Continental Flying Spur

Bentley engineers sought “no compromises” in creating their new GT-based 312-km/h (194-mph) sedan.

The one word that runs through every aspect of the motor industry is “compromise.” A car may be engineered to exceptionally high standards, but somewhere there will always be compromise; there has to be, whether it is ride and handling, driving position, pedestrian safety versus aesthetics, or even color shades and fabric textures. If it were otherwise, manufacturers would only build absurdly bespoke vehicles at astronomical cost, totally unsustainable in a commercial world. Compromise is as much a part of car making as steel, rubber, and electronics.

Yet Bentley-part of the Volkswagen Group-says that if one phrase could sum up the brief for the Continental Flying Spur concept, it would be “no compromise.” Explaining that, the company says it would mean the car had the highest levels of elegance and comfort while still delivering performance and driving dynamics normally found in sports cars. Marketing-speak, maybe, but how could Bentley really go for a “no compromise” design? Compromise, or lack of it, is hardly a precise science, but certainly for the Flying Spur the real aim was to minimize it, although there are always parameters within which design, engineering, and manufacturing have to operate.