I’m not going to lie. Given the amount of things in which he’s appeared (TV shows, movies, commercials), I honestly thought Larry the Cable Guy recently made a guest appearance on The Fast Lane Car.
He did not. It turned out to be Nathan Adlen, TFLCar.com’s senior editor and presenter. Oops! (I blame the similar build, ball cap, short sleeve button-up shirt and facial hair. And the fact that I had never watched The Fast Lane Car before today.)
Adlen and publisher Roman Mica had the privilege of getting the keys to a Bentley Continental GTC Speed. The man who I can only imagine is TFLCar’s equivalent of The Stig, Motoman, drops in to time the 616-horsepower droptop from 0-60 mph. Not before pointing out that you can buy several iPhones, a small passenger car and a butler for the same price as the carbon-ceramic brakes package on the GTC Speed, though. The guys also go back and forth about whether to call the front sections of the car, which are made of aluminum, wings or fenders. I’ll go with the latter.
But that’s all mere semantics. How fast does this $289,000 open-air cruise missile go from a dead stop to 60…at a mile above sea level?
The fellows give the Bentley a lot to live up to by mentioning that the Nissan GT-R hit 60 in 3.7 seconds at a similar altitude.
Motoman then engages Sport mode and takes off.
I don’t want to spoil the ending. Hit the video to see his two run times. How many seconds do you think the luxury convertible will need to hit that magic mark?
Derek Shiekhi's father raised him on cars. As a boy, Derek accompanied his dad as he bought classics such as post-WWII GM trucks and early Ford Mustang convertibles.
After loving cars for years and getting a bachelor's degree in Business Management, Derek decided to get an associate degree in journalism. His networking put him in contact with the editor of the Austin-American Statesman newspaper, who hired him to write freelance about automotive culture and events in Austin, Texas in 2013. One particular story led to him getting a certificate for learning the foundations of road racing.
While watching TV with his parents one fateful evening, he saw a commercial that changed his life. In it, Jeep touted the Wrangler as the Texas Auto Writers Association's "SUV of Texas." Derek knew he had to join the organization if he was going to advance as an automotive writer. He joined the Texas Auto Writers Association (TAWA) in 2014 and was fortunate to meet several nice people who connected him to the representatives of several automakers and the people who could give him access to press vehicles (the first one he ever got the keys to was a Lexus LX 570). He's now a regular at TAWA's two main events: the Texas Auto Roundup in the spring and the Texas Truck Rodeo in the fall.
Over the past several years, Derek has learned how to drive off-road in various four-wheel-drive SUVs (he even camped out for two nights in a Land Rover), and driven around various tracks in hot hatches, muscle cars, and exotics. Several of his pieces, including his article about the 2015 Ford F-150 being crowned TAWA's 2014 "Truck of Texas" and his review of the Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, have won awards in TAWA's annual Excellence in Craft Competition. Last year, his JK Forum profile of Wagonmaster, a business that restores Jeep Wagoneers, won prizes in TAWA’s signature writing contest and its pickup- and SUV-focused Texas Truck Invitational.
