Bentley’s Flying Spur V8 sedan lays on the stature, presence, and image for a luxury limo experience that can’t be ignored 

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SINGAPORE 

I have never, in my life, been mistaken for an important, successful person until I drove the Bentley Flying Spur.  

I’m more used to being treated as a pest (at best) or security hazard (at worst) and being shooed off for taking photos of cars in random places, nevermind that said photo spot is empty. Thing is, it happens less the further up the luxury rung you go – for instance, I’ve also never been asked to move along in a Rolls-Royce. 

But never before has a workman come up to the car window to ask me about the status of an invoice, without any preamble whatsoever. He was probably just as shocked to discover I wasn’t who he thought I was, and that was a window into the world of a Bentley owner.

Design and appearance: It’s Business Time

For a car to override even this gross image unbalance, it has to be big, and we’re not just talking about size. When a ‘normal’ German luxury limousine is not enough, a buyer aims higher, and an obvious step is to take the higher ground with Bentley’s Flying Spur. 

The Flying B’s luxury limousine traditionally was one of the entry-points into the brand, alongside the Continental GT coupe. First introduced in 2005, CarBuyer tested the second-gen model way back in 2014. Globally, the  all-new third-generation debuted in 2019, and saw its official launch in Singapore in April 2021.

The Flying Spur is in an interesting position now: It’s now the only four-door the brand makes, with the larger top-flight limo Mulsanne (and Arnage before it) no longer in production. 

But with the world’s demand for super-luxe cars seemingly bottomless, plus various supply chain crunches in the past few years, we’ve only just gotten to test out the Flying Spur in Singapore. This is the least expensive of the lot, the V8 model, with the on-its-way-to-Singapore V6 hybrid model above, and then the range-topping W12. 

I call it obvious because a Bentley is hard to miss, and a 5.3-metre long and nearly two-metre wide Bentley with 22-inch wheels and enough brightwork for a royal banquet is even harder to miss. The test car came in ‘Cricket ball’ maroon and with lots of optional chrome exterior bits, as well as the new pop-up Flying B figurehead that’s also illuminated at night.

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On closer scrutiny, The Flying Spur resembles its Continental GT coupe brother, length aside, with the front half of both cars appearing nearly identical. The Flying Spur’s muscular image is also bolstered by its small windows/greenhouse and plentiful sheet metal. So while it is a limo, it does look quite sporty – though like a coupe-SUV, there is a price to pay for fashion (read on). 

If that sounds weird, let’s not forget that Bentley’s brand DNA would be something like, 70 percent lux and 30 percent sport, not forgetting its participation in LeMans, the historical Blower cars, and more. 

All that accounts for its oversized road presence and image. My theory is that you get a Bentley because you don’t just want to know you’ve made it, you want other people to know it as well, with little doubt. 

Page 2: How the Flying Spur stacks up inside, on the road, and against its rivals

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