Bentley has invented another creative way to make us write about it, sending a Bentayga racing up the hill climb track at Goodwood with a trailer loaded with 2.5 metric tons (that’s 5,500 pounds!) of straw. The off-roader managed the whole distance in mere minute and 21 seconds despite running on an experimental synthetic fuel.
The British automaker claims it managed to set a new Goodwood world record for cars with trailers. It admits that the time is unofficial and won’t be recorded into the Goodwood books because the company chose to attempt the climb when the territory was being prepped for the festival. Doing so was safer than letting a massive SUV with a wagonload of straw into the main hill climb race, which tends to become pretty crowded.
The Bentayga shown here commands over a 4.0-liter turbocharged V8 pumping out 550 PS (542 hp / 404 kW) on a synthetic fuel produced from straw and other agricultural waste. The amount of straw it carried in the trailer would be enough for roughly 1,800 kilometers (1,118 miles) of driving, a company representative said. A major advantage of this type of experimental fuel is that the stock engine accepts it just fine without any hardware modifications necessary.
All Bentley cars at this year’s Goodwood Festival are running on this type of fuel, which the company claims reduces their emission profiles by a cool 85 percent.