IN THIS FEATURE Is it really the world's fastest saloon? Still British in character Streaks like a Vulcan bomber Considerably better than you

Overall, however the best way I can describe the triumph that is the Flying Spur is to say that the Continental GT is a fine car but the Spur is considerably better, even than that. Clearly it's more practical and comfortable - you'd expect no less comparing a saloon to a coupe - but it's also just about as quick and at least as much fun to drive. Indeed Dr Ulrich Eichhorn, Bentley's head of engineering, reckons the Spur is better balanced than the GT, a judgement with which I cannot disagree.

In fact the only people who should be depressed by the arrival of the Fling Spur onto the market are those charged with selling Mercedes' uber-limo, the Maybach. Compared to the Flying Spur, the Maybach 57 is fractionally less powerful and is electronically restricted to 155mph. Rather more importantly, its interior fails to create anything like the sense of occasion offered by the Bentley and while I don't doubt for a second that its ride and refinement is several streets ahead of the Spur's, some may regard this as insufficient grounds to part with the extra cash required to secure this, the cheaper of the two Maybachs on sale. How much extra? A cool £141,460. Or, to put it another way, you could have a Flying Spur, a brand new Ferrari F430 and over £20,000 in the bank.

It's hard to say that any new car costing £115,000 is a bargain, but if there is one, this, surely, is it.