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Thread: Bentley Flying Spur - OVER 200mph at nardo. Not bad for a 4-seater :)

  1. #1
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    Bentley Flying Spur - OVER 200mph at nardo. Not bad for a 4-seater :)

    One mile every 18 seconds
    Set the stopwatch and see how many MILES you would have covered in reading this .....

    A standard Bentley, nothing special .....

    ( from http://www.channel4.com/4car/feature...do/208mph.html )

    "You may be curious to discover what it's like to drive a car at 200mph while cornering hard on a banked track. I know I was. Would I be fighting for control as a mile of tarmac flowed under the car's wheels every 18 seconds? Would the car start to float across the surface of the track as the wind - hitting the car with almost three times the strength of what the Beaufort Scale would call a hurricane - tried to rip us from the earth's surface? Above all, would I be able to cope?

    I'd travelled at this speed once before - 11 years ago when your esteemed editor and I determined to find out just what happened when you introduced a McLaren F1 to a runway long and wide enough to land V-bombers - but that was in a straight line: had something gone wrong we could have spun down the road until the tyres burst without the slightest chance of hitting anything. Here, at the prototype test track in the heel of Italy, I was going to have to drive as close to the barrier as I dared.

    The car, as you will have twigged by now from the photographs, was Bentley's new Flying Spur and the purpose of this exercise was to discover if it could become the first series production saloon ever to do a genuine 200mph. Given that the next fastest currently on sale - the Maserati Quattroporte - won't do more than 171mph, that would be some achievement. Any race car designer - or half decent mathematician for that matter - will tell you that to double the speed you have to square the power, but I knew already that power was one commodity the Bentley did not lack: its 6-litre, 12 cylinder, twin-turbo engine develops 552bhp or, to put it in context, it has more power than the Audi that won at Le Mans this year.

    But what really sparked my interest was Bentley's claimed top speed for the car. I know the engineers up there pretty well and if they say the Flying Spur's top speed is 195mph, what they actually mean is under the worst weather and load conditions for high speed running, a Flying Spur with 552bhp will do 195mph. But, being Bentley, that 552bhp figure is also ultra-conservative: all engines are made to tight but nevertheless distinct manufacturing tolerances and 552bhp is the very least any Flying Spur engine will produce which, in itself, is more than can be said for any road Ferrari made today. Unofficially Bentley admits that the engines that happen to come together in the best possible way knock out in excess of 580bhp. That's about 100bhp more than James Hunt required to win the F1 world championship in 1976.

    Even so, as I looked out over the acres of curving Bentley flesh as it stood in the pits awaiting its fate, I simply couldn't conceive that this vast, four door, 2.5 tonne saloon would soon be smashing its way through the hot Italian air at 200mph, least of all with me at the wheel.

    I suddenly began to feel rather small. I'd only been to this amazing circuit once before, to take part in a 24-hour speed record attempt. That sounds rather intrepid until you learn that our chariot was a diesel-powered Chrysler Voyager with a top speed of, I think, 112mph. The only real challenge was staying awake. Conversely driving at high speed on the Millbrook speed bowl in the UK had kept me on my toes for many years when I was a cub road tester. As speed built so you had to turn ever harder into the corner to stop the car throwing itself clean off the track. If aerodynamic instability didn't set in first, then there was a good chance the suspension wouldn't be able cope and even if it could, you could not help wondering how long the tyres were going to last under that kind of strain. The Millbrook bowl is two miles round and I once lapped it at 175mph in a Ferrari 512TR getting myself into the Guinness Book of Records and onto first name terms with my dry cleaner all at the same time.

    But this prototype track is different: the angle of banking is gentle and the track a luxurious 7.5 miles around. In the top lane at Millbrook the angle of the banking and the centripetal force cancel each other out at 100mph, the speed at which you can theoretically take your hands off the wheel. At this Italian track, it's a rather more senior 150mph. But what would it be like at 200mph? There was only one way to find out.

    The first 180mph was easy: it may seem faintly incredible to read that 180mph is the speed that the Spur will just go to, at once and without fuss, but as a driver, I've experienced more drama at 50mph on the Paris peripherique. Believe this: 180mph in a Flying Spur is easy, as easy as 100mph in a good hot hatch.

    At 190mph the only problem is the one in my head. The car feels as stable as if it were parked; there's wind noise for sure but I can chat with Alex the photographer as he trains his lens on the GPS readout, waiting for a number starting with a '2' to appear. But I cannot forget we're travelling at 190mph which, by any land-bound standard is awfully fast.

    As its claimed 195mph top speed comes and goes, I look over to the tyre pressure monitors. This is the big worry: tyres pushed harder than they care to go at speeds like this don't just gently deflate, they explode. And it's always the one doing the most work that goes, which is the one you need most. Despite the Spur's four-wheel drive hardware and stability systems, trying to keep control at 200mph on three wheels while going round what is now quite a pronounced corner is not something I even want to think about. But despite the simply horrendous forces to which the vast Bentley must now be subjecting its Pirellis, the pressures never move.

    And suddenly we're doing 200mph - there are no fireworks in the sky and certainly no rejoicing on board for I need all my concentration now - but I am privately staggered that any car this big, this luxurious and this comfortable can also be so bloody fast.

    But it wasn't done yet. Faster and faster it went, making use of the coincidence of the slight downhill gradient and a mild tailwind around the back of the track to take us all the way to 208mph. We went no faster, not because there was no more to come but simply because the Bentley hit its rev-limiter in top gear, which immediately killed the power. Had it been another 50rpm higher, we'd have done 210mph I have no doubt.

    Of course, that's not its true top speed for the track's circular nature meant that directly opposite the downhill section where the wind was behind us, there was an uphill stretch into the wind. But even here it never did less than 196mph, suggesting very strongly to me that the Flying Spur's true top speed is at least 202mph.

    And however academic is that figure (and however much I hope that no owner ever attempts to find out in public what I discovered on a purpose-built private test track) it is still an astonishing achievement.

    I'd like to say it was my sublime talent that made the difference and that you'd need years of specialist training even to countenance driving round in circles at that kind of speed, but I can't. Yes, there is a tremendous mental hurdle to overcome because it is so, well, fast, and the car does have to be driven with a certain precision. Also, at those places on the track where the wind attacks the side of the car and pushes it up the banking you need a firm hand and some resolve not to give in to the shouts from your brain telling you to lift off the throttle, and instead keep it nailed to the floor and guide the car back down with the wheel. But, to be honest, I reckon I could teach any decent driver to pilot a Flying Spur round this track at 200mph in no time at all.

    And that is the greatest compliment I can pay this extraordinary car. Take my word for it, this was not a simple thing to do because driving around this track at those speeds is not an inherently easy thing to do: the Bentley made it easy. Aerodynamically, despite lacking anything you'd recognise as a wing or a spoiler, it didn't put a foot wrong. I have driven many cars in a straight line that are less aerodynamically stable at 150mph than this Spur is when cornering at over 200mph.

    So the next time someone suggests that they don't make proper Bentleys any more, tell them they're only showing their ignorance. If a large, ultra luxurious saloon that can corner at 200mph with the air-conditioning on isn't the mark of a true Bentley, I'm not sure I'll ever know what is. "
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  2. #2
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    Hmmm, very good. What do you think the Maybach 57 would achieve there? It has 550 hp too.

  3. #3
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    Quote Originally Posted by pergarec
    Hmmm, very good. What do you think the Maybach 57 would achieve there? It has 550 hp too.
    Also alot heavier though
    "The thunder of 1001bhp would send a sonic boom through his carbon fibre shell, crack it in half and leave a wet puddle on the fancy leather seat."

  4. #4
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    True.

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    Quote Originally Posted by 6'bore
    Also alot heavier though
    ...but weight isn't that essential when it comes to top speed...
    http://www.ultimatecarpage.com/forum/showthread.php?t=31695
    - Are YOU listed? -

  6. #6
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pando
    ...but weight isn't that essential when it comes to top speed...
    Still a factor.
    "The thunder of 1001bhp would send a sonic boom through his carbon fibre shell, crack it in half and leave a wet puddle on the fancy leather seat."

  7. #7
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    Quote Originally Posted by 6'bore
    Still a factor.
    barely
    If you should see a man walking down a crowded street talking aloud to himself, don't run in the opposite direction, but run towards him, because he's a poet. You have nothing to fear from the poet - but the truth.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Wouter Melissen
    barely
    hmmm, I suppose your right, but you can't deny it will have some effect, if only slightly.
    "The thunder of 1001bhp would send a sonic boom through his carbon fibre shell, crack it in half and leave a wet puddle on the fancy leather seat."

  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by 6'bore
    hmmm, I suppose your right, but you can't deny it will have some effect, if only slightly.
    Only if the stretch of road is limited in length. The decisive factor is frontal area.
    If you should see a man walking down a crowded street talking aloud to himself, don't run in the opposite direction, but run towards him, because he's a poet. You have nothing to fear from the poet - but the truth.

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  10. #10
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    Auto Motor und sport recently sent a number of cars to Nardo to check their topspeed. Here they are

    BMW Alpina 5-series break: 319 kph
    Merc E 500 Brabus: 350 kph
    Merc CLS55AMG Carlsson: 324 kph
    Ferrari 575M Imola: 325 kph
    Bentley Continental GT Mansory: 317 kph
    Audi S4 Cabrio MTM: 311 kph
    Porsche 911GT9ff: 355 kph
    Porsche Turbo C. Techart: 334.

    So the fastest four seater is the E500 Brabus, a V12 with 640 bhp
    "I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting, but it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously." Douglas Adams

  11. #11
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wouter Melissen
    Only if the stretch of road is limited in length. The decisive factor is frontal area.
    Yeah your right.
    "The thunder of 1001bhp would send a sonic boom through his carbon fibre shell, crack it in half and leave a wet puddle on the fancy leather seat."

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    That's pretty stunning stuff. I'd be curious to know if the RS6 Plus or the latest M5 would be capable of such a feat.

    I really had my doubts about a VW-owned Bentley, but it seems they really have made something quite spectacular with the Flying Spur.

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    Quote Originally Posted by VtecMini
    That's pretty stunning stuff. I'd be curious to know if the RS6 Plus or the latest M5 would be capable of such a feat.

    I really had my doubts about a VW-owned Bentley, but it seems they really have made something quite spectacular with the Flying Spur.
    those cars are governed
    "I find the whole business of religion profoundly interesting, but it does mystify me that otherwise intelligent people take it seriously." Douglas Adams

  14. #14
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    ...but weight isn't that essential when it comes to top speed...
    That is true, because Jeremy Clarkson has driven a VW Phaeton(about same weight as Flying Spur, but with only 420hp) at 201mph. But with the acceleration times there will be a big difference.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by VtecMini
    That's pretty stunning stuff. I'd be curious to know if the RS6 Plus or the latest M5 would be capable of such a feat.

    I really had my doubts about a VW-owned Bentley, but it seems they really have made something quite spectacular with the Flying Spur.

    I think the new M5 did 330 KM/H.

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