Next-Gen Bentley Flying Spur Spied Taking A Drive In Snowy Sweden

Bentley is conducting cold-weather testing of the next-generation Flying Spur in Sweden, and this new batch of spy photos catches the ultra-posh sedan on a very snowy road. It's not an environment in which you would expect future owners would go driving, but the company has to make sure that the four-door can work anywhere.

This test mule wears lots of black cladding to hide the design details, but we already have a good idea of what to expect from the Flying Spur's design. The headlight and grille design tell us that the front-end styling borrows significantly from the latest Continental GT. Don't expect the hideous intakes in the fascia to be on the production version, though. From behind the A-pillar, the Flying Spur has a more traditionally boxy sedan shape than the Continental, which allows for more room in the back seat where many owners would spend most of their time. A long rear overhang and large trunk suggests that the big Bentley would have plenty of luggage space.

Like the current Continental GT, the new Flying Spur will share the MSB-F platform with the Porsche Panamera. The change will allow Bentley's sedan to shed a significant amount of weight, and it'll allow for the possibility of a plug-in hybrid powertrain later. At launch, the Flying Spur would share the Continental GT's biturbo 6.0-liter W12 that produces
626 horsepower (466 kilowatts) and 664 pound-feet (897 newton-meters). It routes through an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic.

Expect the Flying Spur to debut in the first half of 2018, possibly as soon as the Geneva Motor Show in March. Sales would begin before the end of the year.