Building a focused track car or a 4x4 that will spend most of its time off-road and you have a reasonably simple set of parameters. But the designers of the Bentley Bentayga were given an almost impossible set of contradictory demands. It had to be blisteringly fast, seriously competent in real off-road situations and absolutely the last word in luxury limousine driving.

You could argue, while pausing to gently lower the Union Jack in your hand just for a moment, that if Bentley wasn’t part of the Volkswagen Group then this vehicle wouldn’t have been built. Bentley has never had the resources to pour in to make something like this from scratch, nor would it have had the access to a whole raft of current technology. Okay, as you were with the flag.

There’s certainly lots of impressive stuff about the Bentayga, starting with the 6.0-litre W12 engine with its 600bhp. And continuing with the air suspension with active anti-roll bars. Those bars are an option but they seem to be fitted to every Bentayga we’ve ever tried. On the road they’re remarkably effective, given that you’re trying to control a 2.4-ton vehicle. They tighten in the corners and slacken on the straights to give you the best of both worlds.

Bentley Bentayga

If you go absolutely ten-tenths attack mode on the road you will catch the Bentayga out as you start to fall off the far side of the handling plateau. But that’s hardly the point. The point is just how well this huge SUV handles under virtually every situation. Put it in Sport and you can corner much faster and flatter than would seem possible in a high 4x4.

But put it in Comfort mode and you’ll discover how well it handles while also delivering its reserves of talent in a way that makes it seem effortless, relaxing, sophisticated. The road largely disappears from the senses, replaced instead by a warm and comforting blanket. You are encouraged to relax, the vehicle can do it all without any stress or drama or anything remotely uncouth.

The powerline plays no small part in that. There are bottomless wells of torque and horsepower everywhere. It accelerates incredibly hard yet the sound is never intrusive and never other than refined and elegant. The eight-speed auto box shuffles the power to the four-wheel drive system with consummate ease and isn’t often asked to do any of it at the ragged edge.

This isn’t the fastest vehicle of its type. Both the Range Rover Sport SVR and the Porsche Cayenne Turbo S are quicker off the line and up through much of the speed, but they achieve this by feeling and sounding like highly tuned sports machines. The Bentayga is almost as quick yet it does so without feeling as though it’s even bothered, and certainly isn’t trying very hard. That’s delightful.

Bentley Bentayga

You sit in a cabin of sumptuous luxury, while the world can be going completely mad out the windows, yet your serenity is never ruffled. Even by Bentley standards, this is a deeply tranquil place to be, and those are very high standards indeed.

If you are looking for the finest wooden veneer or the most comfortable seats finished in the best British leather, then look no further. Everything is gorgeous, although if you want the very best sound system you’ll have to find another £6300 for the Naim for Bentley audio system. Everything fitted as standard though is very high quality, although we could wish for a slightly larger boot. Bentley isn’t interested in your weekly shopping trip to Tesco.

But that’s not fair. Bentley is very interested in you. They make each Bentayga to order, they don’t just roll off a line. You can add pretty much whatever you want, which is why, apparently, the £160,200 base price usually ends up somewhere over the £200,000 mark. For such buyers, fuel consumption on our test between 20mpg and 25mpg probably isn’t of much interest.

Bentley set out to build a vehicle which would be very difficult to build. And they’ve done it. They’ve effectively made a niche right up above the more mundane Range Rovers that nobody even knew existed. So far they sit in fairly splendid isolation, at least for now. The Bentley Bentayga is simply one of the most accomplished luxury vehicles on the planet. The fact that it has serious 4x4 credentials just adds further to its cachet.