2026 Bentley Bentayga Speed First Drive: No W-12? No Problem

MotorTrend

We get behind the wheel of the 2026 Bentley Bentayga Speed

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00:00Since the Bentley Bentayga came out in 2015, it was known for having luxury and performance all

00:11under one roof. It was the first and up to now the only SUV built by Bentley and it had the ride,

00:18it had the handling and it had that powerful and mighty W12 engine. Well fast forward a few years

00:25during its life cycle and the W12 doesn't exist anymore and in its place there was a V8 with

00:31not so much power as before. Until now, enter the 2026 Bentley Bentayga Speed which has a V8,

00:39four cylinders less than the W12 but with just about 20 horsepower more than the W12 engine and

00:46nearly as much torque as before. So we've come to the roads of Montana to get behind the wheel

00:51and tell you all about it. All right so let's back up for a minute and talk about really what the

00:57Bentayga Speed is delivering right. We have a V8 with 641 horsepower, 626 pound-feet of torque,

01:07that's about 99 horsepower and about also like 100 pound-feet of torque more than what the outgoing

01:15Bentayga S was delivering. Now the Bentayga S is no longer around, the Bentayga Speed is replacing

01:22the Bentayga S for the 2026 model year. But that's good news, this is the V8 engine that we were waiting

01:30for you know for the last two years. The way that this V8 sounds and the way that it drives and the

01:36way that it handles, it feels like a proper speed, a proper Bentayga Speed and so I think that's what

01:42matters and I think that's what people are going to be enjoying about this SUV is that not only can it

01:48be a worthy replacement of the W12 but also it is powerful, it's punchy, it's sporty but it's also

01:56plush and it's comfortable and it does everything really well. Once you turn on sport mode, Bentley says

02:04that the suspension stiffens up by 15 percent. It does feel stiffer to ride on. It also, you know,

02:11like the whole car, the whole SUV just turns up into a different kind of beast. The V8 just becomes

02:18alive, the exhaust system like I said just turns glorious, it becomes more fun to drive. But if

02:24you don't want that, just turn it back on to comfort mode or Bentley mode and the whole thing, the whole

02:31SUV will tone down a notch and will become that Bentayga that we've known for these last couple of years

02:39where it's just plush and refined and, you know, smooth and doing everything that Bentley does really

02:45well. But really the differentiator on this particular model, the speed, is the V8 that makes over 640 horsepower.

02:57So we're here driving on mountain roads in Montana and man, you know, everything about it going up the

03:07mountain, you know, you have all this torque that's instantly available and the transmission is always

03:13ready to deliver more more torque and more torque. And you turn in the corners and the whole SUV feels

03:20planted. Another thing that I should mention is that, you know, the Bentayga Speed is it's an SUV that

03:27you can drift. And drifting might not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a Bentley

03:32or a Bentayga, but hey, this SUV can do it. And we were trying it on an off-road course earlier today

03:41and you can feel that torque vectoring working to kind of like turn the car depending on how

03:50aggressive you're turning into the into the curves, right?

03:54So I've dialed it down to Bentley mode and what this is doing basically turns down things a notch from sport mode.

04:02The V8 that that exhaust sport exhaust system sound is not as present as it was before.

04:09The RPMs of the engine, instead of revving at like over 3000 RPMs, we're now at about 2000 RPMs.

04:18Throttle inputs are less ready, if you will, like it's it feels more, more plush, more serene.

04:24And then the transmission, the shifts are a lot smoother. And I think this is a mode that most people

04:31that get this car are going to be driving in. In your daily commute, this is what you want. You want

04:36something quiet, something refined, something smooth, something plush. And this Bentley mode is exactly

04:42what delivers that. Anybody who gets behind the wheel of the Bentayga speed is going to be enjoying

04:49the kind of drive that it delivers, whether it's with sport mode or whether it's with Bentley mode

04:53or comfort mode or any other kind of mode. This is a car that you enjoy driving, that you enjoy being

04:59driven in. And it's a car that still delivers that panache. It's a car that feels special. And it's also

05:07available in so many configurations. Bentley says that it can go from 0 to 60 in 3.6 seconds. I call

05:14those numbers very conservative. I believe it can get there in about three seconds, if not maybe in a

05:20little bit less than that. But we'll have to wait until we test it at MotorTrend to get all those

05:25numbers for you. But for now, from this beautiful Montana scenery, I'm Miguel Cortina. Thank you so much for watching.

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