2025 Bentley Continental GT Speed First Test: Ferocious Power Meets Refined Electric Touring

Cruising quietly in EV mode, we’re just minding our own business when suddenly the traffic clears and the open road beckons. Flip the dial to Sport, and the twin-turbo V-8 rumbles awake, unleashing 591 horsepower ready to roar. Slam the pedal down, and the electric motor kicks in, sending the total output soaring to a staggering 771 horsepower. Whoa—brace yourself. When the motor and engine team up in the 2025 Bentley Continental GT Speed, get ready for an exhilarating rush of power from this mighty beast.

That’s the remarkable duality of driving the latest Continental GT—the most powerful production Bentley ever made. Its 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 teams up with a 188-hp, 332-lb-ft permanent-magnet electric motor housed within the eight-speed dual-clutch transmission, delivering a combined 771 horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque. Yet when you choose, you can silently glide along on pure EV power alone—and truth be told, that’s the mode the car prefers you to embrace.

The 25.9-kWh (usable) battery pack and its electronics, cleverly tucked away in the boot (that’s British English for trunk), help the 2025 Bentley Continental GT manage its hefty 5,406-pound curb weight, achieving an almost perfect 49/51 front-to-rear weight balance. When fully charged, the dash showed an all-electric range of 47 miles—close to the EPA’s 50-mile rating. That’s more than enough for most daily trips, and like many plug-in hybrids, the Continental can run on electric power alone at speeds up to about 87 mph. But beware—press the accelerator too hard, and the engine will roar to life, joining forces with the electric motor to deliver full power.

Big GT Goes Fast, Stops Hard

With that kind of power, old chap, how quickly does this big-boned, British-branded coupe launch when unleashed on the test track? The all-wheel-drive 2025 Bentley Continental GT Speed—boosted by an electronic limited-slip differential—rocketed to 60 mph in just 2.8 seconds and blasted through the quarter mile in 10.8 seconds at 130.7 mph. A decade ago, those numbers would’ve been solidly in supercar territory. Today, they still hold strong, especially for a car of this weight. For some perspective, that’s half a second quicker than the roughly 400-pound lighter W-12 GT coupe we tested in 2019—and even faster than the lighter V-8 model we tried later that same year.

Thanks in large part to its balanced weight distribution and massive 17.3-inch carbon-ceramic brakes—an $18,820 option featuring 10-piston front calipers—we experienced minimal brake dive during our hard stops from 60 mph, achieving a best distance of just 100 feet. (For comparison, the nose-heavier W-12 and V-8 models required 105 and 103 feet, respectively.) That’s borderline exceptional braking performance for a grand tourer not primarily focused on track numbers. Out on real roads, the braking system— which also recovers energy through regenerative braking—proved both strong and easily modulated in most situations.

Limit Handling Is Limited

Straight-line speed and stopping power? The new Continental GT Speed delivers like a proper beast. But when we pushed it to its handling limits, things got a bit less impressive. While the results weren’t exactly embarrassing, they didn’t quite match up to the previous two GT models. The W-12, for instance, dominated the skidpad with an average of 0.99 g compared to the Speed’s 0.90 g, and it edged out the Speed on our HARJA figure eight test—23.8 seconds at 0.85 g average versus 24.5 seconds at 0.84 g.

What gives? The tires, for starters—they seemed to plead for mercy every time we pushed toward the limits. Because the new 2025 Bentley Continental GT Speed embraces electrification, it rolls on a set of ELECT-branded Pirellis mounted on its 22-inch rims. These tires prioritize extending electric range and minimizing road noise over raw performance, a trade-off that likely held back the car’s handling capabilities.

There always seemed to be some form of stability control quietly intervening, even when switched off. We also noticed inconsistent shift behavior from the car’s eight-speed twin-clutch gearbox—a carryover unit—which wasn’t what we’ve come to expect. (Maybe the electric motor integration needs refining?) Altogether, these quirks made for a somewhat frustrating experience, despite the car’s improved weight distribution, updated front and rear bushings, new semi-active suspension dampers, and advanced tech like 48-volt variable anti-roll bars, four-wheel steering, torque vectoring, and an electronic limited-slip differential. That said, we previously sampled a prototype Continental GT Speed on a wet track in Spain and found it to be a confident, capable dance partner during that brief encounter.

Touring About

All this talk of track attacks and chasing perfect laps probably means little to most buyers of a car like this—beyond some good bragging rights, that is. Most owners will do what we often did: dial it back to Comfort, let the updated dampers soothe the ride, and cruise quietly around town in silent EV mode. When there’s battery charge left, the Continental defaults to EV operation in its signature (B)entley mode; you have to switch to Sport to engage the engine directly. A clever touch we noticed is that when the battery runs low, the engine and regenerative braking team up to help recharge it on the go.

We spent several days driving the 2025 Bentley Continental GT through Los Angeles—one of its natural playgrounds—navigating busy surface streets, hustling and braking on freeways, and pushing it along a few challenging roads. It handled everything with effortless grace, though we do have a few caveats to mention.

On a tight, twisty two-lane route—like one of the Malibu canyon roads we pushed it along—this isn’t exactly a car that feels small and nimble, even though it’s tuned to handle such roads. Yes, it corners and tracks well with direct, though somewhat light, steering and doesn’t drift or wallow, but it still feels undeniably big. And that’s no surprise. While the wheelbase remains the same at 112.2 inches, the car is nearly 2 inches longer and about half an inch wider than its predecessor. This Continental GT Speed truly shines on wide-open stretches of pavement where you can embrace its grand touring nature—or cruising down somewhere like Sunset Boulevard, where rolling silently on electric power and making a statement in a stunning car like this is exactly what it’s all about—now and into the future.

One other minor note concerns the 2025 Bentley Continental GT updated suite of driver-assist technologies, which—like much of its mechanical foundation—comes from the Volkswagen Group (mostly Porsche) but refined by Bentley. While its adaptive cruise control with start-from-stop function performed well, the lane-keep assist was less impressive, often wandering within the lane and misreading a few pavement line markers.

Flying the Winged B Flag

Since its 2003 debut, when it redefined what a modern Bentley could be, the Continental GT has embodied elegant touring—and this latest model only raises the bar. The First Edition we tested, dressed in a stunning Kingfisher Blue and featuring a more aggressive front end with its signature single “tiger”-style light banks, still turns heads effortlessly. On the Pacific Coast Highway, a small motorcycle gang of young toughs gave us a thumbs-up as they rode past—proof that this car doesn’t just exude luxury; it radiates undeniable style.

Inside, while largely unchanged from its predecessor, the 2025 Bentley Continental GT continues to impress with its metal organ-style pulls, lavish quilted leather, diamond-pattern metal accents, and First Edition trim that beautifully extends the Kingfisher theme into the cabin. That said, we wouldn’t mind if Bentley rethought the layout of the numerous buttons surrounding the gearshift—they can feel a bit cluttered. The digital infotainment system remains one of the more intuitive and less frustrating units in this luxury price range. While it’s not quite bank-vault quiet at highway speeds, cruising around town in EV mode is simply divine, especially with the top-tier Naim sound system featured in the First Edition model.

In the end, Bentley has more than delivered with the 2025 Bentley Continental GT, successfully ushering its grand tourer into the electrified era. It offers power and performance that both impress and thrill, all while refining its role as a statement-making luxury machine—ready to announce its presence wherever a discerning driver willing to spend upwards of $300,000 chooses to roam, whether silently gliding in EV mode or roaring with full force.

2025 Bentley Continental GT Speed Specifications