I have to admit that reading through the car mags the Bentley Flying Spur, despite its tag as ‘the fastest production car on earth’ always, to my mind, looked a fairly uninspiring car. A Continental with a boot, and a badly shaped boot at that.

So, I have to admit I was prepared to be mildly disappointed when the £120k car swept into the drive. The wife took one look at it and said ‘It’s like a big Ford with an oversized boot’ before whizzing off on important ‘non boys toys’ business. Now she’s not read AutoCar from cover to cover at any point in her life so it was a bit of a damning confirmation of my preconceived view.

The first trip in the car was the school run. Big success. It has enough room in the back to house an indoor tennis centre so the kids, used to being squashed in, were beside themselves. ‘This is really, really cool - it’s like James Bond!’ was one cry. Their bags disappeared into the cavernous boot - a boot so big, in fact, Bentley should consider providing those pot holing helmet lights to help customers retrieve bits of kit from its farthest recesses.

In the back there were loads of buttons for the kids to explore - ventilation controls, heated side windows, heated rear seats, lumbar adjustment and massage function. With only a slight tinge of disappointment did the smallest one tell everyone that she thought she could feel the car heating and massaging her booster seat….

In the front the car it was immediately obvious that this is a very special car. The smell of leather, the glossy shine of the polished wood, finger light steering and near silence at low speeds immediately put you at ease driving such a big car (17ft 4 inches or 5.3 meters). Sure there were some tight moments edging through the two way school traffic but somehow it didn’t seem to matter - one was simply above getting uptight about it.

The car glided into the school car park, the kids duly delivered and I was out on the road again. And then it struck me - no one had noticed the car. Not a look, not a glance. This is not because Bentleys are ten a penny in the car park. It’s filled with a fairly usual mixture of Golf’s, people carriers, 4×4s and the odd white van. Perhaps some good old British reserve kicked in and everybody instinctively decided to ignore this small stately mobile home. Or perhaps (whisper it) it was just because it was a bit dull and anonymous?

Duty done I went to pick up Big Dave so we could take it for a spin in the Welsh countryside. BD differed in his opinion about the outside pronouncing it ‘very classy’ - it takes all sorts I suppose. Inside we began looking through the wealth of gadgets. The SatNav was a bit basic but did the job. Intrigued by her accent we tried to pinpoint where the navigation woman may have come from. Our best guess was that she was some posh county set type who had lived in Germany and spent a fair bit of time with some guy who sounded like Stephen Hawking.

‘OW! - my b*m!’ Dave suddenly rudely interrupted. Steady on I thought - there’s surely nothing in this car to get so worked up about.

It turned out that one of the kids had left the front heated seat on maximum (level 6) and it had just worked it’s way through the protective covering of his jeans. Now I know why those cigar smoking tycoon types always wear big thick coats - it’s to insulate themselves from their heated seats.

Panic over we just drove. And this is a wonderful car to cover distance in. The 4 wheel drive system keeps it absolutely planted on the road, acceleration is effortless and the car simply shrank around us as the miles passed. Whilst the conditions were wet at no point did I get the usual orange lights to tell me that some electronic system had just saved me from skidding , spinning or crashing. Not even from a standing start and a heavy right foot. With 552 BHP under the bonnet that’s pretty amazing.

It handled B roads well. It’s no Porsche or hot Renault - it couldn’t be at near 2500kg - but it’s perfectly capable of rapid, unflustered progress thanks to its massive torque which means you can accelerate ballistically from almost any speed.

I know it’s a cliche but this car really does ‘Pootle and Waft’ better than anything I’ve been in before. Being a Bentley, it can also on command pin you to your seat and accelerate you away on a massive wave of power. Be careful though - the way it cocoons you and accelerates so effortlessly can easily lead you into receiving an unwanted photo of your trip through the post courtesy of your local constabulary.

So in summary what did we think? It’s an effortless cruiser with fantastic performance if you need it, plenty of space in the front, back and boot. You feel a sense of occasion every time you get in and everything just has a feeling of solidity. ‘It just does everything with No Fuss’ said Big Dave. And immediately the school encounter made sense. Unlike its attention seeking, celebrity endorsed coupe sibling, the Flying Spur is a bit more grown up and doesn’t like to cause a fuss. Rather like one of those kids you used to know at school who was good at everything but modest with it. And I think I like that ….