We’re about one year away from seeing the production version of the Bentley SUV for the very first time. We don’t really know what it will look like, aside from the trademark front fascia that’s been teased, but we have information that it will be pretty fast in a straight line.
UK magazine Autocar has the low-down on the controversial model, and it claims to have information that said model has been designed with a top speed of 200 mph (320 km/h) in mind. They say this will be achieved via a low roofline and generally slippery profile thanks, in part, to as small a front surface as possible – it seems unlikely like they could achieve the latter, given the robust, hefty look that their front ends usually sport.
It will also need a lot of power to negate the weight and SUV profile, though the engine that is to power it has not yet been confirmed. The EXP9 concept, shown in Geneva, in 2012, used a tweaked version of the W12 engine that the VW group lends to Bentley, but the production-spec SUV could even be a high-performance hybrid, as per some other older reports.
Naturally, other aspects will need to be addressed too, like borrowing high speed-ready tires off a Bugatti Veyron that can take the forces of such a big vehicle going as fast as this one is claimed to.
By Andrei Nedelea
Note: 2012 EXP9 concept pictured below
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