“Ooooh, it’s electrical,” squealed a passerby on the sidewalk as I whooshed away from the Chedi Andermatt lodge in Switzerland within the gorgeous $332,200 Jetstream blue Bentley Continental GTC Velocity convertible.
The GTC’s material convertible high was tucked away regardless of temperatures within the 50s, with seat heaters and a compelled scorching air “neck scarf” blowing warmth on my neck. As I skilled beforehand with the plug-in hybrid-electric McLaren Artura, purring by quiet villages in an electrical automobile with the highest down is a transformative expertise.
Mountain silence and rumbles
Relatively than blasting the locals with exhaust noise or remaining haughtily separated by glass and metal, whisking alongside in silence whereas trying individuals within the eye and seeing their smiles makes drives like this vastly higher.
As soon as into the mountains, the GTC Velocity’s silence was changed by a wonderful basso rumble of the automobile’s V8 engine, exhaust sound reflecting off the rock face on the uphill facet of the street. It’d look like this could possibly be a jarring change, however the combustion engine’s growl is a soothing low notice that abruptly appears to have been there all alongside, in some way unnoticed. The V8 sounds great, however it’s not loud.
The flip-up wind deflector behind the entrance seats reduces the turbulence that outcomes from air tumbling over the Continental’s windshield and falling into its again seat. This not solely minimizes any chill throughout cool-weather driving, it additionally contributes to the hushed sound ranges within the cabin.
Put the highest up and the GTC is quieter nonetheless. The hardtop GT is a sarcophagus of silence, buried deep inside a tomb. That is partly due to using laminated acoustic glass, which muffles the passage of sound by 9 decibels in comparison with non-acoustic home windows.
However if you’d like sound, it may be offered by the Naim audio system, which powers 18 audio system with an eye-opening 2,200 watts. Naim, if you happen to’re not acquainted, is a legendary stereo producer from Salisbury, England that was based in 1973. There are energetic bass transducers constructed into the entrance seats to shake the occupants with out even making extra sound. Bentley presents eight completely different sound modes to select from, guaranteeing the absolute best sound to match the occupants’ preferences.
The one fly within the auditory ointment was a persistent squeal from the Continental GT Velocity’s highly effective carbon-ceramic brakes. This occurred beneath mild pedal stress and it manifested in the entire vehicles I drove, so it wasn’t a fluke. This can be a frequent problem for track-focused carbon ceramic brakes, so it might be that the usual forged iron rotors are a better option for grand touring in a stunning Bentley.
Within the hardtop, or with the convertible’s roof closed, the Continental GT additionally controls the standard of the air within the cabin. It options air ionizers and a brand new particulate matter filter that each appear newly related within the wake of elevated wildfires. Neither of those applied sciences was put to any check within the briskly contemporary Alpine air of the check drive.
Whereas it appears to be like like a light-weight refresh on the earlier mannequin, Bentley phrases the 2025 Continental GT a fourth technology of the automobile. The engaging styling adjustments look modest, however all through the automobile a complete of 64 % of the content material is new.
The “Velocity” designation for the modern Continental GT signifies that that is the twin-turbocharged V8 mannequin, augmented by a plug-in hybrid-electric motor that lets the beautiful drop-top roll silently round city.
Farewell, W12 engine
As my colleague Kristin Shaw defined beforehand throughout her monitor check of the prototype, the brand new Continental GT Velocity replaces the earlier W12 engine with my check automobile’s hybrid V8 association. Whereas there’s charisma in many-cylinder engines, the W12 was derived from the very previous Volkswagen VR6 engine’s structure, and there’s good purpose why VW retired that engine way back.
Whereas it makes for an attention-grabbing packaging answer to squeeze a narrow-angle 15-degree engine vee into an inline block topped by a single cylinder head that spans the 2 carefully spaced banks, the resultantly compromised air stream by the consumption ports makes the engine terribly inefficient.
That’s not solely unhealthy for gas effectivity, additionally it is unhealthy for energy density. Turbocharging minimizes that shortcoming, however the brand new 591-horsepower V8 is a greater design and with the addition of the 188-hp electrical motor. The mixed 771 hp and 738 lb.-ft. of torque ship a driving expertise that far exceeds something that was potential with the W12. These numbers signify will increase of 19 % for complete system energy and 11 % for torque.
That’s with out contemplating the improved gas consumption, although individuals who purchase $300,000+ vehicles can afford the gasoline. Whatever the efficiency, the expertise of driving round within the unimaginable silence of electrical energy for so far as 50 miles utilizing the 25.9-kilowatt-hour battery pack, offered you don’t stomp on the gasoline pedal and begin the V8, makes the brand new Velocity extra gratifying than the previous one.
Driving someplace a lot flatter and straighter than the roads within the Alps, the automobile will launch to 60 mph in simply 3.1 seconds and it may possibly attain a terminal velocity of 208 mph.
It’s difficult to deal with the street with such absurd surroundings in Switzerland. Snow streams down from Alpine glaciers like white lava from ice volcanoes. The Bentley’s silence was absolutely useful, leaving psychological bandwidth to course of the imagery surrounding the automobile. Hopefully the shocked particular person on the sidewalk on the lodge appreciated that the Continental didn’t stress her senses with any sound once I departed, leaving her higher ready to take in the surroundings.
