The Ice King: Bentley’s Flying Spur Claims a New Arctic Record

18 Dec 2025

In the desolate, frozen expanses of northern Sweden, where the sun barely skims the horizon and the mercury routinely abandons the positive side of zero, one does not typically expect to find a three-ton British drawing room on wheels. Yet at the Drivecenter Arena in Fällfors, a former military airbase, Bentley has rewritten the rules of winter travel.

The Crewe-based marque has set a new ‘winter lap record’ for its Flying Spur Speed, navigating the 2.05-mile circuit in a blistering 2:58. While three minutes might seem leisurely on a summer’s day at Silverstone, doing so on a track buried under 12 inches of ice and snow is an exercise in both engineering audacity and technical triumph.

A Heritage in Green
The vehicle tasked with this sub-zero sprint was no stripped-out racer. Aside from a set of 21-inch studded winter tyres, the Flying Spur was entirely production-spec. In a nod to Bentley’s penchant for history, the car (registration Y15 BML) was finished in a striking Brooklands Green with yellow fine lines—a bespoke livery created to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the legendary Turbo R.
Inside, the cabin remained a sanctuary of Linen and Cumbrian Green hides, accented by Open Pore Walnut. It is perhaps the only record-breaking car in history where the driver could comfortably enjoy a heated massage while sliding sideways at triple-digit speeds.

Physics, Meet Luxury
The sheer statistics of the run challenge the laws of friction:

• Peak Speed: 120 mph/193kmh on a sheet-ice straight just 450 metres long.
• Powertrain: The new Ultra Performance Hybrid, delivering a combined 782 horsepower and 1,000 Nm of torque.
• Balance: A rear-biased weight distribution of 48.3 : 51.7, providing the agility required to rotate a limousine around frozen hairpins.

Bentley’s team achieved the record with the Electronic Stability Control (ESC) completely switched off, relying instead on the car’s mechanical grip, all-wheel steering, and an electronically controlled limited-slip differential. It is a testament to the Bentley Performance Active Chassis that a car designed for the grand boulevards of the world can find such poise on ice.

The Hybrid Frontier
Beyond the theatrics of the ice, the record serves as a formidable debut for Bentley’s hybrid future. The Flying Spur Speed combines a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 with a 190 horsepower electric motor.

When not chasing records, the car offers a serene 47 miles/75km of pure electric range, making it as suited to zero-emission city centers as it is to Arctic airbases. For those planning a grand tour, the combined range stands at a substantial 515 miles/828km.

As the automotive world pivots toward electrification, Bentley seems intent on proving that “sustainability” doesn’t mean a loss of “soul” or the ability to outrun a snowstorm.

Images: Bentley Motors