It’s big, bold and loud without a battery in sight. Meet the new Bentley Bentayga Speed

For a car that was launched to more than the usual amount of criticism for its looks, the Bentley Bentayga has weathered the years rather better than most. A major facelift in 2020 tweaked the most egregious elements of the original 2015 design and the company has continued to nip and tuck its SUV to keep apace of its rivals, both in terms of performance and plushness. The latter has been taken care of by the Mulliner spec cars, whilst the former quest continues with this, the first Bentley Bentayga Speed of the new generation.

While the car's key rivals, the Ferrari Purosangue and Aston Martin DBX S, seem to be locked into a rather puerile horsepower war that taps into the top trump ethos of conspicuous consumption. For performance cars, it's all about the power, just as yacht owners duel over length and skyscraper builders bicker about height. Twas ever thus, and thus 'twill ever be.

Bentley has chosen the Montana to debut the Speed, reasoning that the state’s blend of open vistas, sweeping roads and upscale outdoorsy lifestyle is a fine match for the car’s abilities. The state’s landscape is famously fabulous, open skies above a carpet of dramatic snow-topped peaks, pine-encrusted slopes and broad river basins. Some 28,000 ranches are scattered across this territory, the size of Germany yet with just over 1% of the population.

Aside from a few major cities (the largest has a population of just 120,000), the ‘densest’ parts of the state are where golf courses, hotels, ski runs, generous mansions and associated services cluster in amongst the deep folds of the landscape. Big plots, big trees and big contours effectively cloaks all this rather suburban infrastructure, giving the impression of one vast open wilderness.

Montana isn’t just Surrey with bears, however. Despite the picture-perfect vistas and big, big skies, it’s also becoming one of the best places to be a wealthy outdoorsman, whether it’s owning a vanity ranch, having a passion expensive skiwear, taking the $35m penthouse in the Montage Big Sky hotel, or simply strutting around in a Stetson and cowboy boots. Perhaps this is why Bentley picked the latter hotel to host the launch event, a place where the luxury SUV’s incongruous blend of wealth and utility feels right at home.

It's notable that this new Speed model, the first high-performance variant of the company’s evergreen SUV to be fitted with a twin-turbo V8, rather than the mighty-but-obsolete W12 engine found in the first-generation car. The other point to note is that this particular Bentley is now the lonesome ICE machine in the range. All its other models, the GT, GTC and Flying Spur, are available in a variety of trims and specs but always with a plug-in hybrid powertrain. It therefore feels a little weird to be driving a brand new 2026 model year car that eschews any and all forms of electrification.

Stripping out the 17.3 kWh battery from the hybrid Bentaygas might save a bit of weight but given that a lightweight SUV is something of an oxymoron (like 'ethical AI'), the real story here is the power. In V8 form, Bentayga Speed comfortably outperforms its W12 antecedent in every metric.

There’s a launch control mode to help you reach that magic 60mph number is just 3.4 seconds, whilst top speed is a DBX S-matching 193mph. Do not attempt this in Montana, however tempting it might be. If the state troopers don’t get you, the wildlife almost certainly will. Even the roar of the optional sports exhaust probably won’t give anything time to get out of the way.

There are subtle updates to the styling too, but they’re confined to elements like dark coloured brightware, a black roof, grey taillights, a pinstripe side detail and Speed badging. If you want a truly lairy Bentley, you only have two options; go to an aftermarket supplier to get a decidedly unofficial body kit or engage with Bentley’s own Mulliner department and have sufficient strength of character to be able to throw taste and caution to the wind.

We’ve noted before how Rolls-Royce is becoming bolder and bolder when it comes to specifying its press fleet, mindful that many owners think contrasting colours are de rigueur. Bentley is taking a similar tack, hence the slashes of lime green and electric blue scattered around the beautifully trimmed cabins of these cars.

Palettes aside, a Bentley is still an exceptional place to sit, especially in the back of the LWB car. The Speed isn’t quite as big as that, but at 5.1m and nearly 2.5 tonnes, it’s akin to having a lavishly upholstered space rocket.

To earn that Speed badge, every setting has been dialled up just a little bit more than usual – more exhaust noise, stiffer dampers, more freedom from the ESC and snappier gearchanges. We got the opportunity to sample plenty of highway miles as well as a short off-road(ish) diversion through the backroads of an amenable local ranch.

On gravel and grass all that power is a very different proposition, especially if you relieve the ESC of its reins and allow the hefty Bentayga to slide about a bit. It feels a bit perverse to say it, given the location, but a bit more space would have been welcome to truly explore the limits, rather than a narrow track adjoining a steep drop down into the valley.

Bragging rights duly won, most Bentayga Speeds will end up as everyday transport through cities, towns and villages, with perhaps the odd horsebox or speedboat getting an effortless tow. Buyers who really care about driving will doubtless own another car or two to scratch that itch, but perhaps the best thing about the Bentayga Speed is that when they switch back to the high-riding, leather-trimmed serenity of its cockpit, they won’t feel they’re a million miles away, dynamically.

Anachronisms usually have their admirers, in thrall to qualities that others have chosen to dispense with (usually for practical reasons). The Bentley Bentayga Speed isn’t exactly forbidden fruit, given the endless back and forth over EV legislation, tariffs and quotas, but it is a bold statement, visually, acoustically and politically. That such a competent and likeable machine can still surface amidst a cultural landscape of such infinite complexity is a minor triumph for the brand.

Bentley Bentayga Speed, from £219,000, BentleyMotors.com, @BentleyMotors