Carshop First Drives: Bentley Bentayga Diesel

And let’s skip ahead to the engine shall we? Yes, it’s a diesel – but measuring 4 litres, 8 cylinders arranged in a glorious V. To achieve its outputs of 320kW and 900Nm it boasts something called Triple Charging.

Before you get too excited, it isn’t a trio of turbos, rather two mechanical twin-scroll turbochargers working in conjunction with a 48w electrical volt system charged with deleting the lag typically found in a forcefully aspirated engine.

This means it can swell from zero to one hundred in a deceptively quick 4.8 seconds, and is good for a 270kph max speed via a buttery smooth 8 speed auto transmission. And it does so sounding absolutely like a petrol-powered beast, somewhat garrulous but well protected from harshness, so an uber-smooth purr then from a pair of quad pipes.

Thanks to clever lessons in efficiency the diesel Bentley with its 85 litre tank can achieve 8.0l/100km – good for well over a theoretical 1000km on a tank.

That’s the performance then. Let’s unpack that cathedral of an exterior.

It’s big, and suffers many a design echo from other SUVs such as the Q7 to which it is related and there’s even bits that will remind of you of the X5. The front end is pure Bentley, if somewhat higher off the ground than we’re used to.

It’s a neat affair, and as long as you don’t opt for one in white or silver, has a fair amount of road presence to match it. It’s ornate, with lamp clusters adorned with Bentley details such as the marque’s name itself etched into the front lights, while the rears are arranged as LED-lit Bs. The Diesel Bentaygas gain gloss black matrix grille where the W12 has a chrome grille.

Clamber aboard and you’ll drop your bum into a handcrafted interior, with leather trims in five colours. Ours was like chocolate, and the tastiest morsel had to be the steering wheel which apparently takes 9 hours to stitch.

Naturally there are tons of personalisation options on offer (Mulliner anyone?). Generally, the Bentayga is opulent as um... heck. Ours was the Touring spec with massage functions living in the seats. We also had the joy of a 20 speaker including super tweeters and a 300w sub-woofer.

Marvellous, but then what do you expect from a SUV that costs R2,950,000? Sans options.

Bentley Bentayga Diesel Spec: