Bentley has whipped the wraps off the new Flying Spur, the most powerful series-production saloon ever created by the British luxury marque. Indeed, employing the same ‘Ultra Performance Hybrid’ powertrain as the new Continental GT Speed and Continental GTC Speed, the fourth-generation Flying Spur is endowed with a whopping 575 kW and 1 000 N.m of torque, which are dispatched to all four corners via an eight-speed dual-clutch cog swapper. As a reminder, the plug-in hybrid arrangement comprises a 441 kW/800 N.m 4.0-litre, twin-turbocharged V8 petrol engine and a 140 kW/450 N.m electric motor, the latter of which is coupled with a 25.9 kWh battery pack.
Bentley claims the combined power and torque outputs produced by the new Flying Spur’s petrol-electric setup allows its most powerful saloon to blast to the three-figure marker from a standstill in 3.5 seconds. Compared to its (467 kW/900 N.m) 6.0-litre W12-powered predecessor, that’s three-tenths of a second quicker!
However, there is more to the new Flying Spur than just outright performance. The new Flying Spur produces significantly less CO2 emissions than not only the previous W12 and (404 kW/770 N.m) 4.0-litre V8 derivatives, but also the third-generation variant that employs a (400 kW/750 N.m) plug-in hybrid powertrain, which comprises a (306 kW/550 N.m) 2.9-litre turbocharged V6 and a 103 kW/400 N.m electric motor. Compared to the CO2 emissions produced by the outgoing W12, V8 and plug-in hybrid (320 g/km, 270 g/km, and 73 g/km, respectively), the new Flying Spur produces only 33 g/km.
In addition, compared to its plug-in hybrid predecessor’s claimed all-electric range of 51 km, the new Flying Spur can travel up to 76 km (when the battery pack is fully charged; at speeds of up to 140 km/h) in pure silence. The new Flying Spur’s battery pack offers peak charging power of 11 kW. In addition, according to the Crew-based carmaker, the ‘Ultra Performance Hybrid’ system allows for a total range of 829 km.