2025 Bentley Bentayga Speed First Drive Review: Like Flying Seat 1A to Paris

A recent report revealed that Lamborghini and Bentley account for 60% of Audi Group profits despite being a mere 1% of sales. In other words, it’s the airline model, where most of the organization’s operating cost is recouped within the profit-rich first eight rows of the plane. Official U.S. pricing for the 2025 Bentley Bentayga Speed will have to wait until next month, but a card in the glove box indicated a base price in Europe of 225,882 euros. That’s about $260,000 at today’s exchange rates. Is the new Bentayga Speed $260,000 worth of car? Of course, it’s not. Arguably, nothing of this ilk really is. 

But that is likely of little concern to those actually in the market for this sort of thing. Like shelling out to fly first class, the Speed is something you buy because you can, because you’ve grown accustomed to the luxury, and because, at the end of the day, it’ll probably be written off as a business expense.

It’s also the most powerful, most athletic-driving Bentayga to ever come out of Crewe, a fact that in and of itself is likely enough to earn it an allocation list filled until 2027, given its well-heeled and status-obsessed clientele. If that’s you, the new Speed Bentley SUV fulfills its duty as a Bentayga that’s slightly faster, slightly quicker, and slightly more buttoned down than the one you already have (and, most crucially perhaps, the one your neighbor has); go ahead and hand your dealer that blank check now—pricing is exactly the sort of pesky, secondary detail you pay your finance manager the big bucks to worry about on your behalf.

If I could make one recommendation, however, be sure to have the optional Akrapovič exhaust ticked on your order sheet. It makes the car.

The Basics

Visually differentiating the Bentayga Speed from more pedestrian Bentley SUVs are darker trim throughout, mascara-laden headlights, jewelry-grade Altezzas out back, an optional colored pinstripe surrounding the lower body, and, my personal favorite: new 23-inch wheels. Inside, the air vents and “organ stop” adjusters can be finished in a darker tint, there’s a new quilt pattern for the seats and door cards, and some Speed-specific gauge displays and badging. 

Par for the Bentley course, interior quality is pretty great, and all of the controls, even the ones on the touchscreen, respond with a satisfying click. The screen is well-integrated into the dash and there are hella buttons and knobs, disproving whichever designer circa 2014 decided that iPads galore would be the pinnacle of modern car interior decor. 

Driving Experience

Under the hood, the old Speed’s W12 is gone, but in its place is the regular Bentayga’s 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 cranked up to 11. Bigger turbos with less lag, higher flow fuel injectors, and a lower compression ratio to manage increased boost mean 641 horsepower and 627 lb-ft of torque—15 hp more but 37 lb-ft less than the old 12-cylinder Speed. 

Despite being down on torque, this new Speed is quicker and faster: hold down both pedals to engage launch control (a Bentayga first) and it’ll hit 60 mph in 3.4 seconds and eventually reach a top speed of 193 mph. For reference, the old Bentayga Speed took 3.8 seconds and topped out at 190. Where other VW Group performance products tend to launch with an instantaneous kick, the Bentley is programmed with a bit more dignity. Acceleration is still mighty, but it comes as a grand, gradual shove—can’t be spilling any champagne in the back, even on the dragstrip.

In Sport mode, the dampers may be 15% stiffer, but in practice, it’s still plenty comfortable. ESC Dynamic has been calibrated to allow easier slides, while 440-mm carbon ceramic brakes are apparently the “largest in the world” and feel plenty strong without being either overly sporty or cushy in the pedal—they’re just right. Brake-based torque vectoring delivers sharper turn-in.

Hucking and carving it around the winding highways and ranch gravel pathways of Montana, the Bentayga Speed is admirably nimble. It may not do that performance luxury car thing of “shrinking around you” at speed, as its presence remains deliberately large wherever and however you drive it, but it does feel lighter than it is. Sticky Pirelli P Zeros, world-class AWD and chassis tuning, and 641 hp will do that. 

On the flip side, the Bentayga as a whole doesn’t ride quite like a magic carpet or a Rolls-Royce Cullinan but, as a tradeoff, it is quite a bit more engaging to drive than both of those—well, the Rolls at least, I can’t actually speak to piloting any flying rugs. It’s still vault-level stable and insulated, but the opposite of floaty or slapdash, managing C-suite-level luxury without feeling like a boat.

Bark-tayga

The real reason to get this faster Bentayga over any other version, however, may just be the noise. As standard, this car comes with a steel exhaust system, but a titanium, quad-tip setup from Akrapovič is available as an optional extra. Yes, the Slovenian aftermarket tailpipes most commonly associated with modified Lambos and your buddy’s Golf R are now being fitted to Bentley SUVs from the factory. 

This system is 28 pounds lighter (a key enhancement, surely, for any 5,000-plus-pound utility vehicle), but its most vital purpose is definitely what it does to the Bentayga’s voice. Step on it, and the titanium trumpets behind you make the V8 sing—it sounds gargly and mean as the revs climb before emitting wonderfully metallic crackles as they fall again. 

All of the audio is genuine, by the way, as no noise is faked or being pumped through its Naim speakers. For this reason, Sport mode downshift popcorn noises are, to me, the most amusing thing about this car: just loud enough and very physically resonating from the rear. 

Now Boarding Group 1

Like the Audi SQ5 I reviewed last week, the Bentayga Speed’s increased performance and aural panache don’t come at the expense of the livability of the SUV on which it’s based. Keep this car in Comfort or “B” mode, and it drives a lot like a regular Bentayga most of the time. It’s cushy to sit in, luxurious to behold, and rock solid on an open freeway. 

Put it in Sport, poke at the accelerator, and its status as the hottest factory Bentayga to date makes itself known. Not so much in actual movement, as a standard Bentayga is already plenty quick and competent, but mostly in that rowdy optional exhaust. This car is all about the noise.

Like sitting in 1A on a flight to Paris (or London), the Bentayga Speed is an indulgence few will ever actually enjoy and fewer still will try to justify. But that’s arguably the point. It’s a grand, robust, agile, and powerful machine with an exhaust note that delights like a smiling stewardess pouring sprinkles on a silver dish of vanilla ice cream, seat-side, 30,000 feet over the Atlantic. 

And if its existence helps keep, say, the S3 around, good, and (relatively) affordable for the rest of us, sprinkle on.

Quick Take

Bentley’s golden goose flies quicker than ever, but the real novelty here is how it honks.