Bentley’s Hot Bentayga Will Be Able To Drift

With the demise of the twin-turbocharged, 6.0-liter W12, the Bentley Bentayga has been without its ultimate Speed trim level. That’s not to say the Bentayga S is slow by any means. With 542 horsepower and 568 pound-feet of torque available, it’s still a seriously swift SUV, just not as swift as the Speed. It looks like Bentley is about to repair this hole in the line-up, though, as it’s teasing a new high-performance Bentayga variant, one with some impressive skills.

Fewer Cylinders, But More Power

The W12 is as dead as it has been, and so this new Bentayga will be making do with “just” eight cylinders and a pair of turbochargers. Bentley hasn’t given specific details, but it did say that it will make more power than the old W12. For reference, the previous Speed made 650 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque.

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What’s also interesting, is that this engine will not be a hybrid. This is an important note, because the Bentayga shares its underpinnings with the Porsche Cayenne and Lamborghini Urus, among others, so could easily share powertrains with them. The Cayenne Turbo E-Hybrid makes 729 horsepower, and the Urus SE makes 789 horsepower. However, they’re both hybrids. Their most powerful non-hybrid models make 650 (Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT) and 656 (Lamborghini Urus S) horsepower. Odds are that Bentley is still using a version of that twin-turbo 4.0-liter V8 from those SUVs, and the lower Bentaygas, but may have some unique upgrades to make more power. We’ll also be curious how close to the hybrid numbers this Bentley gets.

A Bentley That Drifts

One of the other interesting tidbits that Bentley shared about its new Bentayga was regarding the driver aid systems. The company said that in Sport mode with ESC Dynamic Mode active, you can actually drift the SUV. It said that this is a first for the model. Since the stability control system will still be on, it will presumably only let you drift the Bentayga so much before starting to reign things in, but it still sounds interesting and quite fun.

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Then there are the exhaust tips shown. Apparently, this Bentayga sports a new exhaust system, and it was co-developed with Akrapovic. The company notes that the unique tips will help distinguish the high-performance Bentayga from the rest of the line, along with a fairly gnarly sound. We’re also expecting some other visual tweaks will come along with the new model to further make it clear that it’s the fast one. We’ll know for sure very soon, as the SUV will be revealed on June 2.