Bentley has released its Canadian pricing for the new Bentayga SUV and it won't be cheap. At $241,900, it will be the most expensive SUV, but it has found at least one buyer – Queen Elizabeth.
"The very first one we are happy to deliver to the Queen of England who owns a big property up in Scotland," Michael Winkler, Bentley Motors president and CEO for the Americas, told Bloomberg. "She will now use it for her hunting expeditions on the property."
The Bentayga is not short of luxury or power. It comes with only the "finest bull hides, all of which are sourced from cool European climates," has 15 pieces of hand-finished wood veneer trim, diamond-stitched seats and a custom Mulliner Hamper Set, with cooler, Linley cutlery, crockery and crystal glass.
This 2,422-kilogram beast is powered by a 6.0-litre twin-turbo W12 engine that makes 600 horsepower and sprints from 0-100 km/h in 4.1 seconds, making it the fastest SUV on the planet. Which may be good, because the Queen likes to drive – and drive fast.
She trained as a heavy-duty ambulance driver and truck mechanic during the Second World War. She showed off her skills driving a standard Land Rover in a 1992 BBC documentary and in 1998, she terrified a Saudi prince during a tour of the estate.
"To his (then Prince Abdullah's) surprise, the Queen climbed into the driving seat, turned on the ignition and drove off," reads an anecdote from Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, the former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia. "Women are not – yet allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia, and Abdullah was not used to being driven by a woman, let along the Queen. His nervousness only increased as the Queen, an army driver in wartime, accelerated the Land Rover along the narrow Scottish estate roads."
The prince asked through an interpreter for the Queen to slow down.
It sounds like the Queen will enjoy her new ride.
Here is a scene from the 1992 documentary:
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