Sports Car Driven

I drove a $330,000 Bentley Azure and it was magnificent. If I have to use a metaphor I’d equate the experience to spooning with Heidi Klum.

There are two kinds of cars. Those that make you forget that you’re driving and those that make the driving experience exciting. A Lexus is a wonderful car. It’s luxurious and pleasing, but like a visit to the hypnotist, a snap of the fingers and the whole experience is forgotten. In other words a Lexus is the perfect place to have a coma.

A Porsche is exciting and involving. There’s engine noise, snug seats, dark cockpits, throttle response and thick-rimmed steering wheels. It’s masculine and electrifying.Coincidentally, the average Lexus owner is 59 while the average Porsche owner is a 40-year-old male college graduate with an income of over $200,000.

The Bentley Azure is the first car I’ve ever driven that amazingly straddles both categories. From the exterior the Big B is large, nearly 18 feet long, but inconspicuous, and attracts attention only from those that know cars. With a pull, the solid door swings open to reveal a feast for the eyes. My pupils fall first to a wide door sill and then to the thick, blue-pile carpet, emblazoned with the flying B emblem. The calming cream-colored leather and mirrored wood invites me in. From the driver’s seat, it’s an overwhelming dazzle of sparkles and leather and lusciousness everywhere. The deeply chrome-plated buttons and switches pop like paparazzi bulbs and every millimeter of surface area is covered in something sumptuous. From the leather headliner to the natural wood dash, it is all top-shelf. I think the first words out of my mouth were “Wow, there’s so much to look at.”

With a push of the “Start” button on the center console, the engine spools to life at a low hum. I delicately pressed the throttle, not sure what this twin-turbo, 450hp beast will do. Lunge? Launch? Nope. It just pulls away slowly. Kinda like a boat, which it is (3065kg or ahem, 6000 pounds!). The car is an elegant boulevard cruiser, rock solid and calmingly quiet.

Top up, you’d never know there was any other way to have it; however, it’s clear that this was meant to be a top down car. Press a button while in Park and the triple-thick top kinks and folds under a leather deck lid cover. At 80 mph on the freeway there’s no need to raise your voice for a conversation. The best part: The A/C was on, then when the top dropped, the heater kicked in to keep the temperature the same. Sweeeeet.

Up to this point, the car’s opulence and elegance is impressive. Then I realized that the gas pedal has some more travel left… Fast sports cars shove you into your seat. In a Porsche Turbo, you feel the impression you make in the tense cushion when you hit the gas. The Bentley leans into you like a linebacker. I floored it on the freeway. The six-speed automatic kicked down, and the motor’s sound shifted from a distant burble to a distant vrooooom.

But the power…. The power grows with each foot forward and never stops. The car is a leather-clad freight train! Normally a car at full throttle will hit some kind of peak and stop pulling so hard, but the Bentley just pulled and pulled with enormous amounts of torque. I could feel myself being pushed back more and more as I went faster and faster. I’ve never been in a car that just continues to accelerate and pull. Later looking at the stats, the Bentley boasts 645lb-ft of torque. For comparison that’s having more than 5 Honda Civics on tap at your right toenail and explains what I felt.

Done with a freeway sprint, it’s back to casual class. Pull into a safe parking spot, watch the top whir and whistle back into position and press the “Start” button to turn the engine off. Then appreciate that you just parked a machine worth more than the average American home. The car was truly amazing to drive.

It coddles at every seam and blazes with chromed bling, but with space shuttle power abound it’s a thoroughbred. The Azure is an ultimate cruiser, spanning the chasm between coma-like comforts and driving excitement. Most importantly the Bentley leaves you with a memorable and enjoyable experience. It is simply beautiful.

Statistics:

Vehicle type: front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, 4-passenger, 2-door convertible
Base price: $337,985
Engine type: twin-turbocharged and intercooled pushrod 16-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, port fuel injection
Displacement: 412 cu in, 6752cc
Power (SAE net): 450 bhp @ 4100 rpm
Torque (SAE net): 645 lb-ft @ 3250 rpm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Wheelbase: 122.7 in
Length/width/height: 213.0/75.0/58.5 in
Curb weight: 6000 lb

Performance ratings (mfr’s est):
Zero to 60 mph: 5.6 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 14.4 sec
Top speed (governor limited): 168 mph

Projected fuel economy (mfr’s est):
EPA city driving: 10 mpg
EPA highway driving: 14 mpg

P.S. In looking up stats and stories on the car I found this on www.autoblog.com and http://www.lancedixon.com.au/bentley_FS.html: “The seats alone take two days each to stitch by hand and one continuous piece of thread is used on the hand-stitched steering wheel so there are no loose ends.”

“Bentley told us the story of one particular customer who asked the automaker how far it would go to customize his Bentley. He requested that the wood inlay on his vehicle come from a tree on his property that held great sentimental value. Bentley obliged the customer and craftsmen were dispatched from the company’s headquarters in Crewe, England to retrieve the wood and create his one-of-a-kind interior.”“In the two weeks that it takes to prepare the wood for the interior, the veneers are given five coats of lacquer and three days of curing time before being wax polished by hand. Bentley uses no bleaching, the rich color of the wood veneers is entirely natural. Bentley is the only coachbuilder to use mirror patterns when applying wood veneers, placing four successive leaves end to end to make a symmetrical pattern across the fascia, a process known as book matching. Each leaf of veneer can be traced back to the tree it came from, and each tree felled for veneer is replaced with another. Great care is taken never to use endangered wood species.”