Want to go 300 kph in an SUV?

Bentley has unveiled their first ever SUV this week and what an offering it is. Back in May, British actor, Idris Elba, smashed through the 90-year-old British land speed record when he piloted a Bentley Continental to an average speed of 288.6 kph along the sands of a beach in South Wales. Now, Bentley has announced that the Bentayga is capable of topping that with a speed of 301 kph, the fastest recorded speed for a production SUV in the world, according to the automaker.

Getting a brick-shaped vehicle past the 250 kph mark is a feat unto itself. At this speed, air acts as a solid and does strange things to the aerodynamics package, but the Bentley boys have managed to squeeze every last drop of energy and speed out of the 12-cylinder engine to achieve an amazing feat. We trust that they have equipped it with the brakes to match. View the moment that the vehicle surpassed the 300 kph barrier below.

A Bentley Blower (c.) 1929 from the collection of Ralph Lauren.
The big piece of metal just above the number plate is actually the supercharger and the reason that the brute was called the Bentley Blower.

The original Bentley boys, who still hold a place of fame and affection in the hearts of any British Motorsports fan, actually consisted of a bunch of rich kids from the 1920’s. They were headed up by the leader of the pack, Woolf Barnato, the heir to the Kimberley Diamond Empire, who bought the ailing company in 1925 at which time he created the famous Bentley Blower, the winner of Le Mans for four consecutive years from 1927 to 1930. At the time, their chief rival was Bugatti whose lightweight and elegant designs contrasted with the Bentley’s rugged reliability and durability, a feature that led to the Bentley Blowers being nicknamed “the world’s fastest lorries”. Barnato’s association with Bentley came to an end during the Great Depression in 1931, after he had exhausted much of his fortune trying to keep the automaker alive and sold the business to Rolls Royce.