Elegance is the order of the day, and the Bentayga has it in abundance. Like its sedan and coupe counterparts, the Bentayga sports a long hood that’s made longer by a gently sloping windshield that arcs into the vast roofline. The roof drops into a fast rear window and connects with a long rear overhang that drapes the Bentley’s wide rear fenders.

Along the sides, Bentley has made a dramatic effort to translate the corporate shape into aluminum stamping along the sides, resulting in one of the largest stamped pieces of aluminum in the car business. Beyond the impressive machine work, the Bentayga’s body-in-white reveals one of the Bentayga’s more beautiful—yet subtle—design features, which is its superformed fenders that drape over the front wheels into a uniform front fascia.

Bentley made great strides in the back to bring together the taillights for an integrated look, despite being split by the automatic liftgate. The rear haunches are connected through the tail’s “horseshoe” design, which also sports a small kammback similar to the rear end of the Continental GT.

There are no fewer than half a dozen different interior materials competing for your eye’s attention inside: wood veneer meets leather meets brushed aluminum meets piano black meets Bentley’s pearl and black “B” meets another touchscreen. It reads even busier in person and shrinks the interior space despite the car’s wide 66-inch stance.

The W-12 produces 600 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque to propel the 5,300-pound sled up to 60 mph faster than many sports cars. It’s mated to a seamless 8-speed automatic and a new all-wheel-drive system from Bentley that can be configured to handle snow, ice, wet grass, or towering Middle Eastern sand dunes. The result is a 0-60 mph time of fewer than 4 seconds and a top speed of 187 mph.