The Bentley Continental GT Convertible means very different things to different generations.
For some it’s a commanding, stately cruise liner, for others it’s one of the fastest cars in the world, and for others still it means Premier League car parks – for better or worse.
But what rings true across the various carriers of the badge is the ability to serenely defy its size with such an ease of speed.
Even this latest incarnation of the 70-year-old name is a long-lived model, launching as long ago as 2002, and inevitably it has been refreshed in its nearly 20 years.
This third-generation GT Convertible has certainly dated the original from the turn of the millennium, and has fully shaken off those connotations: like the best footballers, the Conti has only got better with age.
It’s more muscular in shape, more defined with sharper lines.
The sheer size is inescapable, at not much short of 5m long, but beneath that wide nose is a twin-turbo 6-litre W12 that calmly slips out 625bhp.
And an astonishing 664lb ft of torque, making for rapid yet effortless progress. Push higher up the rev range and the low rumble is traded for a growl, underlining the potential to carry its heft from rest to 60mph inside four seconds and on past 200mph.
