Bentley Flying Spur Azure - Too Much Horsepower?

If you’re a fan of fast cars, power, and all the fizziness that goes with it, the news of Bentley’s Continental GT Speed and Flying Spur Speeds with their ludicrous figures will have gotten you very excited. But nearly 800bhp seems like a bit…much for the day to day. At least it does for me. Thankfully, for boring middle aged people like me, there’s a solution: The Bentley Flying Spur Azure. It’s a Flying Spur Hybrid, but with the wick turned down a touch. 

Trims, Powertrains & Speed

First, a quick glance at the range. You can get yourself a Spur or a Conti in one of four (for now) flavours: Core (base, essentially), Azure, Speed, and Mulinner. Speed and Mulliner cars come with something called the Ultra Performance Hybrid system. With that you get a 4.0-litre turbocharged V8 hooked up to a 25.9kWh battery and an electric motor, giving a maximum power output of 771bhp and 738lb ft sent to all four wheels, and will get from 0-62mph in 3.5 seconds. It’s quite brisk. 

With the Core or Azure cars, you get the High Performance Hybrid system. That still comes with a 4.0-litre turbocharged V8, and the same 25.9kWh battery hooked up to a ‘leccy motor, but here the combined output is 671bhp and 686lb ft, which is still lots. You’ll crack 62mph in just 3.9 seconds, and hit 168mph on a clear spring morning (on a runway). Again, it’s all wheel drive. Both powertains will get you 50 miles solely under EV power, and they come with various drive modes to make the car behave any way you want it to. 

‘Everything you’d expect from a Bentley’

Now, there’ll be some people who’ll see that, yes, you can have something other than the top spec, most powerful Mulliner car, scratch their chins, and tick the ‘sod it, give me everything’ box before going on with their days. Others will, perhaps, take a closer look at the cars with less power, and maybe even have a go in them. 

What they’ll find is everything you’d expect from a Bentley. Entry, or mid-spec in a car from Crewe isn’t a steelies, scratchy plastics, and wind up windows job. All the panels are the same colour (that you choose), the leather is still peeled from the finest cows known to man, each sliver of wood reaches Bentley’s exacting standards, and every stitch is perfect. It’s still a Bentley after all. That means you still get the spinny Toblerone-style dash clock/infotainment screen/panel combo, too. And CarPlay. So far, I’m seeing no downsides to having something not quite ‘up there.’ 

Driving experience

When you turn it on, you set off silently, just as you do in the more powerful car. Just the 50 miles of EV range is more than enough for most, though when you choose to make progress, the car will blend petrol and electricity for a quicker, smoother ride. Do you notice slightly less torque and a hundred fewer horses? Not on a cruise, no. You’ll still get to the speed limit briskly and without issue. The missing power doesn’t cause any strain on the car - it may weigh over 2.5 tonnes, but nearly 700bhp is still enough to shift it along quite happily. 

In fact, giving it some welly and you don’t notice that it’s got ‘only’ 671bhp. Driving it back to back with the more powerful car in the real world, there is perhaps, a tiny bit more urgency to the more expensive model, but only people with stop watches, or racing drivers, will really notice. You can still press on as though your ears are on fire, and the all wheel drive system will let you get away with silliness that 15 years ago probably would have landed you in a hedge. Corners can be dispatched at a pleasing pace, so should you be running late for a meeting, even being down a lump of power, you’ll still get there in one piece. 

Yes, power appeals to a certain demographic, and that’s just fine, but with a little bit less on board, you can get more out of what’s there with less risk. This is not to say that 671bhp comes without risk - in the wrong hands, 20bhp can be disastrous - but you can at least use slightly more of it before you clip the national speed limit. 

How much horsepower does one really need?

The Azure comes down to a matter of want vs need. In the real world, absolutely no one needs more than 500 horses. Hell, even 300 is pushing it. Yes, cars are getting heavier, which means more power’s needed to shift ‘em around, but for the vast, vast majority, you don’t NEED lots. You need some. When it comes to the Flying Spur… you don’t need the top whack, you don’t even need the huge wodges of power that the entry level model comes with. It’s more than enough. But no one needs a car like a Bentley Flying Spur. They want it. 

Wanting and needing are very different. You need something in order to do ‘A Thing’. On a base level, food and water mean you can survive, shelter keeps you warm, and work means you can afford to make the first things happen. You want something because your basic lizard brain seeks to fill itself with endorphins that make it happy. A new coat, a new phone, the next video game, something that’ll let you, and others around you know that you’re a cut above the rest. And, of course, because you like it. It brings value and joy to your life. 

You do not need a near 800bhp Bentley for any reason. Yes, it can provide shelter, but the price of entry is prohibitive if you don’t already have a house (or three). You can’t eat it. You can’t wear it. While you could use it for work… I’d be envious if you found a way. The thing is, you also don’t need a near 700bhp Bentley. It’s marginally more sensible, though, and you won’t really notice the lower power output. 

In the end, you’ll do what you want anyway. In any of the hybrid Flying Spurs, you’ll do it quickly, too. 

words: Alex Goy
pictures: Bentley