The Bentley Continental GTC Azure Hybrid isn’t the kind of automobile that begs to be wrung out by the scruff of its neck. It doesn’t get up each morning hoping to be handled like a 911 on a mountain move, nor does it significantly take care of that type of expectation. And actually, that’s the level.
As a result of what Bentley has created right here is one thing rarer than outright efficiency. The GTC Azure Hybrid is a luxurious convertible that makes virtually each journey really feel like an event, whether or not you might be crossing a continent, slipping by way of a metropolis centre at nightfall or just taking the great distance house as a result of the night feels too good to waste. It’s a magnificent wafter within the truest sense, and one which exists in a category of 1.
On paper, the numbers are nonetheless deeply spectacular. The brand new Excessive Efficiency Hybrid powertrain combines a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 with electrical help for a mixed 680 PS and 930 Nm, sufficient to ship this near-2.7-tonne convertible to 62 mph in simply 3.9 seconds. However quoting the figures relatively misses the magic. What stands out within the Azure isn’t the violence of its acceleration, however the layered method it delivers all the things. There may be the serenity of silent electrical working at low speeds, the aesthetic thrum of the V8 when it joins in, and the sense that the entire automobile has been engineered to isolate stress relatively than encourage it.
That fits the Azure transient completely. Bentley’s focus right here is consolation, wellbeing and effortlessness, and it reveals. Roof down, the cabin stays fantastically hushed. The trip, regardless of giant 22-inch wheels, has that costly, barely uncanny means to spherical off poor surfaces with out dropping composure. The seats, the detailing, the craftsmanship, the best way each touchpoint feels dense and deliberate, all reinforce the concept that is much less a convertible GT and extra a transferring luxurious lounge.
Attempt to drive it like one thing smaller, sharper and extra singularly targeted, nonetheless, and its limitations start to point out. Sure, the chassis is immensely succesful. Sure, the energetic anti-roll system, rear-wheel steering and intelligent differentials do an admirable job of disguising the mass. However you might be at all times conscious that this Bentley’s true reward lies in flowing with the street, not attacking it. Push too laborious and the phantasm fades barely. It’s completed relatively than playful, safe relatively than intimate.
Even so, that feels much less like a criticism and extra like a reminder to benefit from the automobile by itself phrases. In addition to, no one buys a Continental GTC Azure Hybrid as a result of they want the final phrase in steering really feel. They purchase it as a result of virtually nothing else combines this degree of luxurious, craftsmanship, presence and open-air refinement.
The one real compromise is practicality. The hybrid battery has lowered boot area to a meagre 134 litres, which is laughably small for a automobile of this dimension and mission. However then the Continental GTC Azure Hybrid was by no means about travelling mild within the literal sense. It’s about making mild work of journey itself.
