Luxury limousines look pretty fancy, but how fast are they in a straight line? There’s only one way to find out!
We’ve pitted the Bentley Flying Spur S V8 up against the V12 Mercedes-Maybach S680 and the V12 Rolls-Royce Dawn to figure out which is quickest.
The winner then goes up against the all-electric Korean missile: the 2024 Hyundai Ioniq 5 N.
Thanks again to Hyundai for helping cover the cost of putting this series together – it’s MEGA expensive to do, so without support it wouldn’t have happened. You can read more about that here.
The cars
First cab off the rank is the 2024 Bentley Flying Spur S. We couldn’t get our hands on the mighty W12, so instead had to settle for the twin-turbocharged petrol V8.
It’s barely something to scoff at. It uses a 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged petrol V8 engine that produces 404kW of power and 770Nm of torque. It’s mated to an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission and uses an all-wheel drive system.
Bentley says it’ll do 0-100km/h in 4.1 seconds with a top speed of 318km/h.
Next up is the Mercedes-Maybach S680 V12. It’s the pinnacle of the S-Class range and represents the most luxurious limousine on sale by Mercedes-Benz in Australia.
It uses a 6.0-litre twin-turbocharged V12 engine that produces 463kW of power and 900Nm of torque. It also uses an all-wheel drive system mated to a nine-speed automatic transmission.
Mercedes-Maybach claims a 0-100km/h time of 4.5 seconds with a top speed of 250km/h.
Finally, it’s the stunning Rolls-Royce Dawn V12. This one is a little special; it features an exhaust, is lowered, and sits on 23-inch alloy wheels.
The Dawn uses a 6.6-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine that produces 420kW of power and 820Nm of torque. It’s mated to an eight-speed automatic transmission, and is the only rear-wheel drive car here.
Rolls-Royce claims a 0-100km/h time of 5.0 seconds with a top speed of 250km/h.
The attainable challenger
Priced from $111,000 before on-road costs, the fully electric Hyundai Ioniq 5 N uses a dual-motor all-wheel drive electric powertrain producing 448kW of power and 740Nm of torque.
Those outputs increase to 478kW and 770Nm with the N Grin Boost function, which can be mated to the launch control function as well. It has a claimed 0-100km/h time of 3.4 seconds with N Grin Boost active.
It also has a bunch of other functions like the ability to destroy tyres, make engine sounds, and even pulse fictional gear shifts to make it feel like an internal-combustion car with a DCT.
The results
While this looked like it’d be a pretty straightforward contest, it was anything but!
We were locked out of the Mercedes-Maybach twice, and then on one occasion it decided not to move off the line because it thought there was something in front of the car (outside of the empty runway ahead of it).
When it did finally get moving, the final contest came down to the Bentley and Mercedes-Maybach, showing that the cylinder count isn’t always the only thing that matters.
| Vehicle | 0-100km/h | 80-120km/h | 1/4 mile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bentley Flying Spur V8 S | 3.96s | 2.47s | 11.90s @ 186.75km/h |
| Rolls-Royce Dawn | 5.28s | 2.87s | 12.98s @ 179.70km/h |
| Mercedes-Maybach S680 | 4.44s | 2.34s | 12.11s @ 190.44km/h |
| Hyundai Ioniq 5 N | 3.52s | 1.86s | 11.32s @ 195.92km/h |
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