Sep 16 2007, 01:57 PM, updated 19y ago
In short, the 2007 Bentley Continental GT and the 2007 Mercedes-Benz CL600 are among the world's very finest vehicles. Both are blisteringly quick, but neither makes intense demands on the driver's concentration like a Ferrari or Lamborghini. Conversely, their rides are plush and mannered, but these are not isolation chambers like a Maybach or Rolls-Royce. These are driver's cars.
In these coupes you feel the road and despite thick technological overlays, these cars keep positive control in the hands of their drivers. Each is luxurious, beautifully built and visually impressive.
And one is clearly better than the other.
The Pride of Germany vs. the Pride of, Uh, Germany
There are Mercedes and then there are Mercedes. Over the last two decades the Mercedes product line has expanded to include everything from the A-Class minicar sold in Europe to a bunch of SUVs. But up at the top of the range are the real Mercedes; the S-Class sedans, SL-Class roadsters and CL-Class big coupes.
They may carry the same brand name as the mass-produced Mercedes vehicles, but they're the true successors to the historic brand's legendary machines of the past like the SSK and 300SL Gullwing. They're overengineered, built in small batches on slow-moving assembly lines and finely detailed in ways no car with a killer lease deal on the hood can afford to be. The CL600 is, quite definitely, a real Mercedes.
There are Bentleys and then there are Bentleys. The Continental GT emerges from a cross-pollination of Bentley and its owner Volkswagen. More specifically, there is so much Audi stuff in the Continental GT - including the engine, transmission and all-wheel-drive system - that according to the parts contents disclosure on the window sticker, fully 55 percent of the car is produced in Germany while just 40 percent is actually British.
Final assembly of the Continental GT (and its four-door and convertible offshoots the Continental Flying Spur and Continental GTC) is done mostly by hand at Bentley's ancient digs in Crewe, England, alongside the old school, super-stuffy, V8-powered Arnage sedan; Azure convertible; and Brooklands coupe, but this is not the Ninth Earl of Essex's old blower Bentley.
"Real" Bentley or not, British or not, what the Continental GT has over the CL600 is drama. This car has the visual impact of a Howitzer aimed at the bridge of your nose; from its aggressive grille, across its muscular flanks and on to its low fastback roof, this thing oozes arrogant sensuality unlike any other luxury coupe. In contrast, the CL's body is tautly drawn but almost austere in its decoration. An attorney in a CL is the person you'd trust to set up your IPO. An attorney who drives a Continental GT is the shark you want handling your contentious, high-profile divorce.
Big Cars, Bigger Power
Both these cars are big, but the Mercedes casts the larger shadow. The CL600's wheelbase is a vast 116.3 inches long, more than 8 inches longer than the Bentley Continental GT's. At 199.4 inches the Mercedes is also longer. Much longer. While the Bentley is a mere 1.3 inches longer than a 2007 Honda Accord coupe, the Mercedes stretches 11.6 inches beyond that common conveyance.
Despite that, the Bentley is heavier. In fact, the Bentley punished our scales to the tune of 5,258 pounds. That's not just 364 pounds more than the rear-drive Mercedes CL600, but just 140 pounds lighter than a Nissan Titan full-size pickup. That all-wheel-drive system, all that sound-deadening material, all those turbos and their attendant plumbing, and all the veneers and leathers in the interior make the Bentley the most densely packed car to never appear in Ringling Brothers' center ring stuffed full of clowns.
The CL600's all-aluminum 5.5-liter V12 isn't a sports car engine. It's a long-stroke design with a single-overhead cam over each cylinder bank, three valves and two spark plugs per cylinder, plus, of course, its two turbochargers and their intercoolers. It's designed to produce unfathomable gobs of low-end torque - the engine is rated at 612 pound-feet between 1,800 and 3,500 rpm - with a modest 5,950 rpm redline. It makes so much torque that Mercedes' currently fashionable seven-speed automatic couldn't handle the grunt and an older five-speed is aboard.
While the Bentley's 6.0-liter W12 also features a relatively long stroke, it has DOHC heads, four valves and one spark plug per cylinder, plus, of course, its pair of turbochargers and accompanying intercoolers. It makes a lot of low-end torque, too - 479 lb-ft at just 1,600 rpm - but revs more freely. In fact, the Bentley's 552 hp comes at 6,100 rpm, well past the Mercedes V12's redline. The engine feeds a six-speed automatic that in turn churns the full-time all-wheel-drive system.
Pinks All Out
So the Bentley's engine is rated at 42 more hp than the Mercedes', but the CL600 has a massive 133 lb-ft advantage in torque production. And the Bentley weighs more and must overcome the mechanical drag of that all-wheel-drive system. The result is that the Mercedes is a quicker car.
The Benz absolutely rockets to 60 mph in a gasp-inducing 4.2 seconds. And the technique to achieve that doesn't amount to much more than turning off the ESP stability system and throwing the largest dead weight available at the accelerator pedal. The big Benz's 12.4 seconds at 113.4 mph clocking in the quarter-mile is the sort of performance exotic sports cars were bragging about just five or six years ago. And it does all this with a subdued growl from the exhaust and not even a chirp from its 275/45ZR18 rear tires.
With the CL600 around, the Continental GT's performance seems modest. The GT took 4.4 seconds to hit 60 mph and ran the quarter-mile in 12.8 seconds at 108.3 mph - virtually identical to the hot new Audi R8 - an all-wheel-drive, midengine sports car, and flat-out fast in anybody's book.
With its all-wheel-drive system hooking up as if each of the four 275/35ZR20 tires was dipped in Super Glue, the Bentley's initial acceleration is absolutely awesome. It beats the Mercedes in the short sprint to 30 mph, taking 1.5 seconds compared to 1.7. But the Bentley's huge mass, the drag of the all-wheel drive and its torque deficit keep it from keeping up.
This is still a brilliantly quick and powerful car, but it happens to be facing off against a vehicle that's even more so. Tough luck.
Cockpit Fight
The CL600's stupendously heavy doors are each about a half-block long. This makes getting into the car's front thrones easy, but not as easy as swinging the door open into the car parked alongside. The CL600's warm woods and high-quality leathers help diminish the guilt of that freshly completed door ding, but the Mercedes' rather mundane instrument panel does little to lift the soul.
Essentially, the driver faces two LCD video screens: one along the center spine that displays all the functions controlled by Mercedes' so-so COMAND onboard technology control system and the other pretending to be merely the speedometer. It isn't. Push a few buttons and it also acts as either the rearview monitor or night-vision display.
The Mercedes' transmission is controlled by a wand sticking out the right side of the steering column. It's used for Park, Reverse and Drive. But there are also buttons on the back of the large-diameter wood-and-leather steering wheel that allow the transmission to be shifted manually.
Overall, the CL600 offers an efficient, attractive and hugely comfortable (the active seats are wonderful) driving environment. But beautiful? That's a stretch.
In contrast, the Bentley interior is all luscious wood and aromatic, diamond-stitched leather (part of the $20,000 "'Diamond Series' Mulliner" package). Its chrome accents gleam like surgical instruments, the Breitling clock mounted atop the dash is gloriously elegant and the speedometer and tach are real instruments with real needles. There is a single, small video monitor for the audio and navigation systems but it's not the focal point like it is in the Mercedes. Also, the Bentley's conventional shifter is better, and down on the console where it belongs. Paddle shifters are also behind the wheel for manual upshifts and downshifts.
Inside, the Bentley's biggest problems are its small seats and overall lack of space. Its front seats are too narrow and its rearward buckets border on useless. The low roof looks dramatic outside, but it can make the Continental GT feel claustrophobic.
Whatever the Mercedes interior lacks in gorgeousness, it makes up for in room. The Mercedes' roof is taller and the rear seats are roomy enough for two adults to sit comfortably for short stints. There may, in fact, be no more comfortable coupe on Earth than the Mercedes CL.
Driving the Point
When it comes to actually driving these cars, this becomes a battle fought in degrees of wonderfulness. The 12-cylinder engines in both cars deliver huge amounts of power in seamless ribbons; both cars have brakes that could stop a stock market crash and their suspensions absolutely smother broken pavement.
Although the Mercedes' oversize steering wheel takes some adjustment, the steering itself has a preferably lighter feel and offers better feedback than the Bentley's. The Mercedes Active Body Control suspension system is an incredibly complex hydraulic system with sensors that lower ride height at speed and continually adjusts for pitch, squat, dive and probably for the driver's bunions - but it all happens without the driver feeling as if the car is doing the driving. And the Mercedes always seems to corner flat, where the Bentley has at least some body roll.
There's nothing wrong with the Bentley, but it's not as right as the Mercedes. Besides being quicker, the CL600 stops and handles better than the Bentley. Despite the Continental's massive 20-inch Pirelli tires and ceramic brakes (also part of that Diamond Series package), the CL600 takes 6 feet less (114-120 feet) to stop from 60 mph and it orbits the skid pad at 0.85g vs. 0.81g for the Bentley. With its huge 12-cylinder engine mounted essentially ahead of its front tires, the Bentley understeers more than the Mercedes, and that better balance got the big Benz through the slalom course at a quick 67.8 mph, more than 3 mph faster than the heavier Bentley could manage.
Even the CL600's crummy 15.3 mpg Inside Line-observed fuel economy is better than the Continental GT's truly awful 13.1 mpg.
The Big Boom at the Bottom Line
Both these cars are on the short list for best in the world, but the Mercedes has the better claim to the top spot. And, though price doesn't matter, its $148,775 total price (including a $2,600 gas-guzzler tax and $775 for destination) is a stunning $51,600 cheaper than the Bentley's $200,375 as-tested sticker (which includes a $3,700 gas-guzzler tax and a scandalous $3,595 destination charge). If reading this test just saved you $51,600, please tip generously.
However, if you really, really want to spend $200K, just hold out a couple weeks and then you can head to your Mercedes dealer to pick up the CL600's tuner-tweaked brother, the 604-hp 2008 CL65 AMG.
That's what Gordon Gekko would do.
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