The Bentley Continental GT Azure answers one of life’s great questions: What happens if you drove a cloud with a V8?

Is it possible to make something that is both fast and extremely, staggeringly, comfortable?

Alas, it is the question that has plagued the idealism of the grand tour since the 17th century. How can I, a person of great taste and intelligence, get from the UK to Italy and back again in relative style and comfort? Back then, the answer was most likely some kind of fancy carriage, drawn by several fancy horses. The answer these days is perhaps the same, except there are 671 horses, and they live in the bonnet of your Bentley Continental GT Azure.

The more things change, the more they stay the same

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Quite right. One of the key features of the Grand Tour back then was to sculpt the minds of the rich and youthful into spending their money on beautiful things. Wealth is one thing, but what of taste?

A cursory browse on Instagram will often reveal slightly revolting people who are desperate to discuss the difference between the two. What does it mean to have money, if you spend it on the wrong things, asks some hideously angular member of a long non-existent minor European royal family, as he or she stands in front of a swimming pool in the South of France. How do you display wealth and taste with subtlety and prestige?

The first answer to that question is certainly to stop posting reels on Instagram, and the second answer might be hopping behind the wheel of the Azure, the softest and most well-appointed grand tourer around.

It certainly does look extremely comfortable and elegant

The Azure is that most special of things: English taste with German execution. What that means, in car form, is some of the most delightfully appointed interiors you’ll find in a four-wheel vehicle, engineered onto a platform that is as smooth, elegant and refined as you could ever desire. Rich creamy napa leather adjustable in ways that would make a ballerina blush. Walnut veneer and crystal-cut dials and switches, delightful ‘organ stop’ vent controls and the pièce de résistance, a rotating media screen, allowing the driver to experience pure analogue driving perfection. It’s like being in your own private members club, and all that is missing are the ashtrays and a copy of today’s newspaper. If Bentley could have engineered a butler into this car, I am sure they would have, but the best they could do is a little arm that hands you your seatbelt, and that is more than enough.

What the interiors of the Azure tell us is that it’s possible to innovate, modernise and be creative, without losing any of the tradition and heritage that has made Bentley one of the world’s most premium car brands. It does everything that a German car would do, but it’s English as a steak and ale pie and a lame-duck Prime Minister.

It is not perhaps possible to be both ‘driving a Bentley Continental GT’ and ‘be subtle about it’, but the Azure is about as close as you could get. It is still muscular in all the right places, sits on massive 22-inch wheels and the recent facelift to the single striped headlight, combined with that vast front grille, doesn’t quite shout speed, but it’s certainly louder than a whisper. It’s a strong man with a well-made suit that hangs on it well.

It’s not always been the case that the Continental GT has been a pretty car. When it was first introduced to us in 2003, it was something of an ugly duck, but with each new generation (and we are now on our fourth), it has become better and better, and become one of the world’s most beautiful cars. But crucially, it is undeniably English. The English aren’t known for too much these days, but we do still make beautiful things, and the Continental is very much that.

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So it’s very nice to sit in and very nice to look at, but is it very nice to drive?

Without a doubt. It is a cloud with a twin-turbocharged V8 in the front, that responds to every input you can throw at it. The Azure specification is the most calm and restrained of the range, focused more on creature comforts, craftsmanship and style. But a restrained Bentley is still a Bentley. The hybrid V8 produces 671bhp, will pull you to 62mph in 3.7 seconds and head all the way to 168mph with an almighty roar, akin to an octogenarian member of the MCC discovering that England have once again suffered a batting collapse upon waking from his afternoon nap.

For a big car, it handles surprisingly well, using all of that German engineering to keep you planted on the road, balanced and composed. The steering is remarkably responsive, especially in ‘Sport’ mode, and the car feels lighter than its 2,500kg weight, and much shorter than its 4.9-metre length. If you are running late for the opera, the Azure will get you there on time, in one piece and un-creased.

But this is not the car for chucking about, really. The Azure is for those who enjoy the finer things in life, unbothered by raw power and handling and speed (but still reassured by its presence, if necessary). The electric engine provides about 40 miles of silent range, which is ideal for city life, and even when the petrol engine engages, it does so politely and quietly. Cruising around south-east London, people were looking at this car because it is beautiful, not because it was loud.

Like the very best grand tourers, it can demolish miles on the motorway with ease, and the hybrid powertrain makes cruising up and down various speed limits effortless. If there is one criticism of this car, it is that it is too easy to drive quickly, because it is so smooth. But for many, that is hardly a criticism at all.

So what you are saying is that ‘Bentley have done it again’

They have indeed done it again. I am often asked, in my very lucky job of driving nice cars around, who makes the best ones. It’s a bit like asking someone what their favourite film is, in that the answer is not always the same, but my answer is Bentley more often than most. The team at Crewe knows what their customers want, and they deliver it. A car that doesn’t scream status, but is undoubtedly a symbol of it. Refined, respectful innovation always. And class-leading comfort and performance. It sounds simple, and yet so many manufacturers do often get it wrong. But not Bentley.