Bentley Flying Spur vs Maserati Ghibli
What's the difference?

Bentley Flying Spur

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2024 price

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Maserati Ghibli

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2021 price

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Maserati Quattroporte

Mazda 6

McLaren Artura

Mercedes-Benz A-Class

Mercedes-Benz A35

Mercedes-Benz AMG GT

Mercedes-Benz C-Class

Mercedes-Benz C43

Mercedes-Benz C63

Mercedes-Benz CLA

Mercedes-Benz CLA-Class

Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class

Mercedes-Benz E-Class

Mercedes-Benz S-Class

Summary

2024 Bentley Flying Spur

2021 Maserati Ghibli

By Stephen Corby

Safety Rating

Engine Type

V12, 6.0L

S/C & T/C V8, 3.8L

Fuel Type

Premium Unleaded Petrol

Fuel Efficiency

14.7L/100km (combined)

12.3L/100km (combined)

Seating

Likes

Performance
Luxury interior
Ride comfort

Beautiful exterior design
Beautiful interior feel
Cinderella point in the range

Dislikes

Price
Weight
Fuel economy

Seats lovely but a bit firm
Confused sense of identity
Expensive

2024 Bentley Flying Spur Summary

In any other super car, it would seem deeply strange, wrong even, to loll (and LOL) in the back seats while a colleague blasts you around a race track at insane speeds, and not just because cars with V12 engines making 575kW and 1000Nm don’t normally have more than two seats.

The Bentley Flying Spur Speed is, of course, no ordinary car, it is a super sedan, a luxe limousine crossed with a rocket ship, and if Sir wants to get to the rooftop helipad in a spectacular hurry, then these are the back seats to be sitting in.

We flew to Japan, and the spectacular setting of the Magarigawa Club, a members-only race track carved out of the rolling hills outside Tokyo at a rumoured cost of $US2 billion, to try the back seats, and the driver’s seat, of the new and very impressive Flying Spur Speed.

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2021 Maserati Ghibli Summary

Maseratis make a certain amount of sense to a certain kind of person. As the folks who run the brand in Australia will tell you, its buyers are the kind of people who’ve driven German premium vehicles, but find themselves wanting something more.

They are older, wiser and, most importantly, richer.

While it’s easy to see the high-end lure of Maserati’s Italian sex appeal styling and luxuriously appointed interiors, they’ve always struck me as cruisers rather than bruisers.

Again, they’re for the older, more generously padded buyer, which makes the Trofeo range something of an oddity. Maserati says its Trofeo badge - seen here on its mid-sized sedan, the Ghibli, which sits below the vast Quattroporte limousine (and side on to the other car in the range, the SUV Levante) - is all about the "Art of Fast".

And it certainly is fast, with a whopping V8 driving the rear wheels. It’s also completely bonkers, a luxury car with the heart of a track-chomping monster.

Which is why Maserati chose to launch it at the Sydney Motorsport Park complex, where we could see just how quick and crazy it is.

The big question is, why? And perhaps who, because it’s hard to imagine who wants, or needs, a car with such severe schizophrenia.

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Deep dive comparison

2024 Bentley Flying Spur 2021 Maserati Ghibli

Verdict

The Bentley Flying Spur Speed is a whole lot of car, for a whole lot of money. Sure, I’d rather have a Ferrari or a Porsche with similar power (and the Panamera shares the same V8 and hybrid set up), but then if you’re in the market for a Bentley like this you already have a garage full of other options. And I can see why you’d add one of these to your collection. Because you can.

Note: CarsGuide attended this event as a guest of the manufacturer, with travel, accommodation and meals provided.

Verdict

The Maserati Trofeo Ghibli is a very strange beast, but there's no doubt that it is a beast. Fast, loud and capable on a race track, and yet still closely resembling a classy, expensive Italian family sedan, it is genuinely unique. And genuinely strange, in a good way.

Bentley Flying Spur vs Maserati Ghibli What's the difference?

Summary

Deep dive comparison

Verdict

Verdict

Bentley Flying Spur vs Maserati Ghibli
What's the difference?