Bentley Brooklands news - Brooklands bruiser - 2008

Continuing to make waves that Top Gear isn't allowed to surf, the Bentley Brooklands was unveiled to the public at the Geneva Motor Show.

Costing £230,000, being some 5.4 metres long and still looking - in our measured opinion - like the sort of thing driven by Huggy Bear, it's surprising that anyone took it that seriously.

But there it was, nonetheless, closer to the hoi polloi than we've ever got, and ever will in all likelihood. (Just in case you hadn't heard, Bentley banned us from driving it because we said, a year or so ago, that it looked like a Seventies Cadillac).

By most accounts it's quite good to drive, despite weighing as much as Beth Ditto, thanks to a 530bhp 6.75-litre V8 and remarkably good handling characteristics in its Sport mode.

It'll hit 184mph and find 62mph in 5.3 seconds too, but expect an already shameful 14.5mpg to go through the floor if you drive it like that.

But you won't, because Bentley is only making 550 of them and have sold 500 of those already.

So unless Top Gear can find a quarter of a million quid in the next couple weeks, it looks like we'll have to get our driving impressions off a pimp.