MotorMouths

The new Bentley Continental Supersports is a handsome powerhouse. Simply punch the pedal and it rockets forward, almost as if you were taking off in a fighter jet.

While my bank account tells me that there are 273,000 reasons I couldn’t own the Bentley Continental Supersports, the most important one is the fact I’d be on first-name terms with every police officer north of the Mason-Dixon line.

Imagine the late Andre the Giant in the Ballet Russe. Light, quick steering and heightened antiroll hardware connive to give the massive Bentley Supersports the alert feel of a smaller car hauling around far fewer pounds. And then, there’s the price — solidly in the if-you-have-to-ask range.

The Bentley Continental Supersports is quite enough to make one yearn to be wealthy. It’s like being pulled forward magically by a silken cord. The Supersports combines this silken image with a whip.

Think of the Bentley Continental Supersports as Usain Bolt: both are hypothetically too big to perform as they do, but they do it anyway. If you want to have it all, the Bentley Supersports is probably it.

So if what you want is an insanely quick, stupidly powerful, all-wheel-drive coupe with an overdose of elegance, two sides of luxury and a helping of “Hey, look at me!” then the 2010 Bentley Continental Supersports is precisely what you’re after.

A quick spin around the block in the Bentley Continental Supersports will have you exiting the driver’s seat feeling as though you’ve just blown up the Death Star and walked away with the girl. If you’ve managed to keep yourself out of jail, that is.

The 2010 Bentley Continental Supersports delivers such astonishing performance that the slight ride penalty is easily overlooked. It’s more like its famous racer namesakes than any road-going Bentley ever built.

Though obscenely expensive at roughly $273,000 and change, the Supersports beats the holy stuffing out of quadruple bypasses, hip replacements and all those overpriced items that are supposed to make you feel better.

Now if you have $300,000 sitting around and you want a nice daily commuter, the Bentley Continental Supersports Coupe may be the car for you. It’s powerful and comfortable, bordering on obscene.

The 621-hp Bentley Continental Supersports sounds wonderfully flatulent and looks slightly scary. At any moment you expect it to unfold into a giant robot and start bench-pressing 747s.

In the wonderful world where a $200,000 car is deemed discrete, the Bentley Continental Supersports could be viewed as a shrewd extravagance.