Bentley Continental GT convertible: an escape from the humdrum

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Bentley has expanded its Continental GT range with this new convertible, says Jake Groves in Car magazine. "It's for the millionaire who spends most of their life on a riviera of some kind and happens to have a real liking for tweed." That's because the convertible top can be bought with a "contemporary tweed fabric roof", according to Bentley. It's just an option, though.

It's also beautiful in the old-fashioned sense, says Michael Harvey in The Daily Telegraph "long before it was necessary to have a PhD in advanced laminar surface air flow to understand whether a car was good looking or not". In fact, the whole concept behind the Continental Convertible is essentially romantic. It's "a dream of escape from the humdrum (for that read traffic in the southeast of England') to some place empty, lush and fresh".

Aside from the Continental's "hair-raising" top speed, there is another good reason for dropping the top, says Howard Walker in the Robb Report the car's "exquisite new interior, which, in usual Bentley fashion, is only limited in its level of bespoke customisation by the girth of your wallet". The metal finish for the centre console is one "stunning option". Inspired by the Ctes de Genve pattern that adorns the surfaces of many high-end Swiss timepieces, the finish yields a retro, three-dimensional look, while the retro theme also spills over into the dashboard. Bentley says it provides the driver with a "digital detox".

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Price: from around £171,500. Engine: 6.0-litre W12. Power: 626bhp. 0-62mph: 3.8 seconds. Top speed: 207 mph.

Madeleine is a journalist in based in Tokyo. She is a former contributor for MoneyWeek, covering stock markets, art and travel, and is a former investment writer for The Financial Times. Her work has appeared in titles including The Week, Investors Chronicle and the NME.