New cars: What the critics say

Fortune

With 600 hp and a top speed of 202 mph, the super-luxurious GT Speed is “the fastest production Bentley ever to hit the road.” The emphasis is on luxury as much as speed. Leather seats in “glorious Newmarket Tan,” drilled aluminum pedals, and the chiseled three-spoke steering wheel will keep even impatient drivers feeling pampered during rush-hour traffic.

Road & Track

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Although this hefty coupe weighs 5,180 pounds, it can go from 0 to 60 mph in just 4.3 seconds. A new, more upright front end “sucks 14 percent more cooling air into the engine” and front brakes. It’s virtually impossible to drive this car on a freeway at less than 100 mph—its “natural gait”—no matter how hard you try.

Automobile

The Speed certainly lives up to its name. Getting to the airport a few seconds faster, though, “strikes us as not worth the price.” The springs are stiffer and the steering wheel smaller than on the standard GT. But this heavy coupe is hardly a plaything. The pizza-size carbon-ceramic brakes are great “when you’re decelerating from triple-digit speeds.” They’re not so easy to modulate in normal driving conditions.