There is an argument for calling the Bentley Continental range the most successful in modern automotive history. Four years ago Bentley was a company haemorrhaging cash and making barely 1,000 cars per year.

This year, thanks to the extraordinary success of the Continental, it will build 10,000 cars, all at the transformed factory in Crewe. And it will return a very healthy 10% profit on turnover to its parent company Volkswagen.

Indeed the Continental has been so successful that it’s helped create a new market sector: immediately before its introduction the range of cars costing between £100,000 and £150,000 had a population of one: the Ferrari 360 Modena. Now it includes three Bentleys, a brace of Lamborghinis, another Ferrari, two Mercedes and an Aston Martin.

But while the four-door Continental Flying Spur is a deeply satisfying and well realised luxury limousine and the drop-top GTC is an admirably engineered and conceived convertible, the car that started it all, the Continental GT coupé, never quite worked for me. It was neither quiet nor comfortable enough to cut it as a long-distance cruiser nor sufficiently sharp in response to convince me as a sports car.

So what you’re looking at here is, if you like, the car the Continental GT should have been from the start. Called the Continental GT Speed to distinguish itself from the continuing standard car, it may look barely different but has been significantly upgraded in all areas, right from its engine and gearbox to its suspension and brakes. Its interior also includes the Mulliner driving pack (a £6,275 option on the standard £120,500 car).

Bentley’s official headlines shriek that this is its first 200mph model (in reality Bentley’s performance claims are notoriously conservative and every Continental GT ever built has been capable of the double ton) and the first with an engine to hit 600bhp, but speed and power were two commodities the original never lacked.

What is more interesting is Bentley’s contention that the Speed offers a dramatically enhanced driving experience. As someone who has lived and breathed the Bentley marque since birth, I know that for all the merits of all the models produced since WO Bentley’s original company went into liquidation in 1931 not one of them could legitimately describe itself as a sports car. Sporting, yes, on many occasions but not a true descendant of the sports car breed in the sense that its primary purpose is to entertain the person behind the wheel.

Car bores argue for hours over what does or does not constitute a sports car, but my test is fairly simple: if it makes me want to drive the doors off it, it qualifies. And after my first few hours driving the Speed in southern Spain I could see nothing in its make-up that suggested it was anything more than a slightly faster and more wieldy Continental GT. It came with optional ceramic brakes that added £10,000 to its £137,500 list price and seemed only to make the car impossible to drive smoothly.

I enjoyed the epic shove of its 6 litre twin-turbo motor and admired how well it stuck to my chosen line through long sweeping bends but I was also aware I was driving it quickly because that is what the job required me to do: for myself I’d have been as happy to ease off the throttle, turn up the stereo and flick on the cruise control. That was the kind of car it seemed to be.

So it is perhaps as well that the next day I drove it on altogether more twisting, tortuous roads – an environment to which a 5,180lb car would seem inherently poorly suited – for there I discovered another side to it I’d not fully explored the day before. If you drive it not merely rapidly but absolutely as fast as is safe on deserted mountain roads it comes alive.

The hitherto rather inert steering begins to describe conditions underfoot in rare detail for a car of this weight; the chassis loses its nose-heavy feel and reveals great inherent balance, while the engine fills in the bits between the bends with great gobs of explosive acceleration. Even the brakes started to make sense as they slowed the car for the umpteenth downhill hairpin without any sign of fade.

The fun only stopped when it became clear the local constabulary were showing a more than usual knowledge of, and interest in, our route and at once the Speed reverted to feeling slightly aloof in character.

All of which puts me in a quandary. On one hand I’m glad there is at last a Bentley that really responds when driven hard, but on the other I’m not sure any road car, let alone a Bentley, should need to be driven at that level of commitment before it will give its best. I want a sports car or even a sporting car to feel alive in my hands however I drive it and, bluntly, the Speed doesn’t.

There is no doubt that had 9% been the reduction in the car’s weight rather than the increase in its power the result would be better by far to drive. But adding horsepower is cheaper than losing weight so we will have to wait a few years for an all new Continental that Bentley promises will be substantially lighter than the current car.

In the meantime, while I enjoyed my time in the Speed, my thoughts are not so much of how good it is but how much better it could have been.

Vital statistics

Model Bentley Continental GT Speed
Engine type 5998cc, 12 cylinders
Power/torque 600bhp @ 6100rpm / 553lbft @ 1750rpm
Transmission Six-speed automatic
Fuel/CO2 17mpg (combined cycle) / 396g/km
Performance 0-60mph: 4.3sec / Top speed: 202mph
Price £137,500
Verdict A big improvement, but could be better

Rating

Date of release Now

The opposition

Model Mercedes CL 65 AMG £103,552
For Big engine grunt, spacious interior
Against Lacks a certain kudos at this level

Model Aston Martin DB9 £109,750
For Wonderful to look at and drive
Against Useless rear seats, not that quick