Bentley's Continental Flying Spur is the fastest drawing room on four wheels
You might think driving at 274km/h on a public road in a twin-turbocharged, leather-lined supercar across the world's poorest continent would feel pretty strange.
Having done just that, during high-speed testing of a prototype Bentley in South Africa, I admit one thing felt odd - that the supercar was a four-door limousine.
That speed would be good enough to put Bentley's new Continental Flying Spur, sister to the GT coupe, among the world's fastest super-saloons - Bentley's Arnage T (270km/h) and Maserati's Quattroporte (275km/h).
But we were only pausing at 274km/h. Today's schedule called for stability testing on standard tyre pressures. Pump up the tyres and the Flying Spur can step confidently on to the top rung as the fastest four-door car in the world, at a claimed 306km/h.
The Continental Flying Spur was officially launched at the Geneva Motor Show on March 3. The car should be available in Hong Kong by the end of the year at a cost of about $3 million.
The price is remarkable in two ways: it is a gobsmacking sum of money to find under a tree; and it is the same price as the four-door's mechanical twin, the Continental GT coupe.