The best of British.

(From Leicester Mercury)

The name 'Bentley' immediately conjures up in one's mind everything that is British, combined with handcrafted luxury, superb engineering and plenty of power.

True, the company is no longer British owned - it is now part of the giant Volkswagen group, but don't let that put you off. The car is now probably better engineered and built under its new owners! I have just spent a week behind the wheel of one of the top models in the Bentley range - the Bentley Azure.

This four-seater cabriolet is a wonderful example of British craftsmanship brought up-to-date with a beautiful 6.8-litre 450bhp engine.

Despite the car's size - it is almost 18 feet long and weighs some 3,065kg - it has quite remarkable performance. Bentley claims the car will achieve 168mph. While I was obviously not able to verify this claim, I had no reason to doubt it, and indeed a colleague managed 163mph on a high-speed track when the car was pulling a highly impressive and somewhat alarming 1.05G of lateral cornering force.

On the way to achieving such speeds the Azure provides a wonderful blend of refinement and raw acceleration. In point of fact nothing can really prepare you for what happens when you push down the deliberately heavy accelerator all the way, and hold it there for a few seconds.

The six-speed automatic gearbox takes over as the engine's power pushes you into the back of the very comfortable seats.