It?s refined luxury all right and a certain old-world charm clings to it, no matter how modern and contemporary it?s made out to be! The Bentley has always been a luxury car with a difference. It stems from the fact that Walter Owen Bentley always insisted that that the cars he designed should be equally adept on the road as well as on the racing track. It is well known that Rolls-Royce did a disservice to the car world when it bought over Bentley and made it a secondary marque several years ago but today, things are very different and very German.

In fact, Bentley has just introduced the very latest from its stable ? the Continental Flying Spur. Built in the tradition of the famous Continental R-Type of 1952, the new model is the fastest four-door in the company?s history with a top speed of 195mph. It was created at the state-of-the-art Crewe factory in England and is a marriage of power, refinement and craftsmanship. Added benefit was derived from parent company Volkswagen?s worldwide engineering test facilities like advanced wind tunnels, proving grounds and prototyping facilities.

What?s the new car all about? Take a look at some of its high-voltage features. The Continental Flying Spur is a four-door Grand Tourer born of the Continental GT Coupe. It is inspired by the 1952 Bentley R-Type Continental and 1957 four-door Continental Flying Spur, from which the new model takes its name. And most exciting of all is the fact that it boasts of supercar performance thanks to its top speed and a 0-60mph acceleration rate in 4.9 seconds.

The man behind the new look is in-house design director, Dirk van Braeckel. The Continental Flying Spur is, in short, a sporting Grand Tourer with substantial rear legroom for passengers together with great interiors. At the same time, it?s a car capable of eating up the miles with ease. The car?s aerodynamics were keenly studied, resulting in the rear bumper being shaped to funnel air out cleanly from the underbody diffuser. The aerofoil lip on the trailing edge of the boot lid provides downforce and stability at high speed. The four-door has a low drag co-efficient of 0.31Cd.

The Continental Flying Spur?s interior proportions provide ample legroom and an impressive canvas on which Bentley?s interior design team could set to work. The inspiration for the new car?s interiors has also come from earlier Bentley models. A wooden waist rail runs the length of the cabin. Wood veneers and leather remain an integral part, but these have been tailored to suit the Spur, using technology that allows wood veneer to be curved in a way not possible in the past.

While leather is still used, it is cut using a digitised process to ensure minimal wastage and optimum quality. Even the multi-function steering wheel and chrome-trimmed gear selector are trimmed with hide. The interior has a five-seat configuration as standard with full-width rear seat with optional four-seater configuration with two individual rear seats and centre console with stowage, rear climate control functions and seat switches.

There?s a multi-function storage area in the centre console of the four-seater model, containing a unique removable ashtray. The front seats are 16-way adjustable and incorporate climate control, three-position memory (seats, steering column, exterior mirrors) and electric lumbar control with massage facility. The infotainment system includes a satellite navigation system, an optional television tuner and a 12-channel audio system with a six-CD auto-changer.

Now if all that sounds to good to be true, it gets even better! In the Continental Flying Spur, the full features list is almost entirely standard, meaning you don?t have to browse through an exhausting options list at additional cost. For instance, the twin bi-Xenon headlamps with integrated washer jets, LED bulbless lamps at the rear and 19-inch multi-spoke single piece sports alloy wheels, are all standard fare. What?s more, there?s a choice of 16 exterior paint colours as well.

Delving deeper, the Continental Flying Spur is powered by a 6.0-litre, twin-turbo-charged 12-cylinder engine in W configuration. It develops 552bhp of power and 650Nm of torque from low revs. The engine block is made from a hypereutectic aluminium alloy with silicon concentrates that reduce friction in the cylinder bores. Aluminium pistons were also specially developed to cope with the increased forces created by the turbochargers, created exclusively for this engine.

Safety is also top priority and the Continental Flying Spur comes with a full suite of safety equipment. There are two front airbags, four side thorax airbags in the front and rear and full-length curtain bags that extend to the back. There are seat-belt pre-tensioners and a passenger occupant sensing system in the rear seats automatically raises the rear headrests to ensure the best protection against whiplash injuries.

Besides the hi-tech safety systems that protect the car?s occupants, the Continental Flying Spur also has the capabilities that assure a driver of having the performance to avoid accidents in the first place. The all-wheel drive system offers major safety advantages, while the latest traction, stability and brake control systems offer further opportunities to avert potential danger. Similarly the powerful 6.0-litre engine means outstandingly-fast acceleration and a reduction in the time spent on the wrong side of the road during overtaking. To this end, the Continental Flying Spur is specified like no other four-door in the world. Walter would have liked that, had he been alive today. What?s a Rolls-Royce in comparison anyway?

Easy listening

Locket Chatterjee,
actress

nI am a major music junkie, in between shoots, at home or at any given time, you’ll always find me listening to music. And it’s hardly surprising then that getting into my Wagon R means putting on some — be it the FM variety or just listening to my favourite cassettes.

While I do listen to a lot of radio — Radio Mirchi is my favourite — what I most enjoy are the Bangla bands. I’m a big fan of Goutam Chattopadhyay, but other bands like Cactus, Lakkichara and Chandrabindoo are also really easy on the ear, especially certain hits of theirs, which you can’t help but get hooked on to. This apart, I also listen to quite a lot of abindrasangeet, Swagatalakshmi, Indranil Sen and Rupankar being my top picks.

Among popular Hindi hits, right now, I just can’t get enough of Kunal Ganjawala’s Bheege Hoth Tere. And like most others, R.D. Burman will always figure right on the top of my list — he’s a genius!