Stepping onto the Octane carpet…

There’s an old notion that anyone who buys a Bentley should travel in the back seat.

This one goes a bit against that theory.

The Continental GT V8 S was clearly designed for the owner who, after handing the key to the chauffeur… changes their mind… and asks for it back.

The Continental GT has always occupied a niche all of its own.

It isn’t exactly ultra-rare…

It isn’t exactly a supercar…

Nor is it merely a luxury car…

And simply calling it a Grand Tourer almost seems an understatement…

It’s one of those machines that can cross an entire country in the comfort of a private lounge and, when the road finally starts to get interesting, remind us that there’s much more to this car than leather, silence and a ‘B’ on the bonnet.

And this is precisely where the ‘letter S’ comes in…

Because this is the version for those who wanted a Continental GT… but didn’t want it to forget how to be fun.

Looking at this particular car, you immediately grasp the intention.

Dark grey…

Black alloy wheels…

Tinted exterior trim…

Carbon fibre in the cabin…

An interior sophisticated enough to remain a Bentley, but without that urge to turn everything into an English library on wheels.

Seriously…

Perhaps even slightly intimidating...

And it works...

Then we sit behind the wheel...

And there’s one thing Bentley continues to do in a way that few other brands can replicate: visual weight without emotional weight.

Everything looks expensive...

The materials...

The controls…

The metals…

The leather…

The way each part seems to have been designed by someone who still considers it perfectly acceptable to spend far too much time on a detail that probably 90 per cent of people will never even notice.

But anyone who buys a Bentley… notices.

This particular car is from 2023, has 46,000 km on the clock and, a particularly important detail for us, is Brazilian-made.

And then there’s the engine… V8…

At a time when even the word ‘performance’ has started to be accompanied by cables, sockets and battery percentages, it still feels good to write just this… V8.

Simple…

Understandable…

And just crazy enough to still be fun…

The most curious thing is that the Continental GT doesn’t need to prove anything.

There are cars that spend their whole lives trying to convince us they’re fast…

Others try to show they’re expensive…

Some make a point of announcing their presence from three streets away…

This Bentley doesn’t need any of those things…

Those in the know, know!!

Perhaps that’s the true definition of a great GT.

A car special enough to turn a journey into an occasion… but practical enough that you don’t need a special occasion to drive it.

And that makes this V8 S a curiously hard proposition to replace.

Bearing in mind that there are faster cars…

More luxurious cars…

Lighter cars…

And certainly more discreet cars…

But there aren’t many that manage to be all those things at once without looking like they’re trying too hard.

Very well put together…

It’s a Bentley for travelling…

It’s a Bentley for arriving…

But, above all… it’s a Bentley for driving.

Get in touch!!!

Editor’s Note:

For many years, the luxury car was designed to separate two people…

The driver… and the person who could afford not to drive.

The Continental GT helped to shatter that notion.

Because perhaps true luxury isn’t having someone drive for us.

Perhaps it’s having a car that makes us not want to hand the key over to anyone.