The convertible GTC S and hardtop GT S on display at an event in New York State. Both S models use Bentley’s High Performance Hybrid system, built around a four-litre twin-turbocharged V8.Mark Hacking/The Globe and Mail
The first surprise in the Bentley Continental GT S is not how quickly it goes, though that point is settled almost immediately. The surprise is the weight of everything you touch. The steering wheel requires a firm hand. The accelerator pedal demands pressure. The vent pulls, shift lever and drive-mode selector all move with the kind of resistance that suggests Bentley still believes luxury should be felt through the fingertips.
Nothing in the cabin feels casual or flimsy or half-hearted.
That impression matters here, because spring has arrived in New York’s Lower Hudson Valley before the pavement has recovered from a rough winter. The roads are rippled and bruised, pocked with holes and patched with optimism.
One car in our fleet suffers a flat along the route. Mine gets through the day, but later inspection reveals a swelling in one spot of the tire sidewall after a pothole lands harder than expected. So much for the idea that air suspension, however sophisticated, can make broken pavement disappear entirely.
The steering wheel, dash and centre console of the electrified Continental GT S.Mark Hacking/The Globe and Mail
The brake pedal carries the Bentley 'B'.Mark Hacking/The Globe and Mail
Still, the 2027 Continental GT S makes a persuasive argument for composure under pressure. In comfort mode, the coupe skims over rough sections with the calm of something heavy and well managed. It does not float in the old boulevardier sense, and it never feels soft. But the structure feels immovable and the body rarely gets busy. The Bentley does not hide its weight so much as organize it.
The coupe weighs 2,459 kilograms, which is not the sort of figure one associates with delicacy. The convertible, the Continental GTC S, comes in at 2,636 kilograms. Both ride on 22-inch wheels with Pirelli rubber measuring 275/35 ZR22 up front and 315/30 ZR22 at the rear. The wheels look magnificent under the broad fenders; the low-profile tires, less surprisingly, are not immune to potholes.
The convertible, the Continental GTC S, comes in at 2,636 kilograms, about 180 kilograms more than the hardtop.Mark Hacking/The Globe and Mail
Easy to tell it is a Bentley with this door sill.Mark Hacking/The Globe and Mail
The Continental also has the considerable advantage of being gorgeous. Not pretty. Not sleek in the anonymous way so many expensive cars are sleek. Gorgeous. The proportions are classic grand tourer – long hood, low roof, wide stance – but the details keep it modern and just a little sinister. The S trim helps: less chrome, more shadow, more intent.
The hardware underneath is formidable. Both S models use Bentley’s High Performance Hybrid system, built around a four-litre twin-turbocharged V8, a 188-horsepower electric motor and a 25.9-kilowatt-hour battery. Total output is 671 horsepower and 686 lb-ft of torque. Bentley says the GT S reaches 100 kilometres an hour in 3.5 seconds, while the GTC S needs 3.7 to accomplish the same task. Both crest 307 kilometres an hour.
On the European test cycle, the coupe is rated for up to 84 kilometres of all-electric driving; the convertible, 78. Official Canadian consumption figures were not available at the time of writing, but they often land between 10 and 25 per cent lower. When connected to a Level 2 charger, Bentley says the battery can be replenished in less than three hours.
The numbers are useful, but they do not quite explain the character. The GT S is exhilarating, certainly, but not because it feels light on its feet. It feels solid to the point of stubbornness. Switch into a more focused drive mode and the car tightens its shoulders. The steering gains purpose, the body control firms up and the all-wheel-drive system digs the car out of corners with immense traction.
It is not nimble. That would be the wrong word for a coupe of this size and weight. It is planted, precise and deeply composed, which is probably more relevant in a Bentley anyway.
The S specification helps make that possible. Active all-wheel drive, all-wheel steering, an electronic limited-slip differential, torque vectoring, 48-volt active anti-roll control and air suspension with twin-valve dampers are not just spec-sheet filler. On these roads, they give the car a sense of discipline. The GT S can be hustled, but it never feels as though it is trying to impersonate something smaller.
The headrests on the electrified ContinentalMark Hacking/The Globe and Mail
An analog clock, a signature design feature, between the vents.Mark Hacking/The Globe and Mail
Bentley has been heading in this direction for a while. When the Bentayga Hybrid arrived in 2019, it made a surprising amount of sense. A large, ultra-luxury SUV with useful electric-only range was not merely a regulatory gesture. It suited the way such vehicles are often driven: quietly through neighbourhoods and city centres, then farther afield with a combustion engine standing by. In that context, electrification felt less like an apology and more like refinement.
The Continental GT S applies the same logic to a more emotional car. It can leave a driveway in near silence, then summon the V8 when the road opens up. The electric motor fills in the low-speed response. The engine supplies the theatre. Neither side of the system feels like an afterthought.
Pricing is steep, even by Bentley standards. The Continental GT starts at $321,200 before destination, while the GT S rises to $337,800. The GTC starts at $353,900, with the GTC S at $371,600. The S models are not the top of the range – the Speed and Mulliner trims sit above them – but they occupy the interesting middle ground: more attitude and hardware than the standard car, less maximalist than the Speed.
The coupe is the car in which the S treatment makes the most immediate sense. It feels closed, serious and structurally complete, a grand tourer with enough edge to justify the darker trim and performance hardware.
The GTC S makes the less rational case and, on the right road with the roof down, the stronger emotional one. It gives up some of the coupe’s closed-fist focus, but not the underlying impression of solidity. What it adds is atmosphere: more sound, more light, more Hudson Valley in the cabin. The convertible turns the same mechanical argument into an event.
Inside either version, Bentley remains Bentley. The cabin is rich rather than minimalist, tactile rather than screen-obsessed. The fluted seats, dark trim, S badging and heavy controls reinforce the same message as the chassis: This is not a car trying to disappear around the driver, it is too substantial for that. Instead, it makes substance part of the appeal.
The Continental GT S and GTC S are not delicate machines. But a Bentley should not feel as if it has been engineered by people afraid of mass. These cars are heavy, fast, expensive and, on rough real-world roads, impressively composed. The tires still have to answer to the potholes, but the car itself feels almost unbothered.
For a plug-in hybrid grand tourer, that may be the point. The new S does not make the Continental feel less like a Bentley. It makes the Bentley feel better suited to the world it must now occupy.
Both the convertible and the hardtop have a 188-horsepower electric motor and a 25.9-kilowatt-hour battery.Mark Hacking/The Globe and Mail
The writer was a guest of the automaker. Content was not subject to approval.
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