Bentley Continental Flying Spur lovely, lively

Some cars are produced and exist simply for the purpose of transportation.

Some cars are made with the intent to signify social status. Some cars are manufactured with performance as their primary focus, and still others are designed to envelop their occupants in sumptuous surroundings. Only a few vehicles combine all of the above elements or benefits — and they fall into a limited class often referred to as “supercars.”

These vehicles are indeed worthy of such a designation, if for no other reason than the sum required to purchase them.

Superluxury or superperformance vehicles fall into a financial range from $350,000 to $1.3 million. Some come with two doors, while others provide four openings for ingress and egress. Some seat but two, with others offering accommodations for four or more. The configurations range from roadster to sedan with coupes positioned in between.

Some supercars take on an aura of simple and sometimes understated elegance with others presenting themselves in a stunning, breathtaking and emotionally stirring form of exotica.

Rolls-Royce and Maybach sedans fall categorically, without question, into the superluxury venue generally in the $350,000 range. Mercedes-Benz offers vehicles appropriately filling virtually all elemental categories and body styles, with the SLR McLaren claiming the top price plateau at roughly $450,000.

The Porsche Carrera GT is an absolutely gorgeous, high-speed, high-performance roadster with a suggested retail price in the neighborhood of $440,000.

The Enzo Ferrari fetched $650,000 at a minimum, and the Bugatti Veyron commands $1.3 million.

The Bentley Continental GT Coupe, with a few significant options, rang up at the showroom register for a mere $161,586.20 including the “gas guzzler” tax and destination charge — the base price set at $149,990.

Enter the Bentley Continental Flying Spur — essentially an extended, four-door-sedan version of the GT Coupe, and sporting the same basic mechanicals and architecture.

The Flying Spur is Bentley’s fastest four-door sedan ever produced, and it is ranked as the fastest such vehicle in the world.

The Bentley Continental Flying Spur features a short front overhang with a dominant, lengthy bonnet, stretching from the front axle line to the “A” pillar. The cabin is both sleek and sumptuous, blending with the rest of the car’s curvaceous and sinewy form and taut rear haunches.

The chrome mesh grille is flanked by a headlamp design that reflects Bentley’s heritage. A rear spoiler is integrated skillfully and unobtrusively into the trailing edge of the trunk lid, providing additional downforce.

The Continental Flying Spur is both fast and smooth, with power coming from an impressive 6.0-liter twin-turbocharged 12-cylinder engine in a “W” configuration, a la Volkswagen. The W-12 staggers each bank’s cylinders, effectively creating two extraordinarily narrow-angle V-6 engines, as opposed to the two traditional, log six-cylinder banks found in conventional V-12 engines.

The engine generates 552 horsepower and 479 foot-pounds of torque, and mates to a six-speed automatic transmission with manual shift capability via fixed, column-mounted paddle shifters (much better than the wheel-mounted types).

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