Two days before I was due to collect my hire F-type, Michael from Supercar Hire Scotland sent a late night email to say it was marooned in the garage and would I accept a Bentley Continental as a replacement. Of course, I was in no position to turn it down but I felt a little disappointed. The Bentley was too big, too soft, to comfy and wallowy. Not the car for the Scots A-roads I had planned. I checked out the listing on their website: it looked like a late noughties model, and even the listing reflected the stigma of it being the Premiership Footballer’s car. Still, 550 horsepower and a W12 were things I had never experienced before, and surely it would be a good experience.
Chatting with Michael as he took us to the pick up, the F-type sounded in dire straights. Bearing gone, shards of metal in the oil. Apparently their Aston was off the road too, having been recovered following the clutch failing in the midst of some jaunt. They get a hard life, these cars. Then I glimpsed the car that was to be mine. Newer than that on the website, and with carbon fibre sills. Hang on, isn’t this the GT Speed? Yes it is, Michael grinned. I was reminded of the words of a colleague who owns one: “You flex your right foot and the planet rotates underneath you.”
Nosing out of Perth and towards the A9 was an intimidating experience, but hitting dual carriageway and engaging adaptive cruise gave me the opportunity to take stock. The seats were plush and hugging, the cabin noise was virtually nonexistent behind double glazing and hand stitched leather padding. As promised, the throttle response, after a moment’s pause for the car to fill its lungs and change down a couple of gears, was immense and astonishing, and I was glad of the time to calibrate my inputs.
Not long to take it all in before I turned left onto the A822 for Milton then up the A826 to Aberfeldy. The car’s width was intimidating, on these little roads with blind corners keeping the right side of the white line without losing carbon fibre to a hard wall was my main concern. And yet. There was a sense of amazing grip and surefootedness where the taps could be opened: a great hand scooping you up and thrusting you down the road exactly where you told it to.
The following day was a jaunt through Dundee to St Andrews and back. A821 to A9, A984 and A94 across to Meigle, then down the B954 to Auchterhouse. Better roads, more open, with view through the corners and a little more width to play with. Confidence mounting, I put the dampers and gearbox into sport, the latter also sharpening the throttle and improving the engine note. With space to breathe, the car turns into a genuine revelation, and I’m astonished as to how well 2.7 tonnes hustles down a twisty road. On the B954 in particular it flows from corner to corner and punches out cleanly onto the straights, taking up surprising amounts of G in any direction without grip being troubled. And yet you aren’t wrestling the car, you aren’t testing its comfort zones, the pleasing weight to the primary controls gives great feedback without becoming taxing and you still feel it impossible to wrong foot.
On the way into St Andrews, I see an almost identical black Conti GT coming the other way and roll down the window to wave. The gesture is not reciprocated.
Comfort settings, adaptive cruise and radio 3 for a waft back along the A90 and A9 after this really shows the car’s range. Serene, comfortable, easy driving and you know you could drive it all day.
A final jaunt along the A821 and I feel like car and driver have gelled. I’ve grown in confidence in placing it on the road and now a twisty A road really flows. Of the cars I have hired over the years, this is the one where handing keys back has been the biggest challenge – it has such a breadth of dynamic range that you could roll the whole way in the country in it, yet attack your favourite road without any compromise. I didn’t expect to be so smitten, I thought I would find it too heavy and broad, too dynamically compromised but not a bit of it. It’s an ideal GT car and I’m smitten.
The GT Speed is available for hire from Supercar Hire Scotland https://www.supercarhirescotland.co.uk/ ... ntal-gt-2/
Perfect. 
