► Bentley Speed Six Continuation ride review
► A recreation of a 6.5-litre Bentley icon
► Just 12 being made for customers
How old would you say this car was? The first instinct would be to say around 90 years old, wouldn’t it? In some ways, you’d be right.
This is a Bentley Speed Six from around 1929, and quite possibly one of the most legendary models in Bentley’s 100-plus-year history. Why is it a legend? Because it made a name for itself in motorsport and has gone on to become the most successful racing Bentley in the brand’s history.
Except this Speed Six is not from around 1929. It’s from 2023. And we’ve had some seat time in it.
How can a car that looks that old be from 2023?
This Speed Six is one of Bentley’s Continuation models and is the first Speed Six in 93 years. You see, Bentley has found its own niche here, recreating some of its most famous models in its history for, let’s be honest, very wealthy clients with a love for the Bentley brand. This Speed Six Continuation follows on from the Blower Continuation – which we’ve driven – and is simply a meticulous recreation of the original Speed Six.
And we really do mean meticulous. The Speed Six Continuation models are crafted using the same designs and manufacturing processes of the original car, and have been set up to the specification used for the 1930 24 Hours of Le Mans race. Original drawings, sourced from the WO Bentley Memorial Foundation, were used in the Continuation’s build, too.
During the build process, more than 600 new parts were crafted for the Speed Six’s 6.6-litre straight-six engine. Bentley’s tests on the dyno revealed that its to-spec engine recreation makes 205bhp – within 5bhp of the original.
The one pictured is Car Zero, the one we’ve experienced on the move. Car Zero is, essentially, a development car that’s designed to stress test parts and endure gruelling drives for durability purposes. From its original reveal in mid-2023, to the end of 2024’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, the engine had undergone two 20-hour continuous bench tests and Car Zero had clocked up more than 7000 miles of intensive test driving.
Now, the brand’s engineers have the pretty serious task of creating 12 Continuation models (all not road legal) for Bentley clients. Each one takes around 10 months to create, with the first expected to be finished by the end of 2025.
So, what is it like?
Absolutely fascinating up close, and takes a significant amount of time to drink in. Every detail really does look and feel period correct; there isn’t some random LED light or incongruously modern switch designed to make something work sticking out of the dashboard.
The floor is made entirely from bare wood, with the seats having a beautiful curve to the backs and leather so fine you almost feel guilty sitting on it. The cockpit is awash with dials, switches and levers but is absolutely dominated by the enormous steering wheel for the driver. Latches for the doors feel so tough they belong in a bank vault, with the same leather upholstery on the seats used to line the inners of the doors themselves. There are even embossed ‘B’ motifs on them.
And at speed?
It’s as if you’re sitting in a time machine. Our experience was during 2024’s Monterey Car Week, along the fantastically glamorous 17-Mile Drive that connects Pebble Beach with Pacific Grove. The location is right by the sea, with sand sometimes drifting across the road and, particularly during Car Week, laybys littered with all sorts of automotive royalty. I counted three Bugattis, four Lamborghinis, a Koenigsegg and an Automobili Pininfarina Battista.
And yet, sat in the Speed Six Continuation, nothing else could ever compare.
You can tell pretty quickly that the car needs some serious manhandling. A member of Bentley’s team is put to gruelling work ensuring smooth shifts, hard acceleration pulls and what looked like a very heavy steering setup while out on the road, earning some serious respect at how such a (let’s be honest, here) old fashioned car can whizz up a country road with similar pace as a modern hot hatch. But these traits of heavy controls and muscle required to operate them are arguably common for cars of this period – whether they were built in the 2020s or not.
And the Speed Six Continuation really is properly quick, pulling hard in each gear and bellowing out a deep and rich yet tuneful roar as the huge speedometer needle waggles its way around the dial. Whines, thunks and clunks from the transmission and driveline only add to the cacophony of sounds you experience with the wind in your hair and a whopping-great grin on your face.
Ride impressions: Bentley Speed Six Continuation
Yes, this project may only really be for The One Per Cent (of The One Per Cent) to experience, but the depth of engineering and the detail that has gone into the project cannot be ignored. Bentley’s engineers have transported themselves back almost a century and recreated something that is fabulously trimmed and incredibly visceral – even from the passenger seat.