Bentayga

Make
Bentley
Segment
SUV

Shouldering the Bentley badge on the hood of a car usually means a number of things, all of which lead to the conclusion that a lot of time, effort, and resources went into building the luxury chariot. Cows died for the seats and engineers sacrificed sleep to stay late at the office, all in the name of cramming the highest level of technology and luxury materials into one runway floor quality package. A Bentley can also cause a bit of distain among the peasants, and to solve that, Bentley decided to build bigger.

It wasn't long until Bentley addressed the world by saying that its newest Bentayga SUV was coming out and would be the most important car that the 97-year-old company has ever built. Initially, the Bentayga was intended to be based off of the much more authoritarian looking EXP 9 F concept but instead, designers decided to tone it down on the looks. If the controversial shape of the Bentayga seems reminiscent of anything already on the road, it's because it technically already is on the road. Like the Continental GT before it, the Bentayga was based on a platform previously used by Audi thanks to its all access pass supplied by Volkswagen. The platform is named the MLB, but others will know it as the Audi Q7.

Buyers of the world's most expensive SUV may feel cheated for purchasing an overpriced Audi, but rest assured, the crew in Crewe, England have pimped the car out more than enough to justify the price. To make the bug-faced Bentayga come to life, marketing experts first had to coin its dubious name. That came about by combining the company founder's name with the Taiga forest, a biome specific to the northern hemisphere. Of course, Bentley intended the name to inspire the wonder that the views of the forest provide as well as the notion that the SUV will tolerate the trip that far off road. Ironically, looking at the geographic concentration of wealth shows that it is concentrated in the northern hemisphere, making the name more fitting.

To help differentiate the Bentayga from the Audi Q7, Bentley started with the powerplant that lies behind the large signature grille. The enormous 6.0-liter twin-turbocharged W12 engine makes no less than 600 hp and 663 lb ft of torque to leave peasants in the dust with a 187 mph top speed. That number also makes the Bentayga the fastest SUV in the world, and its 0-60 mph acceleration time of 4.0-seconds would make it the fastest accelerating utility vehicle on Earth too if it wasn't for Ludicrous mode on the pesky Tesla Model X. Luckily for owners, the engine isn't even where their $231,825-$300,125 check went. Opening the doors reveals that expense because the interior is likely the highest quality you can buy in an SUV.

Technology hasn't been spared either because if it has been invented, it's inside the Bentayga. Everything from adaptive cruise control with stop and go traffic assist to semi-autonomous steering is at work here making use of the 110-pounds of wiring that goes into the car. Entertainment and comfort isn't spared either with backseat screens, Wi-Fi, heated and cooling seats, and massage functions available all around the cabin. Mediating the road is a highly adaptable suspension that includes a sport, comfort, and even a "Bentley" mode. It uses active roll bars that sense corners to keep the SUV flat in during a turn since the city is likely where the Bentley will spend most of its time.

Then, with the flick of a switch, the roll bars adjust to help the SUV become nimble over rocky terrain. The system will even sense when the Bentayga is about to hit a pot hole and will lift the wheel at the exact instance, effectively jumping over the imperfection and sparing the occupants from a jolt. Minor inconveniences like these are all avoided with a wide array of solutions both standard and optional. With so much hardware that can be called upon effortlessly, it's no wonder that Queen Elizabeth wielded her royal powers to cut in line and be the first customer to receive a Bentayga. With such an opulent interior and the credibility of being the best SUV in the world, wouldn't you?