Bentley Mulsanne Speed 2017 first drive

Entertaining, yes, because there is an edge of irreverence to the Mulsanne Speed. A brief glimpse of rock and roll exuberance somewhere in the mutter of that V8, the chirrup of the tyres as you make the aforementioned vulgar getaway, the landslide of torque that sweeps you through the short-lived rev range.

Then, of course, oncw the buzz has worn off you can twist the button into Comfort mode and enjoy the sublime refinement. This is really where the Mulsanne excels. Bentley reckons that the fancy tyre technology should cut noise in the cabin by 4 decibels, and bear in mind that the pre-facelift Mulsanne was hardly unrefined. Now – short of some unfathomably complicated light switches and a fruit bowl on the dashboard - it’s like tooling around in a posh hotel suite. Hit a steady motorway stride, and engine and tyre noise die down to a near inaudible background thrum. Wind flutter is the only thing that dares to intrude on your consciousness as the Bentley punches a hole through the air.

It’s in this unashamedly laid-back attitude that the Bentley feels wholeheartedly epic. In fact, it almost seems to buy you time and a relaxed attitude. After all, turning up late is only to be expected – everyone else can wait.

And yet, there is that tricky question of expectations again. Should this be a car that can deliver a modicum of involvement and handling prowess? Well, snick that rotary dial into Sport and give it a go, and to be honest you might be a little underwhelmed. Any kind of vigorous cornering and the Mulsanne will lean ponderously on its front tyre until it eventually gives up under the pressure and hands you fistfuls of rather uncouth understeer.

Yes, you can provoke it into oversteer. Of course you can – it has 811lb ft going to the rear wheels. But really. Really? You’re not going to do that, are you? Don’t do that. Or am I going to have to explain the driver’s car/not a driver’s car thing again?

The steering, too, feels a bit too meaty at low speeds when you might want the oily, light precision that a Rolls-Royce Phantom serves up in spades. It does, though, weight up and deliver a fair sense of connection at higher speeds when you can inject a really satisfying sense of fluidity to proceedings on the right sort of sweeping, high-speed curves.

Now, to the biggest problem here; ride comfort. Speed or not, the Mulsanne is a car that will be defined by the level of serenity buffering occupant from road, and it isn’t quite good enough in the UK, either in the back or the front seats.

Sure, put it in Comfort mode and it lopes over high frequency or long wave imperfections, brushing off eroded tarmac and awkward cambers with casual ease. But then you hit a recessed drain cover, or a sharp-edged pothole, and feel the unexpected shiver and thud as those air springs find the end of their travel.

In the incrementally firmer Bentley mode, you also feel an echo of the road’s undulations and scars. Go for Sport, and you seem to get very little extra body control in return for ride comfort that’s another notch further away from what you want in a Mulsanne. There’s a touch of patter here, a shiver there, a hint of a fidget over town roads. Don’t get us wrong, the Bentley Mulsanne Speed rides with the sort of majestic stride that most will be very happy with, but anyone who has driven the now-out-of-production Phantom will know that the Bentley’s waft just isn’t of quite the same exceptional vintage.

Still, there are other areas in which the Mulsanne Speed has really moved on. Namely in the multimedia area, where you'll now find a new 8.0in infotainment touchscreen nestled in the dashboard. Before we get to that, we'll mention that we’d like fewer buttons scattered across the dashboard, since it's easy to get a bit flustered by the sheer number of switches, and it doesn’t look too pretty, either. But it’s still a lavish treat of an interior, and the redesigned seats are wonderful: just soft enough without being armchair-like; supportive in all the right areas, adjustable to a tee - an absolute delight. I want one in my living room. 

While the plethora of switches looks a bit old-school, that new infotainment is quite the opposite and is one of the most significant updates to the facelifted Mulsanne range. The system's graphics and layout are bespoke (and very classy they look, too), and between the touchscreen, rotary button and voice control, it's easy to find your way around the various functions.

This all comes with the full complement of media connectivity and a 60-gigabyte hard drive, although you do have to pay extra – some £14,890 – for the Entertainment Specification pack that brings the superb Naim audio system and two 10.4in retracting touchscreens for the rear passengers with wireless headphones thrown in. These can display Google Maps with the relevant travel info for your journey, any app-based feature that you could want including games, video streaming and the like.