We get a preview of the latest tarmac-ripping Bentley, which can run on plant-derived ethanol fuel.
By - Andrew English
Published: 05 Aug 2009, Daily Telegraph.
If it’s your Bentley, then the falling needle might be dispiriting as it’ll soon be time to fill her up. If someone else is paying, then it simply means you are being indulged all the more. So grins all round, then, except for the omipresent guilt at burning such quantities of fossil fuel and speeding the greenhouse effect and its concomitant rising temperatures and sea levels.
Except this particular Bentley doesn’t burn fossil fuels, not all the time. This, the latest and meanest of the phenomenally successful Continental series, has the capability of running on bioethanol, which means that plants that make up the fuel have absorbed most of the carbon dioxide that the car then squirts out at a rate of 388g/km.
There is of course, the intriguing thought of Bentley owners queuing with the hoi polloi at Morrisons supermarket forecourts to fill up with E85 bioethanol, although it seems more likely that most Bentley owners will own enough land to grow their own bio petrol.
Nevertheless it is slightly mischievous to think that in overall well-to-wheels CO2 terms at least, owners of this latest Bentley road-ripper, all £163,000 of Continental Super Sports’ worth, will be door-to-door with the most right-on eco warrior in a Toyota Prius or Honda Insight.
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To read article in full please go to http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/carreviews/5977704/Bentley-Continental-Super-Sports-review.html