Bentley Continental Flying Spur - the world's fastest four door saloon

The new Bentley Continental Flying Spur makes its international debut at the Geneva Salon on March 1 and will begin its global roll-out from April 2005. Sharing heart and soul with its Continental GT coupe stablemate, the Continental Flying Spur is a fastest four-door Grand Tourer in the world, with a top speed of 195mph. It marries the excitement, power, refinement and craftsmanship of the Continental GT with enhanced luxury and space to provide a stylish combination of performance, style and comfort.

The launch of the Continental Flying Spur is a further step forward in the revitalisation of Bentley, which began in 1998 with significant investment in Crewe, the company's design, engineering and manufacturing headquarters.

The Continental Flying Spur was created at the state-of-the-art Crewe factory, where a 550-strong team of engineers has worked alongside Bentley's renowned designers, craftsmen and craftswomen. Access to parent company Volkswagen's worldwide engineering test facilities has also been of prime importance to the development of the car and the Continental Flying Spur has benefited from the use of the group's advanced wind tunnels, proving grounds and prototyping facilities.

"The Continental Flying Spur is a brilliant example of how to match world-beating technologies with renowned craftsmanship," says Bentley chairman Dr Franz-Josef Paefgen. "It is a performance car but not at the cost of comfort and as such represents a unique proposition - a sumptuous and spacious four-door Grand Tourer with the heart and soul of a high-performance coupe."

Design concept

If one phrase could sum up the brief for the Continental Flying Spur concept it would be: 'no compromise'. That clear but challenging ambition meant the Continental Flying Spur would need to offer the highest levels of elegance and comfort while still delivering performance and driving dynamics normally only found in sports cars.

In short it would be a sporting Grand Tourer with substantial rear legroom for passengers, a stunning interior and breathtaking cabin materials; a car capable of travelling great distances with ease while delivering immense driving pleasure - in other words, a consummate Bentley.

Design director Dirk van Braeckel created the car's bold and contemporary look at exactly the same time as its sister car, the Continental GT, thereby ensuring a consistency of image and appearance between the coupe and the equally potent four-door version.

"By designing both cars together, we could ensure that the Continental Flying Spur is unmistakeably related to the Continental GT," says van Braeckel. "They share presence and authority in equal measure. That means the Continental Flying Spur has a noticeably short front overhang like the GT and a broad, dominant bonnet and radiator grille. It is unmistakeably a Bentley."

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