If you were to propose the automobile today – a selfish, potentially lethal machine capable of distilling speed from old plants, and to be enjoyed with complete autonomy wherever and whenever you wished – you would, quite rightly, be locked up.
But were you somehow able, as part of your pitch, to take doubters up the road in the new Bentley Continental Convertible, you’d prompt not screams of terror as their established physical truths – horses are fast, heavy things are slow and travel is intrinsically tiring – were turned neatly on their head, but a profound sadness. Eventually you’d stop, they’d step out and, knowing they’d never experience anything like it ever again, they’d wander off to start the rest of their now somehow paler, emptier life. For while…
