Living large at home: Celebrating my anniversary with the Bentley Continental GT
A $300,000 Bentley convertible can turn a weekend at home into a luxury vacation all its own.
Friends, this is wonderful.
Aside from being an unmitigated shitshow, 2020 is also my seventh year of being married to my lovely (and extremely understanding) wife. Earlier this year, we'd planned on taking a very belated honeymoon trip to Australia, but then everything happened, and we've been stuck at home ever since. It sucks.
The solution? Living it up without leaving home. And in that spirit, there's arguably no better way to live large in Los Angeles than in a $300,000 Bentley Continental GT Convertible.
A $300,000 price tag brings with it enormous expectations. My idea of what a luxury car should be is very much rooted in the past. I grew up around old European cars and there's a 1970 Mercedes-Benz 280SE in my stable now, complete with bank vault-like doors and beautiful wood and leather everywhere. It's luxury through quality, not tech.
The Bentley delivers luxury in a similar manner. The Conti's exterior design is exceptional, but it's inside where the car truly justifies its price tag. The leather is soft and smells fantastic. There are no faulty stitches anywhere. The seams are perfect. The wood is beautifully glossy. My tester's burled wood and piano black dual-tone facade add a great deal of gravitas to the otherwise exquisite cabin. Everything you touch feels great and the controls have nice weight to them. The metal is metal and feels cold to the touch. This is a kind of craft-driven luxury that's after my own heart.
Of course, the Continental is still very much a modern Bentley. The onboard tech punches well above what other superluxury cars offer. The infotainment system is very clearly derived from the Porsche Communication Management software, but skinned in a way that works for a Bentley. It's snappy, legible and easy to use, and tied to an absolutely killer Naim audio system that just makes you want to crank everything up and play it at ear-bleeding volume. The best thing about the multimedia system, though, is that you can hide it away with Bentley's brilliant Rotating Display option. You can electronically rotate the screen to have it reveal three gauges, or flip it another time to have the surface match the rest of the dash. Tech-free life is a luxury in and of itself these days.
Rather than just hang out at home, my wife booked us a gorgeous room at the Malibu Beach Inn that sits on Carbon Beach and looks out over the Pacific Ocean. Getting there either means slogging down the 10 freeway and then going up Pacific Coast Highway, or you can wind your way through the Santa Monica Mountains, which is exactly what you should do in a Bentley convertible.
The 4.0-liter V8 is exquisite.
The Continental may be small for a Bentley, but it's still a big, heavy car. You might expect it to feel ponderous on an engaging road, but it doesn't. The grand Conti is shockingly tossable and responsible, the 4.0-liter twin-turbo V8 offering plenty of theater and ample shove. The suspension is supple without being too soft. It is an incredible droptop, and one that's genuinely entertaining to drive.
It's impossible not to enjoy yourself behind the wheel of this car. It makes both my wife and I feel special. The Continental convertible turns heads without being ostentatious, especially in my tester's understated brownish-red shade called Cricket Ball. The car -- and the color -- receives compliments wherever it goes.
Great as the driving experience is from both a physical and emotional standpoint, nothing beats pulling into a valet line and handing over the keys to a brand-new Bentley. It's just so cool. And I found it impossible to resist the urge to look back over my shoulder, giving the Conti a final glance before heading up to our room. Even when you say goodbye, this is a car that makes you feel special. And if you're fortunate enough to afford one, it's the sort of experience you can have every single day, even at home.
2020 Bentley Continental GT V8 convertible: Living it up without leaving home
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