Bruce
Kraftwagen König
It would be terribly easy to take one look at the Bentley Azure, especially at its eye-watering list price of £222,500, and dismiss it as an anathema, an irrelevant dinosaur that no longer deserves a place on our roads in 2006. And neither Bentley nor the sort of customers for whom the all-new Azure has been created would care one iota if that’s how the rest of the world received this car.
But for the small and exquisitely wealthy section of society that can afford a machine like the Azure there is, in fact, nothing else quite like it. Not, that is, until Rolls-Royce removes the lid from its Phantom to produce the new Corniche, due early next year.
So what exactly is the Azure? And considering that Bentley’s market research suggests potential buyers of this car will already own between five and 12 other cars, why would someone like that be remotely interested in owning it anyway?
The Azure was once a four-seat convertible version of the ancient Mulsanne Turbo – namely a huge, wobbly behemoth of a car with all the refinement of a small lorry, but featuring a delightfully antiquated interior and… that was about it.
The latest Azure really is new. Beneath the redesigned exterior (the work of Bentley design chief Dirk van Braeckel, who was also responsible for the Continental GT and the rag-top GTC), it’s unrecognisable from the wheels up next to its predecessor. Bentley claims that, as a result, it’s much sharper than the old Azure in every dimension.
Essentially, the Azure is an open version of the Arnage T, but with a raft of modifications to make it as torsionally stiff as possible once the roof has been removed. The tweaks include carbonfibre cross-bracing and new front and rear subframes. The resulting bodyshell, says Bentley, is four times stiffer than before and, says Autocar, more graceful to look at compared with its ungainly predecessor.
Despite its many improvements, however, the Azure still uses an updated version of the 6.75-litre V8 that has been in service at Bentley (and Rolls-Royce, when the two companies were still related) since the beginning of time. Not that there’s a great deal wrong with an engine that produces 450bhp at 4100rpm and (deep breath) 645lb ft at 3250rpm. That’s almost 200lb ft more torque than a McLaren F1, in other words.
Trouble is, unlike the McLaren, the Azure uses a rather antiquated four-speed GM automatic gearbox to deploy its titanic forces and the engine itself is as heavy as it is handsome. The total kerb weight of this car is 2697kg, or, to put it another way, very nearly three Renaultsport Clio 197s. Which means the Azure needs all the torque it can muster if it’s to provide the sort of performance Bentley – and its customers – require.
Bentley claims the Azure will do 168mph flat out. At our track we ran out of steam (and bottle) at 163mph on the high-speed banking. At that point the Azure was pulling a highly impressive (and somewhat alarming) 1.05g of lateral cornering force. On the flat we’ve no doubt it would match Bentley’s claim.
On the way to that speed, the Azure provides a vaguely surreal blend of refinement and raw acceleration, not to mention a range of noises from its engine that are nothing if not unique in 2006. Nothing can prepare you for what it feels like when you squeeze the deliberately heavy accelerator all the way to the thickly carpeted floor and hold it there for a few seconds.
Not much happens to begin with, but after perhaps half a second the Azure summons itself and, on a huge wave of torque, simply fires itself towards the horizon with an induction noise like a giant Hoover.
In isolation the numbers don’t make especially great reading: 0-30mph in 2.4sec, 0-60mph in 5.9sec, 0-100mph in 14.2sec and the standing quarter mile in 14.3sec, with a terminal speed of 100.7mph. About the same as a £20k Astra VXR, in other words. But that’s hardly the point.
In any case, the majestic way in which the Azure summons its considerable thrust rarely leaves you wanting more. All in all, it performs better than you could possibly imagine, given its size and weight. Even the ancient four-speed gearbox has been fettled to produce smoothish upshifts and reasonably effective downshifts should you decide to stir the lever manually on the way into a corner. The inevitable penalty is an insatiable appetite for fuel: 5.3mpg at the track and an average 13.4mpg.
The Azure is not in any way the sort of car you’d want to throw down the road – it’s way too heavy for that – but if you drive it at seven-tenths it does most things extremely well, thanks to its reasonably accurate steering, taut body control and extraordinarily well resolved high-speed damping.
The ride is probably a little firmer than customers might expect at low speeds, but beneath the sheen of vaguely sporting intent the Azure is actually a beautifully refined, comfortable car. Hood up, it generates more noise from its big Pirelli P-Zero tyres than is created by the wind at, say, 70mph. With the hood lowered, it is the most special place to be on four wheels – no more, no less – and that includes the rear bench seat, which feels like something out of The Great Gatsby.
Room is not an issue in the front or the rear (there is plenty in every direction), although boot space isn’t quite as cavernous as you’d expect. For that, you can blame the machinations of the all-electric hood, which eat into what would otherwise be an enormous boot.
Up front, the Azure is everything you’d expect of the world’s most exclusive convertible, and then some. Yes, the wipers are from another era, the sat-nav isn’t a patch on that of a humble Golf, and one or two of the details (such as the plastic handbrake release) are a bit cheap, but such is the level of appeal elsewhere that such things somehow don’t matter. If ever a car could justify its price with its interior, the Azure is it.
Data Chart, including performance
Price when new £222,500
Price as tested £222,500
How fast?
0-30mph 2.4 sec
0-60mph 5.9 sec
0-100mph 14.2 sec
0-150mph no data
0-200mph no data
30-70mph 5.1 sec
0-400m 14.3/100.7 sec/mph
0-1000m 25.7/132 sec/mph
30-50mph in 3rd/4th no data/no data
40-60mph in 4th/5th no data/no data
50-70mph in 5th no data
60-0mph 3.19 sec
Top speed no data
Noise at 70mph 69 dbA
How thirsty?
Test average 13.4 mpg
Test best/worst 17.1/5.3 mpg
I guess that would exclude me from needing one
But as eye candy, really nice
But as you said, "there sure is a lot of wood", i agree 
