Bentley Continental GT   Women's view

Bentleys Continental GT surprises June Neary with its day-to-day usability.

For a week, Ive been able to imagine myself as a football star or a celebrity. Bentleys Continental GT is after all, the favoured transport of such people. But does it make day-to-day sense? For a family of course, like any coupe, this car is compromised. But not as much as you might think.

Unlike most coupes, it can, after all, seat four adults in comfort. And it has a huge boot. Which means that when my lottery numbers come in, yes, Ill be considering this as my one and only car. If I can keep the keys from my other half.

As Ive said, the interior is impressively spacious and the boot is so large that to retrieve items at the back, you almost have to crawl inside. The interior is demonstrably Bentley with acres of leather and wood veneers. The fascia has been designed with a notion of symmetry, the centre console rising up to divide two swathes of veneer that were designed to resemble the Bentley winged logo. Its said that Bentleys designers even took a tape measure to a team of New York basketball players to ensure that headroom is acceptable even to those at the extremes of the morphological scale.

The Continental GT is a proper four seater, although a broad transmission tunnel runs down the centre of the cabin. Certain Bentley trademarks endure the bullseye chromed ventilation outlets and the organ stop controls, but dont get the impression that this interior is a quaint retro pastiche. A touch screen LCD display on the centre console controls the air conditioning, satellite navigation, computer information and entertainment systems, whilst many of the minor controls can be operated without removing hands from the steering wheel. Its this blend of old and new thats particularly fascinating.

Craftsmanship techniques have been similarly updated. For instance, wood paneling can be dramatically curved in a way that was once impossible. By the same token, while the leather is still applied to the car with the same hand crafted care, its cut from hides using a digitized process that reduces waste and optimizes efficiency.

Once potential buyers have had the opportunity to take a good look round the car theyll be looking for a dotted line to sign. Its a shape that works a good deal better in the metal than on the printed page, where it can sometimes look a little lugubrious. Watch one on the move and youll witness a lightness of touch, a simple design elegance and a car that hints at the potency that lies under that long bonnet. The W12 engine is adapted from a Volkswagen design and is astonishingly compact, yet can still pump out 555bhp, due in no small part to the two KKK turbochargers.

Forced induction has become something of a cause celebre at Bentley, stretching back over 20 years in the modern era and being traceable right back to the supercharged Blower Bentleys of the 1920s. Power is transmitted to the road via a rear-biased four-wheel drive set up which gives the Continental GT a handy advantage when the going gets slippery. The link between the driven wheels and the engine comes courtesy of a six-speed automatic transmission built for Bentley by ZF. This can be marshaled via paddles behind the steering wheel should you wish, or else it can be driven like a conventional automatic.

This was a surprisingly controversial feature, with some engineers arguing that a car with this much torque didnt need a six-speed gearbox. Yes, you could lock the Continental GT into third gear and surf languidly along for much of the time, but the enthusiast owner profile eventually dictated the six ratios. Another first for Bentley was the attention to aerodynamics. A car that can accelerate to 60mph in less than five seconds and on to the far side of 190mph requires sufficient aerodynamics that its owner can be assured of it remaining dirty side down.

The Continental GT benefits from the expertise of the best aerodynamicists the Volkswagen Group had and the venturi tunnel under the rear of the car and the cooling ducts in the engine bay all attest to their labours.

How can you say that a car costing £117,500 is good value for money? Quite easily as a matter of fact. Thats not much more than youd pay for something like a Mercedes CL63 AMG and much less than assorted Italian exotica will ask of you. And nothing else even something much more expensive can match this car if what you want is a car to waft you down to the South of France in real comfort and style.

As soon as my numbers come up, I would love to. I had imagined this as the kind of car you buy, then leave in the garage and use on special occasions. In fact, its a car I would happily use day-to-day and enjoy every minute.