When you have parts lying around, it makes sense to use them, no? We don’t know if Bentley has a cache of spare parts burning a hole in its storage facilities, but we do know it has the ability to juice the twin-turbo V-8 in the Continental V8 to produce more power, plus a bevy of special parts to turn an everyday Continental GT V8 into the sharper-driving, sportier Continental GT V8 S. Available in coupe and convertible guises, the V8 S is Bentley’s in-betweener, more powerful than the base eight-cylinder Continentals but not as outright fast as the twelve-cylinder Contis. Given the similarities between the Continental and the four-door Flying Spur, it was only a matter of time before Bentley decided to give the Flying Spur V8 the “S” treatment—and it finally has.
Using the same twin-turbo V-8 as the Continental V8 S, the Flying Spur V8 S matches that coupe’s 521 horsepower and 502 lb-ft of torque. (The regular Flying Spur V8 makes do with “just” 500 horsepower and 487 lb-ft.) An eight-speed automatic transmission shuffles the engine’s might to all four wheels via an all-wheel-drive system biased 40 percent to the front axle and 60 percent to the rear. The extra power lowers the Flying Spur V8’s zero-to-60 time from a claimed 4.9 seconds to only 4.6 seconds, while top speed rises from 183 mph to 190. Those figures still trail what Bentley quotes for the W-12–powered Flying Spur (4.3 seconds to 60 mph and an even 200-mph top speed), but if the Continental GT V8 S is anything to go by, the Flying Spur V8 S should be more satisfying to drive thanks to its lighter-weight engine.
Other S-specific upgrades include a retuned stability control system that allows for greater wheel slip at higher speeds as well as electronic suspension dampers optimized for the S’s sportier mission. Like its Continental GT siblings, the Flying Spur V8 S wears a black grille, a black rear diffuser, black-accented 20-inch wheels, and piano-black wood veneers in its lush cabin. Customers can, of course, go wild with bespoke options, and Bentley even offers a carbon-ceramic brake option to buyers confused over the Flying Spur’s intended use. We’ll take a closer look at the sporty Bentley Flying Spur at the 2016 Geneva auto show. Prospective customers can look forward to shelling out a few thousand bucks extra beyond the base Flying Spur V8’s $206,725 MSRP for the privilege of owning one.
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