Expect it to inherit bits from Continental GT and Panamera
Bentley revealed a new Continental GT before the Frankfurt Motor Show earlier this year, and these spy shots show that its sedan counterpart, the Flying Spur, isn’t far behind.
The luxury sedan was caught undergoing cold weather testing in Sweden. The car is lightly camouflaged, but we can already guess what the final product will look like based on what we can see here and what we’ve seen of the Continental GT. Like the Conti, this Flying Spur mule has a front end with a larger inner headlight and smaller outer lamp, reversing the look of the current-gen sedan. The rest of the exterior looks similar to the outgoing car, but expect the interior to get a major overhaul much like the Continental GT.
Beneath the skin, the new Flying Spur will receive even more changes. The sedan will ride on a stretched version of Volkswagen Group’s modular MSB platform, called MSB-F. Though the platform is longer in this application, the Flying Spur’s underpinnings are shared with the Continental GT and Porsche Panamera. The architecture will support both rear- and all-wheel drive, and should shed a good amount of weight from the current model’s more-than-5,500-pound bulk. MSB will also support modern electronics that will allow autonomous driving capability in the future.
Expect the Flying Spur to borrow powerplants from the Porsche Panamera, including a twin-turbo 4.0-liter V-8 and possibly even one of its two plug-in hybrid drivetrains. Given that the 6.0-liter W-12 engine returned in the new Continental GT with 626 hp, there’s a good chance we’ll see it in the Flying Spur as well. The next-gen Flying Spur could debut in late 2018 or early 2019.
Photo Source: CarPix