WITH almost mythical depths of power, the Bentley Flying Spur 6.0-litre W12 inhabits the heady heights of luxury cars with 200mph on the cards.

At one time Bentley, when combined with Rolls Royce at Crewe, used to be distinctly cagey about stating the power output of the old V8-engined cars, but not so now because the marque, now split from Rolls-Royce under the VAG banner is rightly proud to broadcast the muscle of its pride and joy - 616bhp.

And it is all on tap - instantly.

In looks it is classically posh with everything swept and curved to the n-th degree of beauty and style, with an almost understated look.

But underneath lurks astonishing performance that just takes the breath away.

For instance, with the assistance of two parallel turbochargers, and direct intercooling this car is easily capable of its stated top speed and can hurl its two and a half tons to 60mph in a shattering 4.3 seconds.

Not that I tried it of course, but figures suggest that 100mph comes up in just over 10 seconds.

This is the second Bentley to bear the Flying Spur name in recent years, the first being a stretched version of the Continental two door.

But the Flying Spur of today is a very different animal to the Continental which is a true sporting luxury two-door.

The latest Flying Spur is, in many ways a unique design, but sharing the W12 engine and the optional V8 with the Continental. The Spur is the definitive ultra-fast luxury car built for carriage of four and occasionally five in supreme comfort and offers the best bridge I have yet encountered between and car that can be used as a limo or simply be driven - which is what it cries out for.

It is tremendously popular in China where may are chauffeur-driven and customers enjoy its gliding, yet compliant ride qualities.

One the road, the driving experience is amazing. Docile in town and supremely silent it comes into its own on the open road where it does does everything, including rocket-like overtaking in the best possible taste.

Power is fed via a ZF eight-speed automatic transmission which suits the W12 eloquently, doling out power via Bentley's four-wheel-drive system giving this massive saloon almost cat-like levels of agility.

Inside everything has the traditional Bentley hand-made quality. All the stitching in the car's leather upholstery is carried out by hand and the traditional veneer work is also hand-crafted.

And as to price, the test car weighed in at £146,000 which was upped to £178,790 by a raft of options including a £5,558 multimedia specification which included a TV and £5,720 for a Naim for Bentley premium audio system.

Combined economy is as you would expect from a car with such capabilities to be under the 20mpg mark - 19.2 to be precise. And emissions are again as to be expected from such a petrol powerhouse, namely 343g/km, although an improvement on the previous model.