Page 97 - Cool Britannia

I think it was about 1979 when my mom had our frst Range Rover, it was a mustard coloured two door as they all were, with brown plastic interior and vinyl seats. Supposedly so you could hose the mud out when you’d delivered the pigs to market. It was squarely aimed at a more road friendly agricultural vehicle than the Land Rover’s of the day. Somehow over the following decade the Range Rover transformed into the “gentleman’s” utility vehicle, by the early ‘80’s mom was driving a metallic blue four door vogue. The spec got better and better as the gap between its original idea for use widened. So much so that it’s probably the single most infuential vehicle that generated today’s immense luxury off road market.A sector still dominated by the Range Rover, even in the land of the big SUV, Americans love a Range Rover. This has stimulated every luxury car brand to enter the frey. Jaguar with the compact F Pace, Maserati’s Levante join the very well established line ups from Mercedes, BMW and Audi, but probably the most talked about new contender to this sector is Bentley.I frst saw the Bentayga in the metal at Geneva last year, when a very nice chap from Bentley took nearly an hour demonstrating and explaining all the tech and design features of their new £200k super off-roader. I could see his reasoning as the four by four market is the biggest growing sector in motoring, but what could this offer over the current crop of highly sophisticated luxury SUV’s?Chris collected the black Bentayga and met me at Bicester village where we swapped cars so I could take the big Bentley for the weekend of British GT at Silverstone. Ever since the early Range Rover coined the phrase “command driving position” it’s made for great motorway cruising, so powering down the slip road onto the M40 watching the head up display climb rapidly the reassuring position added to the sensation as this W12 powered monster pushed me into my seat. Once at motorway speed she settled into quiet cruise, not even in the ball park of a Rolls, but certainly quiet and comfortable. All the obvious driver aids were on hand to make life on board very comfortable. The iPhone sync was simple, the sound system, as you would imagine was outstanding and the dials were typical Bentley chrome retro with matching toggle switches. Although I must say I didn’t fnd the navigation as intuitive as some, but I’m sure it’s excellent once you have it sussed.97