Meet the Bentleys

Some guys from Bentley came to my uni today to give a talk. Coming from Bentley, you weren't expecting them to show up in Ford Fiestas were you? Well they didn't disappoint.

2 of them showed up in an Azure


And 2 more in a Continental GT.

After the talk, they hung around outside Queen's Building and shortly after, a small crowd started gathering around the 2 cars. They were nice enough to let people climb in and out of the cars and even left the engine running. I went to have a look at the Azure first.

It was beautiful. The car just looked so handsome. Very well mannered, and definitely very formal. Felt a little like a proper English tea session. Clad in jeans and a t-shirt (typical uni student wear), I felt severely underdressed while sitting in the Azure.

The interior was just as nice. Beige leather and wood trims all over. The gear lever and window switches were a little too bling though. I thought it would've been nicer if it had a matt finish instead.

The car felt very very classy. I overheard one of the Bentley guys saying the whole car is handbuilt and costs somewhere in the region of £250,000. I also heard someone asking them how fast it accelerates and what's the top speed like and I thought to myself - hell it wouldn't matter how fast this car is, I'm definitely in no hurry to get to my destination if I were in an Azure!

The one other thing I didn't like about the Azure was the engine. It's a 6.8L V8 and it sounded very coarse. Too coarse in fact for such a luxurious car.

Onto the Continental GT then.

I didn't take many pictures of this car. In fact, I only took 2 shots. One at the beginning of this post, and one at the end of it. Why you ask? Because no matter how many shots I took, from any angle whatsoever, I still thought the car looked like crap. Now I've got nothing against Bentleys. I even thought the Continental Flying Spur was beautiful. But somehow, the Continental GT just looked weird to me. Kinda like a Porsche Cayenne. Not for everyone.

Then I sat in it. The interior was typical dull black leather. Nothing particularly interesting apart from the engine starter button (even that was just a small black button). You kinda get the feeling that they spent all the money designing the Arnage/Azure and got broke when it came to the Continental.

And then I gave the throttle a soft jab. The rev needle twitched a little. A firmer jab maybe? The rev needle twitched further up this time and there was a faint rumble. Third time around, I pressed it down firmly, all the way to 4,000rpm. Big W12 engine, top down, 4,000rpm - it was pure aural ecstasy.

There and then, I could've sworn the only thing stopping me from driving off with the car was the crowd of people surrounding it. I got down from the car. And then I climbed in again some moments later. And down. And in again after more moments later. It just sounded so good and I couldn't get enough of it. But alas, thick Chinese face can only take you so far and I decided that 3 times is enough.

That's probably the closest I'll ever come to being in/near a live Bentley (partly due to the fact that I won't want one in the future) but it was great fun though. Now I wonder when Ferrari is coming to visit my uni... A topless 355/360/430 Spyder would pretty much be orgasmic I'm sure (mid-engine glory at its best).

P/s sorry for the poor picture quality. I took the pictures with my phone camera and my lens was pretty dusty as well. I took some sound clips too but nothing could be made out of it so I deleted them.