My friend Ric has had them all: Aston Martin, Bugatti, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati. But Bentleys have never really appealed to him. Until now.

As soon as he saw the Continental GT and read the performance figures he put in an order. “It looked good, can carry four people in reasonable comfort, and promised to outperform the Ferrari 456GT. It met the old idea of a Bentley as a fast transcontinental tourer. And Bentley’s win at Le Mans this year was icing on the cake.”

It turns out that lots of supercar collectors feel the same way. Some 3,200 people have placed deposits for a Continental GT, all prepared to spend £110,000 on a car they haven’t yet driven. A car which, below its tightly contoured coupé body, is uncomfortably close in specification to the Volkswagen Phaeton, an excessively heavy saloon that works well but which few buy.

At last we have driven the much anticipated Continental GT, even as far as John o’ Groats, and I can tell you that it blows away all of one’s preconceptions. Sure, the 6 litre W12 engine, the air suspension, many of its systems and some of the body structure come from the Phaeton, while the four-wheel-drive system and six-speed automatic transmission are from the Audi A8. It weighs a massive 5,258lb, yet feels like a roadgoing jet, its twin-turbocharged 552bhp engine propelling it to 60mph in 4.8sec and a maximum speed said to be in excess of 190mph.

Bentley, now part of the Volkswagen Group and divorced from Rolls-Royce, which belongs to BMW, decided that the vehicle to re-establish the brand was not a huge luxury limousine or an out-and-out mid-engined racer but a generous two-door 2+2 coupé — a classic British Grand Tourer. There are such cars in its heritage, notably the elegant and surprisingly fast 1950s Continental R Type, which gave its name to the new model.

It looks good, in an opulent way, and of course features beautifully finished wood veneers and the finest leather. You find all the latest automotive technology here, from electronic stability control to an electronic parking brake, multiple airbags to four-position adaptive damping. But that doesn’t prepare you for the way it drives.

The Continental GT isn’t a particularly large car (it is about the same length as a Jaguar XK8) but it is unusually wide. Yet the precision of the steering is such that it can be placed on the road with inch-perfect accuracy and it has the agility of a much smaller, lighter car.

The combination of four-wheel drive, self-levelling air suspension and automatically adjusting dampers gives it excellent cornering poise, and the brakes — reportedly the biggest of any production car — are of course reassuringly powerful.

Bentley claims the Continental GT is the world’s fastest four-seater, quicker than an Aston Martin or a Ferrari 456. It is certainly not like either of those, being easier and gentler to drive, and although it makes a distinctive sound in the middle of its rev range it is not the music of a traditional V12 sports car.

That is explained by the nature of the engine which was, in effect, created by joining two narrow-angle Volkswagen V6s side by side. It is amazingly compact for a 12-cylinder engine, yet under the bonnet there is barely a millimetre to spare. It is built to Bentley’s specification at Crewe, where it is installed in bodyshells from Germany.

The turbocharged W12 motor is what makes the Continental GT what it is: a wickedly fast but effortless performer. Engineers talk about “flat” torque curves and this one has just that, producing maximum torque of 479 lb ft from 1600rpm to 6,000rpm. The automatic transmission, which can be over-ridden with paddles behind the steering wheel, doesn’t need all six gears but shifts between them with an elegant smoothness.

The name Continental GT is supposed to evoke a car that can be driven long distances across continents in comfort and at high speed. The new Bentley could play that role perfectly but not with four adults aboard. Coupés inevitably require some compromise: style against space. The well-shaped rear seats provide just enough headroom but not quite enough legroom for tall passengers. The luggage compartment is unusually capacious for a car of this kind, even including a ski-hatch between the rear seats.

Ulrich Eichhorn, Bentley’s engineering chief, draws a graph which has luxury and refinement as one axis and sport and performance as the other. The Continental GT, he says, is unique in sitting high at the centre of the chart. My first drive bears this out, and I think Ric is really going to love the Bentley.

VITAL STATISTICS
Model Bentley Continental GT
Engine type W12, 5,998cc
Power/Torque 552bhp @ 6100rpm / 479 lb ft @ 1600rpm
Transmission Six-speed automatic with paddle-shift, four-wheel drive
Suspension (front) Double wishbones, air springs (rear) multi-link air springs
Tyres 275/40 VR 19
Fuel/CO2 16.5mpg combined / 410g/km
Acceleration 0 to 60mph: 4.8sec
Top speed 190mph plus
Price £110,000
Verdict Stylish, luxurious and expensive, the world's fastest four-seater does exactly what is claimed for it