Bentley Continental GTC V8: What Makes A Bentley So Special? - XCAR

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It doesn't take an idiot to realise that the Bentley Continental GTC V8 is a special car. It's a Bentley, after all, and Bentley is a brand that oozes quality, refinement, heritage and luxury. What makes its cars so special, though, is really quite something.

Y'see, to make a Bentley look and feel as you'd expect, there are various... processes to be gone through.

Everything you see, touch, experience and smell has far more work go in to it than you could possibly imagine.

Let's take the paint job -- it's an eleven day job from the initial coatings until you end up with the Bentley mirror shine.

Then the wood in the interior, that's no small job either. Over a month a thin piece of veneer turns into a smooth, beautiful slice of wonderfulness you see in the finished product.

So your paint is shiny, your wood polished to within an inch of its life (no giggling at the back), but what about where you sit? There's a story there too... Did you know that Bentley uses bull hides, rather than cow hides? It's tougher and produces better quality leather. It also makes sure its bulls (currently sourced from Bavaria) are brought up in fields without barbed wire fencing, in case they get a nick in their hides. Once bolt gun has been applied to bull head, bull has been peeled, leather treated and sent over to Bentley, it's scanned for further imperfections and sliced so only the finest cuts of beef are sewn together to keep your bum comfy. It's quite incredible.

The GTC V8 we drove was, as expected, rather lovely. The V8, a new engine for the Continental, pushes out 500bhp thanks to two turbos. It also sounds utterly, utterly incredible. It turned heads wherever it went and was remarkably comfortable in the process.

What makes a Bentley so special? Why, that'll be everything.

Specs
Bentley Continental GTC V8
Engine: 4.0-litre Twin Turbo V8
Power: 500bhp
Torque: 487lb ft
0-60mph: 4.7seconds
Top speed: 187mph

Shot/Edited - Nick Wilkinson
Assistant Camera - Freddie Michell

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