Bentley claims the Azure will do 168mph flat out. At our track we ran out of steam (and bottle) at 163mph on the high-speed banking. At that point the Azure was pulling a highly impressive (and somewhat alarming) 1.05g of lateral cornering force. On the flat we’ve no doubt it would match Bentley’s claim.
On the way to that speed, the Azure provides a vaguely surreal blend of refinement and raw acceleration, not to mention a range of noises from its engine that are nothing if not unique in 2006. Nothing can prepare you for what it feels like when you squeeze the deliberately heavy accelerator all the way to the thickly carpeted floor and hold it there for a few seconds.
Not much happens to begin with, but after perhaps half a second the Azure summons itself and, on a huge wave of torque, simply fires itself towards the horizon with an induction noise like a giant Hoover.
In isolation the numbers don’t make especially great reading: 0-30mph in 2.4sec, 0-60mph in 5.9sec, 0-100mph in 14.2sec and the standing quarter mile in 14.3sec, with a terminal speed of 100.7mph. About the same as a £20k Astra VXR, in other words. But that’s hardly the point.
In any case, the majestic way in which the Azure summons its considerable thrust rarely leaves you wanting more. All in all, it performs better than you could possibly imagine, given its size and weight. Even the ancient four-speed gearbox has been fettled to produce smoothish upshifts and reasonably effective downshifts should you decide to stir the lever manually on the way into a corner. The inevitable penalty is an insatiable appetite for fuel: 5.3mpg at the track and an average 13.4mpg.
The Azure is not in any way the sort of car you’d want to throw down the road – it’s way too heavy for that – but if you drive it at seven-tenths it does most things extremely well, thanks to its reasonably accurate steering, taut body control and extraordinarily well resolved high-speed damping.
