► Bentley Bentayga spy photos on M6
► By CAR reader Ben Graham-Evans
► A close-up look at Crewe’s crossover
CAR magazine reader Ben Graham-Evans got more than he bargained for when he drove back south from a business meeting in Manchester – he was overtaken by the new Bentley Bentayga SUV running loose on the M6 motorway.
It was one of three Bentleys being driven in convoy on a recent Sunday morning and Ben had the presence of mind to spot the lightly disguised crossover lurking in the middle of the pack.
His spyshots provide a good look at the 4×4; there’s plentiful camo around the lamps, but you can see the typical Bentley oval exhaust pipes, Continental-style quad circular headlamps and a heavily contoured bonnet.
Bentley Bentayga: the background
Crewe has only shown the EXP9 F concept car to date, but is due to show the finished production SUV later in 2015 before sales start in 2016. Expect the 6.0-litre W12 to be offered; the prototype Ben saw was a W12, tipped to be capable of 200mph.
Bentley recently confirmed the badge of the 4×4: Bentayga, named after a mountain peak in the Canary Islands.
CAR reader’s reaction to the Bentayga on the M6
Ben, from Hampshire, was in a BMW X5 when he spotted the Bentley posh-roader whizz past near Birmingham. Handy for providing a sense of scale.
‘We were heading down the M6 after meetings in Manchester and saw a trio of Bentleys being driven fast in convoy on an early Sunday morning, including this strangely familiar SUV,’ he tells us.
‘Initially I thought it was a Porsche Cayenne, but it turned out to be the new Bentley SUV – we were in an X5 and it did not look large compared to that. A quick look inside when it drove past us revealed the inside: the dashboard looked flat-fronted and typically Bentley like.’
The third shot in Ben’s scoop has an interesting detail: it’s listing over so far that we can only conclude that it’s flexing all 600 ponies as it escapes our ad-lib paparazzo or its suspension is a bit wonky!
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