Charlie's "in advertising". So naturally he's got a Bentley - albeit an elderly Mulsanne Turbo in gleaming black, but a Bentley none the less. And so he seemed the obvious choice for a spin round the block in the latest Continental GT that crawled its way carefully up my somewhat muddy and potholed drive this week.The delivery driver wrinkled his nose at the horse crap, the overhanging trees and the threatening hawthorns, but come on that's the image of restrained gentility a Bentley should revel in, isn't it? Well, no, because new-age Bentley, post-Volkswagen takeover, is a rather different animal to its forebears. "If you've got it, flaunt it" seems to be the current watchword at Crewe.As Charlie said, as he prowled round the gleaming flanks, "It's got a plastic grille you know. And the bonnet is hinged at the back. All proper Bentleys have the bonnet hinged at the front." I refrained from pointing out that my idea of a proper Bentley had its bonnet hinged slap down the middle, restrained by a couple of bleeding great leather straps. But he cheered up as he eased himself into the quilted leather seats, and powered them around to accommodate his six-foot-plus frame.He was delighted to find the big chrome knobs that control the ventilation nozzles in the centre of the dash had not departed from tradition. But he wasn't sure about the expanse of "engine turned" aluminium on the passenger side of the dashboard. Neither was I when the low winter sun glinted off it. After all, if you're going to plant your foot in £115,000 worth of machinery poised to blat you towards a very close aquaintanceship with 200mph, you don't want to be screwing your eyes up against dazzle off the dashboard, do you?However, we hit the road, and quickly discovered that two turbocharged Volkswagen VR6 engines bolted together, and linked to a VW/Audi parts bin four-wheel drivetrain, add up to an extremely potent package. The sheer mass of the car getting on for two and a half tons effectively damps out the road noise and low speed harshness of the massive 20" alloys shod with ultra low-profile rubber.It doesn't shriek or yowl, it just propels you into the middle distance with an elegant swoosh. And it handles too, as you might expect from highly sophisticated traction and stability computer control and self-levelling air suspension. If you want to act the professional footballer (a class of person I'm told just loves the Continental) you can make the gearchanges yourself via the obligatory steering rim paddles.And, as always, you are probably quicker leaving the automatic to do it all by itself. If Bentley has spent millions sorting out which damper settings, launch control, ride height, throttle control, braking distribution and gear ratios are right for any given situation, you can bet your bottom dollar the car will be doing it a damn sight better on its own than you can.The trouble is that so many cars, Bentleys included, invite you to play with all these goodies, instead of the car just getting on with it under the surface and letting you believe you're the sort of driver capable of exploiting this much power and performance without getting into desperate trouble.Another of the technological tricks is for the rear spoiler to deploy at around 100mph (at least I think it was at that speed I was a bit busy concentrating on the road ahead at the time). Porsche used to do that, but swiftly brought the point of elevation down below 70mph when aggrieved customers pointed out that the cops had started looking for the tell-tale signs of transgression. Will Bentley follow suit?I've just read a road test of this car in my local free-sheet newspaper (!) where the writer whinges both about the cost of filling up and the fuel consumption. Of course, if you can afford the car, you're not going to be worried about loose change for fuel, are you? Was it Bentley-owning Alan Clark who said you weren't rich until you could live on the interest on the interest?However, I have to say that a leisurely waft down from Oxford to Brighton on a cruise control setting not unadjacent to 85mph resulted in over 21mpg not at all bad when you consider the weight and engine size. Engine 5998cc, 12cylinders Power 560bhp @6100rpm Torque 479ib/ft @1600rpm Transmission 6 speed semi-auto Fuel/CO2 16.5mpg / 410 g/km Acceleration 0-62mph: 4.7sec Top speed 190mph Price From £123801.00 approx Release date 01/10/2003
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