmly glows underneath the yellow hue of the streetlights. I discover myself staring on the door panels and picture a extremely expert seamstress hand-sewing each single a kind of diamond stitches. Oh, and kudos to the engineer who signed off on the particular weight of the plungers that open and shut the air vents.

    With the contact of a button, the Bentley Rotating Display’s 40 shifting elements and two electrical motors can silently flip the 12.3-inch multimedia display screen behind the sprint, revealing a gorgeous trio of analog gauges as an alternative. This $6,365 choice is a bit of extravagant, however there’s one thing so luxurious about with the ability to rid your self of display screen time whereas driving. The gauges are set on a backdrop that completely matches the remainder of the dashboard veneer, and after a couple of minutes of driving with this simplified visage, it is just about my most well-liked setting. Plus, it isn’t like I’ll ever be at a loss for multimedia info, anyway, what with the digital gauge cluster giving me entry to journey and audio data, automotive settings and Bluetooth cellphone menus.As for the onboard infotainment tech, it is borrowed from Bentley’s sportier sibling, Porsche. It’s primarily a reworked model of the Porsche Communication Management software program you may discover in a Panamera, simply with Bentley-specific colours and fonts. I’ve all the time beloved this tech in Porsche’s vehicles, so I do not really feel any in a different way about it within the Bentley. It’s a strong, colourful expertise befitting of a $200,000 luxurious automotive, with a Wi-Fi hotspot and Apple CarPlay. Porsche sadly would not help Android Auto, and subsequently, neither does Bentley.

    Surrounded by the best luxurious and a plethora of tech, it is simple to calm down in rush hour. Driving aids, which embody adaptive cruise management, blind-spot monitoring and lane-keeping help, can take loads of the guess-work out of those situations, too. But I do discover it a bit of ridiculous {that a} six-figure luxurious automotive would not supply them as customary tools.

    But life is not all rainy-day slogs on congested freeways. Eventually the nice and cozy SoCal solar breaks by means of the clouds, the roads dry and I’ve bought a few of the nation’s most interesting canyon passes at my disposal. As a lot because the Bentley Continental GT shines as a comfortable, comforting companion for crappy commutes, now greater than ever, it is a huge coupe you may need to drive. A extra athletic chassis and one of many world’s most interesting V8 engines actually make this automotive come alive.Bentley will quickly supply the Continental GT with a 626-horsepower W12 engine, and although I definitely perceive the attract of a 12-cylinder powerplant, it isn’t the one it’s best to get. Instead, go for the twin-turbocharged, 4.0-liter V8. It presents a not-insubstantial 542 horsepower and 568 pound-feet of torque, which is sufficient to transfer this two-door heavyweight to 60 mph in just below 4 seconds. Beautifully knurled switchgear and diamond-quilted leather-based are two of many explanation why the Continental GT’s inside is among the greatest on the planet.
    Steven Ewing/Roadshow
    The most important motive I just like the V8 greater than the W12 is that it is a lot extra pressing in its energy supply. Dig into the throttle and the engine responds instantly, unleashing a wave of torque earlier than you even hit 2,000 rpm, accompanied by the type of throaty growl you won’t anticipate from a buttoned-up Bentley. An eight-speed automated transmission shifts as shortly because it does easily. Drive the Continental GT in its Sport setting and the transmission will fortunately drop a gear or two underneath braking earlier than a flip, and burble on overrun because it smooches the engine’s 6,500-rpm redline.What’s exceptional is simply how nimble the 2020 Continental GT is on winding roads. You’ll by no means escape the sheer measurement of this factor — slim passes alongside canyon corners are harrowing — however the brand new Conti is hardly the massive galoot its predecessor was. The customary, three-chamber air suspension retains issues taut and flat in turns with out upsetting the Bentley’s signature experience high quality. You can add trick 48-volt anti-roll suspension tech, however even with out it, the Continental delivers the type of brisk dealing with that belies its huge stature. Believe it or not, this automotive is not half dangerous on gasoline, both. The EPA charges the 2020 Continental GT V8 at 16 miles per gallon metropolis, 26 mpg freeway and 19 mpg mixed. Over every week of testing, I noticed about 21 mpg. That’s an entire lot higher than the W12 mannequin, which is rated at 12 metropolis, 20 freeway and 15 mixed, and can also be topic to the gasoline guzzler tax. No, I’m not going to try to persuade you {that a} Bentley coupe is a fuel-sipper. But round 26 mpg freeway for one thing this huge and highly effective is not that horrible.The blacked-out trim and Midnight Emerald paint of this First Edition take a look at automotive look completely implausible. 
    Steven Ewing/Roadshow
    And simply suppose how good you look happening the freeway. The new Continental GT is a completely beautiful automotive — imposing and chic in all the correct methods. And similar to the inside, the outside design is accented with plenty of little touches that assist it exude an aura of grace. The crystal-like headlight housings, the straightforward, oval taillights, the V8-specific quad exhaust suggestions — each bit is implausible. I particularly love the look of this particular take a look at automotive, painted in a so-deep-it’s-almost-black shade of Midnight Emerald, with darkish trim across the home windows and headlights, complemented by a blacked-out grille.This automotive wears Bentley’s First Edition spec, which features a bunch of must-have choices. You get the aforementioned rotating show, the so-called City Specification (top-view digital camera, site visitors signal recognition, pedestrian detection and extra), the Touring Specification (adaptive cruise management, evening imaginative and prescient, lane-keep help and extra), 22-inch wheels, alloy pedals, the diamond-quilted inside sample and plenty of different fancy updos. Yes, at $47,765, this First Edition choice prices as a lot as a completely loaded Kia Stinger GT, but it surely’s a great way to test a ton of containers you’d need to add to the Conti GT anyway. And I imply, who’s pinching each penny and actually stretching their finances to create space for a Bentley within the storage? Go on, moneybags — stay a bit of.No matter the way you choice the Continental GT, you are getting a automotive that really feels as particular because it appears. This is a automotive that continuously turns heads, even in modern Los Angeles. With unrelenting V8 energy and a literal wealth of luxurious and tech inside, this can be a automotive that’ll make you’re feeling just like the millionaire you most likely are — even if you happen to’re simply caught in site visitors.

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