2025 Bentley Continental GT Speed First Test: A Massively Powerful Beast and Sedate EV Tourer

We’re trundling along in EV mode, minding our own business, when traffic clears and the road ahead finally opens. Dial turned to Sport, the twin-turbo V-8 burbles to life, its 591 horsepower ready for battle. Foot to the floor, the EV gauge swings wildly as the electric motor aids the proceedings, and all 771 horses are summoned. Whoa. Hold on. Because when the motor and engine combine to activate in the 2025 Bentley Continental GT Speed, prepare thyself for speed from this steed.

Such is the dichotomy of experience behind the wheel of the latest Continental GT—the most powerful production Bentley ever produced. The GT’s 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 conspires with a 188-hp, 332-lb-ft permanent-magnet electric motor situated inside the housing of its eight-speed dual-clutch transmission to produce that 771 total horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque all in. But when you want, you can skulk about on EV power alone, and in fact, it’s what the car would rather you do.

The 25.9-kWh (usable) battery pack and associated electronics located in the boot (that’s English, er English, for trunk) helps balance the 2025 Bentley Continental GT’s hefty 5,406 pounds to a 49/51 percent front-rear weight distribution. Fully charged, we saw 47 miles of all-electric range on the readout; the EPA rates it for 50. It’s more than enough to get you to and from most daily dalliances, and like many plug-in hybrids, you can use electric power alone at speeds of up to roughly 87 mph. That is, if you don’t hit the accelerator pedal too hard, because when you do, the engine will fire to aid in power delivery.

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Big GT Goes Fast, Stops Hard

With that kind of power, old chap, how quickly does this big-boned, British-branded coupe move out when we released the hounds at the test track? We were able to hustle the all-wheel-drive (it also benefits from an electronic limited-slip differential) 2025 Bentley Continental GT Speed to a 60-mph time of just 2.8 seconds, on to a 10.8-second quarter mile at 130.7 mph. A decade or so ago, that would have been supercar territory. Today, it’s still right in the mix, especially so for a car in its weight class. For some perspective, that’s 0.5 second quicker than a roughly 400-pound lighter, W-12 equipped GT coupe we tested in 2019 and an even lighter V-8 model we tested later in the same year.

Thanks in part to its weight distribution and this car’s massive 17.3-inch carbon-ceramic brakes (an $18,820 option) with 10-piston front calipers, we experienced very little brake dive during our panic-attack stops from 60 mph, with a best of just 100 feet. (The nose-heavier W-12 and V-8 took 105 and 103 feet.) Again, that’s borderline exceptional for this type of car, one that isn’t billed as a numbers-generating machine. Out in the wild, we found the braking system, which helps deliver regen energy into the battery, to be strong and easily modulated for the most part.

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Limit Handling Is Limited

In a straight line, the new Continental GT Speed went like proper mad and stopped equally hard, but things fell apart a bit when we put it through our at-the-limit handling exercises. While the end numbers weren’t anything to shake a stiff upper lip at, they fell short of the last two GTs for the most part, with the W-12 crushing it on the skidpad (0.99 vs. 0.90 g average) and outclassing it on our MotorTrend figure eight (23.8 seconds at 0.85 g average vs. 24.5 seconds at 0.84 g).

What gives? The tires, for one, as in giving up and crying for mercy every time we tried to reach for the stars. Given the new Conti GT Speed’s electrified mission, it’s fitted with a set of ELECT-branded Pirellis shod on its 22-inch rims; they’re aimed slightly more toward improving electric range and keeping tire noise down than they are at outright performance, a compromise that likely hampered the car’s handling limits.

There always seemed to be some sort of stability control still working in the background despite it being switched off. We also experienced some inconsistent shift behavior from the car’s eight-speed twin-clutch gearbox, which is a carryover unit; it’s a behavior not in keeping with what we’ve previously observed. (Perhaps the electric motor needs better integration?) It all added up to an experience that frustrated us somewhat. This despite its improved weight distribution, updated bushings front and rear, a new semi-active suspension damper system, as well as the 48-volt variable anti-roll bars, four-wheel steering, torque vectoring, and eLSD systems. We did previously get a taste of a prototype version of the Continental GT Speed on a wet track in Spain, however, and found it to be a more than adequate dance partner during our short time with the car.

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Touring About

All this talk of track-attacking and inconsistent 10/10ths behavior likely means little to most prospective buyers of a car like this, short of bragging rights. They are far more likely to do what we did at times: Turn the dial to Comfort, let those newly updated dampers pamper you, and roll around town in silent EV mode operation. If you have any charge in the battery, it defaults to EV operation in its (B)entley mode; you can only access the engine directly by switching to Sport. A neat feature we experienced is when the battery is fully depleted, the engine operation, along with regenerative braking, will help add juice.

We spent several days driving the Continental GT in Los Angeles, which will be one of its natural habitats, traversing surface streets, hustling and halting on freeways, and stretching it out on a challenging road or two. It handled everything we threw at it with ease, though we have a few caveats.

At least on a tight, twisty two-lane route like one of the Malibu canyon roads we hustled it over, this isn’t necessarily a car that shrinks around you, though it was tuned to handle it. Yes, it corners and tracks well with direct steering (on the lighter side of the spectrum) and doesn’t waft or wallow, but it just feels big. Because it is. Although its 112.2-inch wheelbase is the same as the outgoing car, it’s close to 2.0 inches longer and roughly 0.5 inch wider. This car is at its best on wide-open expanses of pavement where you can really get your grand tour on, or along, say, Sunset Boulevard, where battery-powered rolling and posing in a car this stunning is typically what it’s going to be about—now and in the future.

One other small callout was with the 2025 Continental GT’s updated suite of driver assist tech, which like most of its underpinnings is Volkswagen Group–derived (primarily from Porsche) and Bentley-massaged. While we found its adaptive cruise with the start-from-a-stop feature worked well, the lane keep assist didn’t do that great of a job assisting, as it tended to wander in the lane, and it misread a couple of pavement line markers.

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Flying the Winged B Flag

Since its debut back in 2003 when it woke up the world to what a Bentley in the modern era could be, the Continental GT has stood for elegant touring, and this car only elevates that aesthetic. The First Edition model we tested, sprayed in a gorgeous Kingfisher blue hue, with its more aggressive fascia highlighted by the new, single “tiger”-style light banks, still gets looks. We had a small motorcycle gang of young toughs roll by us on the Pacific Coast Highway with thumbs firmly up. It just exudes luxury, oozes style.

Inside, while much the same as the car it replaces, the metal organ pulls, swathes of quilted leather, diamond-pattern metal accents, and the First Edition trim that carries the Kingfisher theme into the cabin still impresses. However, we wouldn’t be disappointed if Bentley reorganized all those buttons surrounding the gearshift. Its digital infotainment also remains one of the easier and least frustrating to operate in this car’s price stratosphere. And while we didn’t exactly find it bank-vault quiet at highway speeds, around town in EV mode, it’s simply divine, with the requisite super-high-end Naim sound system for the First Edition model.

In the end, Bentley achieved what it needed to—and more—to usher its 2025 Continental GT into the electrified era. It delivers power and performance to brag about and enjoy while continuing to refine and otherwise puff up its mission as a grand tourer designed announce itself wherever someone who can afford a car that starts at $300,000 roams—silently or otherwise.

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