The Bentley Flying Spur, known as the Bentley Continental Flying Spur before 2013, is a full-sized luxury car produced by

Bentley Motors Limited Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of luxury cars and SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Cricklewood, North London, and became widely ...

since 2005. It is the four-door saloon variant of the

Bentley Continental GT The Bentley Continental GT is a grand touring car manufactured and marketed by the British company Bentley Motors since 2003. A two-door coupé or convertible, and has four seats, it was the first new Bentley released after the company's acqui ...

two-door

coupé A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and typically with two doors. The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the Fr ...

. The Flying Spur is assembled by hand at Bentley's factory in

Crewe Crewe () is a railway town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. At the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 census, the parish had a population of 55,318 and the built-up area had a population of 74,120. ...

, England. Briefly, due to lack of capacity at the Crewe factory upon the car's introduction, 1,358 units of the first generation Flying Spur destined for markets other than the United States and United Kingdom were built at parent-company

Volkswagen Volkswagen (VW; )English: , . is a German automotive industry, automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Established in 1937 by German Labour Front, The German Labour Front, it was revitalized into the global brand it ...

Transparent Factory The Transparent Factory is a car factory and exhibition space in Dresden, Germany owned by German carmaker Volkswagen and designed by architect Gunter Henn. It originally opened in 2002, producing the Volkswagen Phaeton until 2016. As of 201 ...

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

, Germany. This arrangement ended in early 2007, when all assembly works reverted to Crewe. __TOC__

First generation (2005–2013)

Overview

The first-generation Flying Spur was officially unveiled at the 75th

Geneva Motor Show The Geneva International Motor Show was an annual auto show held in March in the Swiss city of Geneva. The show was hosted at the Palexpo, a convention centre located next to the Geneva Cointrin International Airport. The Salon was organised b ...

in March 2005. It had a

twin-turbo Twin-turbo is a type of turbo layout in which two turbochargers are used to compress the intake fuel/air mixture (or intake air, in the case of a direct-injection engine). The most common layout features two identical or mirrored turbochargers in ...

charged W12 engine tuned to produce and

torque In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational analogue of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). The symbol for torque is typically \boldsymbol\tau, the lowercase Greek letter ''tau''. Wh ...

of at 1,600–6,100 rpm.

Torsen Torsen Torque-Sensing (full name Torsen traction) is a type of limited-slip differential used in automobiles. It was invented by American Vernon Gleasman and manufactured by the Gleason Corporation. Torsen is a portmanteau of Torque-Sensing. '' ...

-based permanent

all-wheel drive An all-wheel drive vehicle (AWD vehicle) is one with a powertrain capable of providing power to all its wheels, whether full-time or on-demand. Types The most common forms of all-wheel drive are: ;1x1 : All unicycles Reflects one axle with ...

system was standard on the Flying Spur. It can go in 4.9 seconds, and can reach a top speed of . It also has Adaptive

Air Suspension Air suspension is a type of vehicle suspension powered by an electric or engine-driven air pump or compressor. This compressor pumps the air into a flexible bellows, usually made from textile-reinforced rubber. Unlike hydropneumatic suspensio ...

and

Continuous Damping Control An active suspension is a type of Suspension (vehicle), automotive suspension that uses an onboard control system to control the vertical movement of the vehicle's wheels and axles relative to the chassis or vehicle frame, rather than the conventi ...

as standard. At that time, it was the world's fastest and most powerful production saloon. Sales of the first-generation Flying Spur began in late 2005. During the first full-year sales of the Flying Spur, the number of deliveries exceeded 4,000 units. The Speed model of the Flying Spur was introduced in 2008 as a higher performance variant with revised ceramic disc brakes and tuned to produce 602 horsepower. The acceleration of the Speed model is in 4.5 seconds, and can reach a top speed of . A total of 1,155 units of the Speed model were produced in model years 2009 and 2010.

Engines

Transmissions

The steering column-mounted paddle shifters enable direct access to the six-speed gearbox when the ZF transmission is in "S" or sports mode.

Second generation (2013–2019)

The second generation Flying Spur was unveiled in March 2013 at the 2013 Geneva Motor Show. In addition to the W12 engine from the previous generation, a lower-cost V8-engined version was also available. The "Continental" prefix was omitted; according to Bentley's designers, this was a conscious attempt to take the Flying Spur in a more opulent direction and distance it from the more driver-oriented, two-door Continental GT range (historically, the

Continental Continental may refer to: Places * Continental, Arizona, a small community in Pima County, Arizona, US * Continental, Ohio, a small town in Putnam County, US Arts and entertainment * ''Continental'' (album), an album by Saint Etienne * Continen ...

name has generally been used by Bentley to refer to models of a "sporting" nature). Despite this, the Flying Spur and Continental GT continue to share the same engineering platform.

Engines

Transmissions

File:Geneva MotorShow 2013 - Bentley New Flying Spur steering wheel and center console.jpg, Interior Bentley Flying Spur V8 II black (1).jpg, Bentley Flying Spur V8 front Bentley Flying Spur V8 II black (2).jpg, Bentley Flying Spur V8 rear File:2016 Bentley Flying Spur W12 in Arabica Metallic, rear left.jpg, Bentley Flying Spur W12 rear

Third generation (2019–present)

The third-generation Flying Spur was unveiled in June 2019. The car has been completely overhauled and is built on a brand-new platform, resembling the current Continental GT. The front received a new grille with vertical slats, akin to those of Rolls-Royce era Bentleys, while the rear features new taillights that incorporate a B motif. The bonnet mascot is now illuminated at night, electrically deployable, and capable of meeting pedestrian impact requirements. The interior boasts an optional rotating display and an all-new Touch Screen remote that allows rear occupants to control several systems. Rear-wheel steering is new and is accompanied by air springs with 60 percent more volume than its predecessor. The all-wheel-drive system is also new and uses an electronically controlled clutch pack. Compared to the second generation model, the new Flying Spur gets close to 130 mm additional wheelbase.

Variants

* Flying Spur First Edition (2019‒2020) * Flying Spur (2019‒present) * Flying Spur Azure (2022‒present) * Flying Spur S (2022‒2024) * Flying Spur Speed (2023‒present) * Flying Spur Mulliner (2021‒present) File:2019 Bentley Flying Spur W12 Rear.jpg, W12, rear view File:Bentley Flying Spur V8 (2019) IMG 0020.jpg, V8, front view File:Bentley Flying Spur V8 (2019) IMG 0021.jpg, V8, rear view File:Bentley Flying Spur Mulliner Hybrid. front quarter view (2).jpg, Mulliner Variant; V6 Hybrid

Powertrains

There are three powertrains available for the Flying Spur: a 6.0 L W12, a 4.0 L V8, and 2.9 L V6

plug-in hybrid A plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) or simply plug-in hybrid is a type of hybrid electric vehicle equipped with a rechargeable battery pack that can be directly replenished via a charging cable plugged into an external electric power so ...

, all of which have twin turbos. The W12 variant accelerates from in 3.7 seconds and reaches a maximum speed of . It produces and of torque. It is available only on the Mulliner and the Speed Variants. The V8 variant produces and of torque and accelerates from 0-62 mph in 4.1 seconds, with a top speed of . It is available on all trim levels except for the Speed and Odyssean edition. The plug-in hybrid variant uses a 2.9 liter V6 engine combined with a 14.1 kilowatt-hour battery to deliver a claimed electric range of 40 kilometers (25 miles) and a 0-60 time of 4.1 seconds. With a combined power of and a top speed of , it is the slowest of the three powertrains. It is available on all variants except for the Speed Variant. The Flying Spur became the only Bentley sedan model after the production of the

Mulsanne Mulsanne () is a commune in the Sarthe department in the region of Pays de la Loire in north-western France. Population Motor racing The Circuit de la Sarthe, which is used in the sports car endurance race 24 Hours of Le Mans, features the l ...

ended in the second quarter of 2020 without a direct successor. In March 2021, Bentley issued a

recall Recall may refer to: * Recall (baseball), a baseball term * Recall (bugle call), a signal to stop * Recall (information retrieval), a statistical measure * ReCALL (journal), ''ReCALL'' (journal), an academic journal about computer-assisted langua ...

for a single Flying Spur due to an improper

welding Welding is a fabrication (metal), fabrication process that joins materials, usually metals or thermoplastics, primarily by using high temperature to melting, melt the parts together and allow them to cool, causing Fusion welding, fusion. Co ...

process used on the

fuel tank A fuel tank (also called a petrol tank or gas tank) is a safe container for Flammability, flammable fluids, often gasoline or diesel fuel. Though any storage tank for fuel may be so called, the term is typically applied to part of an engine sys ...

2024 facelift

The facelifted Flying Spur was unveiled in September 2024. File:2024 Bentley Flying Spur Mulliner Auto Zuerich 2024 DSC 6458.jpg, Mulliner Variant (facelift) File:2024 Bentley Flying Spur Mulliner Auto Zuerich 2024 DSC 6447.jpg, Mulliner Variant (facelift)

Special editions

Flying Spur Odyssean Edition (2021)

On 29 July 2021, Bentley announced a special edition of the Flying Spur, as a celebration of the new Flying Spur Hybrid. Dubbed the Odyssean Edition, it features exterior trims and 21" wheels both finished in Pale Brogar. The interior features open pore koa wood and piano linen console, tweed panels and a three-colour hide combination.

Production

References

External links

* Bentley pages
Continental Flying SpurContinental Flying Spur SpeedFlying SpurFlying Spur W12 Mulliner

''Test drive and review by Autoevolution.com'' * Press kit
Bentley Flying Spur
{{Bentley timeline 1998 to date 2010s cars All-wheel-drive vehicles Flying Spur (2005) Cars introduced in 2005 Full-size vehicles Limousines Luxury vehicles Police vehicles Sports sedans