The V-12 engine is lifeless. Lengthy dwell the V-12.

Within the coming years, supercar firms like Lamborghini, Bentley and Rolls-Royce have all introduced phase-outs of their V-12 engines as they roll into the age of hybrid and electrical automobiles. Within the meantime, they’re launching 12-cylinder masterpieces as odes to the last word in petrol energy – and rich prospects are snapping them up at a report clip.

In different phrases, on the very prime of the automobile market, the 12-cylinder is dying, and demand has by no means been stronger.

With the king of combustion hitting the tip of its highway, Bentley has launched the Continental GTC Pace. It is a “W-12” highway burner, during which the place three banks of 4 cylinders are organized in a sort of “W” configuration. Its uncooked energy is matched solely by its refined inside.

Regardless of a price ticket approaching $400,000, the GTC Pace is shortly promoting out. Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmar, mentioned there are “only a few out there” earlier than Bentley rolls the final of its 12-cylinder engines off the road in April 2024.

“These fashions are already nearly bought out,” Hallmark informed CNBC. “It is the tip of an ideal period.”

So with the Continental GTC Pace, Bentley has determined to get together prefer it’s 1999.

The mannequin I drove carried a price ticket of $384,000. Its shade known as “Kingfisher,” a luminescent, shimmering blue that, prefer it’s namesake fowl, was born to fly. It was loaded with a few of Bentley’s hottest choices, together with 22″ black-painted “Pace Wheels,” a touring bundle for added consolation and beneficiant helpings of carbon fiber.

Inside, the GTC Pace was dripping with luxurious add-ons, from the distinction stitching on the seats (with “Kingfisher” and “Beluga” coloured threads) to the Bang and Olufsen sound system, precision diamond quilting and the deep-pile overmats for added foot consolation.

My favourite choices, additionally one of the crucial widespread, is the “rotating show,” the place a bit of the carbon-fiber dashboard flips over when the automobile begins to disclose its digital show, sort of just like the supercar model of the key wall in a mansion library. It prices an additional $6,600 — however hey, while you’re spending $380,000 for a automobile, what’s an additional six grand? (About 70% of Bentley house owners are together with it.)

Probably the most stunning a part of the Continental GTC Pace is the drive. As befits a automobile with a number of personalities, The GTC Pace has three driving modes: consolation, customized, Bentley and enhanced sport. Driving in consolation mode is like floating on a cloud, even on pot-hole ridden streets of New York and New Jersey. Bentley mode provides a steadiness between consolation and sport.

You possibly can simply think about consolation mode ferrying its well-heeled driver to the nation golf equipment in Southern California and Southern Florida, two of Bentley’s largest markets. All-wheel steering helps for these uncommon events when it’s important to park the automobile your self as a substitute of getting a valet do it.

Swap to sport mode, nevertheless, and the W-12 roars like a dragon roused from sleep. The suspension tightens right into a crouch and the GTC goes to 0-60 in 3.6 seconds. It will probably hit a prime velocity of 208 mph.

Even with an unladen weight of over 5,300 kilos, the Continental GTC Pace takes corners, stops and accelerations like a a lot nimbler supercar. Its particular windscreen and aerodynamics permit top-down driving even at excessive speeds with out a hair misplaced.

Certain, there are higher pure sports activities vehicles and higher luxurious consolation rides. However arguably no automobile places the 2 collectively – with the screaming swan tune of a W-12 – fairly just like the Continental GTC Pace.