Key considerations
- Available for £115,000
- 6.0-litre W12 petrol twin-turbo, all-wheel drive
- Massive performance, superb chassis
- Doesn’t disappoint on the inside either unless you’re old school
- Very little going wrong so far
- A supremely worthy successor to the Mulsanne
The 2020 disappearance of the Mulsanne from Bentley’s catalogue (if they actually had something as vulgar as that) opened up a gap in the range for Bentley followers who wanted more doors and more space than what was on offer in the Continental GT. The car plugging that gap, the gen-three Flying Spur, is the subject of this week’s buying guide.
200 people began hand-building the Flying Spur in Crewe in October 2019 to meet the early 2020 deadline for first customer deliveries. In the normal tradition of Bentley coupes from the Volkswagen era the Spur shared its underparts with a vehicle from the larger group, in this case the Porsche Panamera. It wasn’t a case of Bentley being presented with the platform and being told to make the best of it. The needs of both cars received equal consideration in the planning process.
Underneath the Bentley’s superformed aluminium body panels was a structure of aluminium, steel and composite materials mixed in the best proportions to deliver the ideal balance of strength and weight – that last one always being the most limiting factor when you’re going to be ramming in all manner of luxurious tackle. The best we can say is that it came in at under 2.5 tonnes. Not by much, admittedly, but by enough to give this flying Orient Express carriage a 3.7-second-0-62mph time and a bulldozing top speed of 207mph.
It did that by having a 6.0-litre twin-turbocharged W12 engine. Other engines were available, specifically a 542hp 4.0 V8 and even a 536hp 3.0 V6 plug-in hybrid for those Flying Spur customers keen on showing some concern for the planet, but neither of those produced 664lb ft from 1,350rpm, and surely monstrous torque should be a pre-requisite for any self-respecting Bentley driver.
Variants of the Spur have appeared since 2021, including the S, Azure, Mulliner and of course the Milliner which as you will remember had a perfectly miniaturised porcelain top hat on its rear parcel shelf. The Flying Spur Speed of September 2022 replaced the standard Spur W12, production of which ceased in the earlier part of 2022.
Depending on what part of the internet you frequent a new Flying Spur cost between £164,000 and £168,000 in 2020. In all honesty, it was a bit academic because every buyer would typically lump about £30k’s worth of extras onto the spec. The FS could be ordered in four- or five-seat configurations. A Touring pack option for either added stuff like a night vision camera, head-up display, adaptive cruise and lane assist. For a substantial premium you could go for the First Edition, which took the Touring pack and added bespoke stitching, leather piping a tilt/slide panoramic roof, two-tone wood trims and Union Jack with a number 1 in it badging. It was effectively Mulliner spec as the Mulliner.
In the course of our research for this guide, we found a 2012 gen-one W12 Spur with under 37,000 miles for £17,995, which is a lot of tonnage for your money, but you’ll need a bit more cash than that for a gen-three. In fact, you’ll have to budget for adding a ‘1’ to the front of that gen-one's price. The cheapest gen-three we came across was a W12 First Edition with 61,500 miles on it at £115,000.
SPECIFICATION | Bentley Flying Spur W12 (2020-22)
Engine: 5,950cc W12 48v twin-turbo petrol
Transmission: 8-speed auto, all-wheel drive
Power (hp): 626@6,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 664@1,350-4,500rpm
0-62mph (secs): 3.7
Top speed (mph): 207
Weight (kg): 2,437
MPG (official combined): 18.8
CO2 (g/km): 340
Wheels (in): 22
Tyres: 275/35
On sale: 2020-on
Price new: £168,000
Price now: from £115,000
Note for reference: car weight and power data is hard to pin down with absolute certainty. For consistency, we use the same source for all our guides. We hope the data we use is right more often than it’s wrong. Our advice is to treat it as relative rather than definitive.
ENGINE & GEARBOX
The Spur’s 6.0-litre W12 engine was first seen in the Bentayga. In the Spur it had a couple of new, gently blowing turbochargers and two-level fuel injection with lower pressures being there for better refinement and 15 per cent greater efficiency. As it was in the Bentayga, the W12 was as smooth as whipped cream, practically inaudible, as near to vibration-free as made no diffierence, and hugely effective.
Bentley was the opposite of shouty when it came to performance claims. Spokesbods might talk about 0-60mph in four seconds or so but they weren’t claiming that. There was no need to because independent acceleration testers almost always ended up with better results than Bentley was attributing to its own car. It really wasn’t difficult to bang out mid-three-second times for the longer 0-62mph run. In fact, if you wanted to hear the engine at all that was probably the best way to do it.
Much of the Spur’s unfeasibly rapid rate of progress was down to the traction made possible by the adaptive all-wheel drive system, but credit also went to the 8-speed ZF automatic transmission, Bentley’s first twin-clutch gearbox that had also been used in the new Conti GT. Linked to the motor by a new dual-mass flywheel, the ZF box enabled the addition of launch mode. The top speed of 207mph was achieved in sixth gear. Seventh and eighth were for lozzing about.
One wonder of a 12-cylinder car is that even with half of the engine deactivated on light throttle settings you still had more functioning cylinders than most of the other cars on the road. The deactivation system worked well too. Considering its booming performance, the W12’s real-world fuel figure of up to 25mpg was very praiseworthy. Some owners claimed to have seen 33mpg in sensible driving.
Not everyone has been enamoured of the UK Bentley dealer experience. Maybe that’s a product of unrealistic expectations. Running costs won’t be low though. One PH owner reckoned that the three-year service and MOT costs for his Bentley GTC were almost exactly the same as those for his two Astons combined.
Tragically an American husband and wife were killed in their ’22 Flying Spur in November 2023 when it went out of control and crashed at high speed at the Rainbow Bridge, the busiest land crossing between the US and Canada. In the summer of 2021, Bentley had issued a recall on right-hand-drive cars destined for the UK and Australian markets. Their throttle pedals could become stuck in the down position due to inconsistent fitment of the fuse box and the electrical harness which could cause the A-post lower trim to protrude into the cabin, reducing clearance to the pedal. In December ’23 the US police was seeking a subpoena to obtain records from Bentley but at the time of writing in May ’24 we can’t give you any more information on that.
CHASSIS
Compared to its predecessor the gen-three Spur felt like a totally different car to drive. It was freakishly accomplished. Despite its 5.2-metre length, the Spur didn’t require as much manhandling as you might imagine either thanks to variable-ratio all-wheel steering that (among other things) gave it a usefully tight 11-metre turning circle, although the width including mirrors of over 2.2 metres did demand a bit of forethought when entering any built-up area or parking structure. The steering felt natural in your hands, not just in comparison to other electronic systems but by any big-car standards.
Suspension was via a three-chamber adjustable air system which used one chamber for maximum firmness and three for maximum compliance. Going into ‘Bentley’ mode, which was the company engineers’ preferred choice, gave a fine combination of ride comfort, bump absorption and body control. The one-chamber Sport mode kept the body level no matter how hard you hooned it around a track, albeit at the expense of an un-Bentleylike ride. The 48v active roll control system developed with Audi enabled a degree of softening-off that was a good compromise. You might sense a distant thump from a particularly vicious pothole but otherwise it was like driving on a never-ending velvet mattress, one of the good ones that promote peaceful sleep.
The chambers on any car with air suspension can develop leaks which will eventually overwork the pump and Flying Spurs past and present won’t be immune to problems in this area. The all-wheel-drive system had a torque limiting function that allowed up to 354lb ft to make its way to the front wheels in Comfort or Bentley modes or 206lb ft in Sport mode. Torque vectoring by braking fine-tuned the power flow across the axles. Two wheel designs were available, both of them 22-inch.
BODYWORK
There’s a razor-edged elegance to the gen-three’s body that wasn’t really there on the gen-two. The Panamera chassis allowed Bentley’s engineers to push the front wheels forward by 15cm. Besides making room for the engine, that adjustment sorted the front overhang that had slightly tainted the styling of the gen-two, giving it a more dynamic wheel-at-each-corner look. It was still a very large car and one that was often used in cities, so kerbed wheels and bodywork scuffs at the extremities of used Flying Spurs are not uncommon. Blemishes will have been well repaired so might be hard to spot, but if they have been well repaired who cares anyway.
Styling and Blackline Spec upgrades were available. The Styling brought carbon fibre to parts like the front splitter, Bentley-badged side skirts, rear diffuser and bootlid spoiler, while Blackline substituted dark trim pieces for anything falling into the brightwork category, including the flying B rad mascot (which could be illuminated).
One 2020 car was recalled in February 2021 to rectify a fuel tank that hadn’t been properly welded.
INTERIOR
If you were a hermit or an alien you would struggle to believe that the Flying Spur was built by the same company that built VW Polos because the gulf in opulence and build quality between those two vehicles was, well, off the scale. The only bits of the Bentley’s cabin that weren’t cow (13 of whom contributed their skins for each car), wood (all from the same tree for each car), or finely tooled metal were the infotainment screen and its housing and one small section of the central stack.
Only six colours for the ambient lighting might have sounded slightly mean until you realised that the saturation and brightness adjustments that were part of it effectively gave you a limitless choice. The whole electrical system was trimmed down for lightness. The new Spur only had one 12v battery rather than two as previously so the electrics need to be carefully checked at depth on used cars, not just a quick twirl of a few of those beautifully knurled knobs. Electrics are always the weak point on complicated cars like this. Keep the condition of the remaining battery tip-top at all times is essential. Just a small drain and drop in efficiency will cause all manner of nastiness, not only in the obvious areas like doors and boot lids no longer opening but also in the function of the car’s main mechanical systems.
Anyway, despite all that there was no holding back on the roster of infotainment and driver assistance systems. Besides the digital instrumentation and 12.3-inch central touchscreen (both of which came from the VAG parts department) you got head-up display, traffic sign recognition and active heating and lots more gear like top view cameras. If you’re lucky in your used search you might also get two lead crystal glasses in the back-seat fridge, not something you’re likely to see on the spec sheet of a Skoda anytime soon.
The rear-seat entertainment package – a digi screen in the back of each headrest for movies, wifi and games – cost £5,775. There was a recall in May ’23 to remedy incorrectly installed retention brackets for these screens. Switching to the powerful and sonically accurate Naim audio added £6,595 to your bill, but why wouldn’t you?
In July 2020 Bentley announced the arrival of Three-Dimensional Wood door inserts to go with the eye-boggling 3D leather that was already in there. You might have thought that all wood and all leather was 3D but Bentley’s versions were a step above. On the wood it meant geometric three-dimensional diamond forms being milled into solid pieces of American walnut or American cherry. It’s harder to describe it than it is to view, to admire and to wonder how the hell they did it.
Poorly installed front seat belt assemblies were the subject of a recall in March ’22, four months after a recall for inoperative airbags. The holder for the top view camera was found to be susceptible to moisture entry, causing a reduction in image clarity. That generated a recall.
PH VERDICT
If you could afford the money and the time, the W12 Flying Spur was the sort of car that could render most other modes of transport redundant. Not just buses and trains but also planes.
Not many hyper-luxe cars were as nice to drive as to sit in the back, but the gen-three 6.0 Spur totally pulled that trick off. It was a beautiful thing to pilot, and especially so when you factored in what a big chap it was. Some would say that the V8 was less nose-heavy and therefore slightly more agile than the W12 but the importance of that is probably not so great in this sector of the market. Much better surely to know that in the W12 you had an engine of real pedigree under the bonnet.
Unctuous luxury was something you took for granted in any Bentley, but as we all know pride comes before a fall and it’s a lot easier to take that fall when previous models have set such a high standard. No worries on that front either because the Spur’s skin-deep beauty was as unimpeachable as its engineering. Having said that, some serial Bentley owners reckoned that the quality of the modern switchgear was not as high as it used to be and that the gen-three and Conti had lost some of the ‘handcrafted’ feeling of older cars. Others have described the decor of modern Bentleys as tacky but that’s more a reflection of the requirements of modern, increasingly younger Bentley buyers who are happily signing up for the brand’s new look and feel. And they’re the ones with the money.
Problems are few. Obviously it’s a relatively new car, but it’s usually in the early years of a new car that faults pop up so it’s heartening to see so few common issues cropping up on the Flying Spur other than in connection with the recalls we’ve mentioned.
It’s significant and maybe a sign of the times that of the 14 gen-three Flying Spurs for sale on PH Classifieds, only two of them were W12s. Seven were V8s and five were 3.0 hybrids. Admittedly the hybrids are still churning out 536hp so they weren’t exactly feeble but it just goes to show, er, something. Fittingly the most expensive Spur on PH Classifieds was a W12, this practically new 500-mile Touring pack car with sunroof and premium Naim audio. Yours for £249,000.
Depreciation is always going to be a thing on cars like this but the trick is to look at the percentage drops rather than the cash ones. For a cool hundred grand less than the car we just mentioned you could be living the life in this 2020 First Edition with just 3,000 miles on it. Rather lovely.
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