2025 Bentley Continental GT Speed First Drive: Electrified Excess Shouts Down Skeptics

Bentley's legendary W12 engine had to die, but there are far worse ways to salve our sense of loss than the 2025 Continental GT Speed and its new hybrid drivetrain. Profligacy and emissions sealed the fate of the old twelve-cylinder gas engine, though the painfully fast and smooth electric cars we've seen in recent years did at least make Bentley's zero emission ambitions seem less inconsistent with its commitment to zero compromise.

Make no mistake: Bentley isn't positioning its plug-in hybrid as a green concession for the eco-pious. In fact, that it's the Continental GT Speed — and its GTC Speed convertible cousin — which lead the charge for the fourth-generation car is a very intentional reminder that electrification can be as much about performance as it is frugality.

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The automaker's first hybrid GT, then, has more horsepower than the W12 version it replaces. It has more torque, too, and is faster to 60 mph than the old, twelve-cylinder GT Speed. It looks sharper and more aggressive, and of course it's still audaciously priced: with a cool $86k of extras, this head-turning Magenta coupe hovers around $388,000, and the droptop is even more expensive.

So far, so Bentley. Yet in a segment where lust makes more sales than logic, the bigger question is whether this new Continental GT Speed still has the character required to make it a star.

The silhouette may be the same, but Bentley didn't stint on the detailing. The new headlamps — indeed, the whole new fascia — are a triumph. It's the first time in two decades that Bentley has done a single lamp cluster either side of its grille, but these are no simple circles. With the project units flanked top and bottom by crystal-esque detailing, plus the rakish slash of the daytime-running lamp, it gives the new GT Speed a distinctive (and, glimpsed in your rearview mirror, borderline sinister) look.

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Bentley's lavish attention to detail continues in the new rear lighting, with narrower clusters stretched to emphasize the width of the car. The patterning is apparently inspired by lava flows, and they sit under a lower deck lid that does away with the moving rear spoiler of the old GT. Twin exhausts are standard, as are 22-inch wheels with spoke patterns Bentley says are inspired by big cats' claws.

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For the first time in Continental GT history, Bentley is launching both the GT Speed coupe and the GTC Speed convertible simultaneously. The latter gets a multi-layer soft top which — courtesy of some fiendishly clever structural work inside — manages to echo the silhouette of the coupe when the roof is up. A wind deflector fits across the rear seats, and works well, though it's a little fiddly to install.

Inside, Bentley's attention to detail conspires with its lengthy options list. With dozens of hides, single and split-color configurations, a list of different trim materials, and the choice between chrome or black chrome brightwork, there's a migraine-inspiring array of possibilities. That's before you knock on the door of Mulliner, Bentley's customs and commissions division, whereupon extended palettes and full bespoke are available. Expensive? Oh, certainly, but the automaker claims roughly three out of four new car purchases enlist Mulliner's help in some way.

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Bentley is generous with physical controls, and they all feel tactile even if there's an unexpected amount of plastic. The shifter, with its chrome and Alcantara wrap, fits the fist perfectly; the drive mode knob has just the right degree of heft to its twist. A matte-finish center console escapes the fingerprint and smudge capture of the old car, while the optional center rotating screen offers a choice between the full 12.3-inch touchscreen, a trio of analog dials, or hiding the interface altogether.

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Is there recognizable VW Group switchgear in places? A little of it, sure — the window control clusters and steering wheel buttons are the most obvious offenders — but mostly this is a fun playground for your fingers. Cool metal paddle shifters and custom stalks; glorious organ stop vent controls. It feels classic, but not a pastiche.

Helping with that balance is Bentley's focus on doing new things with traditional materials. The diamond-patterned leather on the door panels, for instance, crafts crisp 3D topography out of hide. There's new fading perforation to the upholstery, while the two rear seats — though definitely on the snug side — at least look more inviting, with their new sculptural quilting.

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Better, though, to find yourself in the front. The Continental GT is not a small car and, while a lot of that footprint is turned over to the stately hood, it pays dividends for front cabin space. The GTC's soft top is a masterpiece of insulation, leaving the interior almost as hushed as its coupe sibling.

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Most of that could be said about the old GT, mind, though behind the scenes the tech has seen a significant revamp. There's much-improved driver-assistance, with better situational awareness thanks to a bevy of new sensors; Bentley's app supports remote park assist along with the usual PHEV charging and cabin preconditioning options.

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The upgraded infotainment system now has native apps for various music streaming services like Spotify and Amazon Music, along with video apps for YouTube and others. It all sounds incredible through the Naim audio system that's part of the roughly $40k "First Edition" Specification.

By default, the Continental GT Speed starts in lugubrious 'Bentley' mode, managing the gas-electric mix itself with a preference for EV silence. Comfort mode dials in even greater compliance thanks to a broader spread of adjustment across the twin-valve dampers, a reminder that the big two-door isn't just competing with coupes and droptops from Aston Martin and AMG, but private jets enlisted for cross-continental jaunts.

An EV mode taps the 25.9 kWh battery — slung out back, behind the rear axle, to help achieve a near-50:50 weight balance — for up to 50 miles (WLTP) of zero-emissions driving. The GT can hit up to 87 mph on electric power alone, though jab the throttle beyond 75% and the V8 will automatically be roused.

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Under three hours on a Level 2 charger will see the battery fully replenished, but regenerative braking and an aggressive Charge mode — which uses gas engine power to top the hybrid up — ensure that one-two punch of ICE and EV are always there to maximize performance. Unlike the old Flying Spur Hybrid, which compromised on cylinders to the tune of just six, electrification here feels less like a vaguely apologetic nod to melting ice caps and instead merely a better route to profligacy. A good thing, then, that Bentley will use this same PHEV system in the new, upcoming Flying Spur Speed.

Perhaps Bentley's biggest mistake with the new Continental GT is exposed when you switch the drive mode dial to Sport. There's an instant burble from the roused exhaust system; a filthy, charming, borderline-yobbish grunt which presages deep mischief ahead. It is, quite frankly, enough to make you forget any frugality or environmental justification that may have helped coax the Amex Black out of your wallet.

Things only get better when you push on, preferably hard. You'd swear Bentley had cheated with artificial enhancement, but no: the barks, gurgles, and howls are all the genuine article. Only the low-speed thrum added when the PHEV is in electric mode is the handiwork of speakers, to keep the proletariat from straying too close.

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The old W12 engine made a swell noise, like only twelve cylinders can, but this V8 hybrid is just plain better. It's a dash of filth that the roguish GT Speed suits so well, and a reminder that just because something is luxurious, that doesn't mean it can't have sharp edges.

In this case, the edges are 771 horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque, enough for a 0-60 mph time of 3.1 seconds and a top speed of 208 mph. It makes the new Continental GT Speed the most powerful Bentley ever.

Though it's more potent, the way in which power is delivered has changed, too. There's a maximum 332 lb-ft of torque from the electric motor, arriving as soon as your foot grazes the accelerator. If the old GT seemed to puff up its chest and then launch itself at the horizon when you buried your right foot, this new car is more like a Rottweiler straining at a readily-snapped leash.

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There's all-wheel drive with a center differential to adjust the power split front to rear, brake-based torque vectoring left to right, and an electronic limited slip differential. All-wheel steering is standard, too, trimming the turning circle and lending greater stability during high-speed maneuvers. The Bentley never actually feels small, but it hides its not-insignificant weight far more capably than the old model, coming across more nimble and tractable as a result.

As with its predecessors, there's a certain slow-turn-squirt approach to getting the most out of the GT in the corners. Prodigious carbon ceramic brakes — a near-$19k option that never faded, despite some huge altitude changes in the Swiss Alps where Bentley hosted SlashGear to test out its new hybrid plaything — haul off speed, the Pirelli P Zero summer rubber yelps a little depending on your judiciousness with the brake pedal, and then the whole thing slingshots out with that instant electric torque.

Theoretically, at some point at least, the GT Speed will run out of power. Those limits were far from reachable in the often tight hairpins, while vertiginous, barely-barriered drops added life-and-limb to a list of reasons for restraint that already included the $302,100 price of the coupe (or $332,200 for the GTC Speed convertible). A Bentley might not be the most obvious choice for a track day, but with sufficient tire budget I suspect the GT Speed would be plenty of fun.

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Instrumental, too, are the ways the gas and electric parts of the drivetrain coexist so seamlessly. The imperceivable blend of regenerative into physical brakes; the transition of fully-electric to V8 power, and how those two halves support each other. Bentley may not have been first to the plug-in hybrid performance segment — the AMG S63 E-Performance also wields a madcap V8/electric combo — but it arguably just set the benchmark for cohesiveness there.

It would be churlish of me not to acknowledge that my opinion on the new Continental GT Speed is patently unnecessary to the coupe and convertible's target audience. Nor, frankly, is the fact that it nails so well the "one car garage" problem so effectively: it's not like the typical Bentley buyer will only have budget (or appetite) for a single vehicle.

What's more pressing, though, is also more intangible: whether a hybrid V8 Continental GT is still worthy of being considered aspirational. Most who covet luxury items will never be able to afford them, after all, and so the metric for success is not so much "how they perform" as it is "how they satisfy their brief." One which, in the case of this Bentley, has to encompass ferocious pace, refinement, and occasional acts of brutish mayhem, and all while being effortlessly lavish.

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That it's so successful there also underscores a reality of the electric world we're gradually embracing: it's not going to be full EV for a while longer. Bentley is on track for its first all-electric model in 2025 — a new car, not a replacement for an existing one, though body style is still a secret — but the "fully electric by 2030" pledge has, like elsewhere, been diluted to "sometime in the 2030s". Plug-in hybrids will play a greater role for a longer time: what a good thing, then, that the 2025 Continental GT Speed demonstrates they're more than capable of overshadowing gas engines alone.