This Monday’s drag race comes from CarWow and it’s an expensive one. It’s a three-way drag race between the Bentley Continental GT Speed, Aston Martin DBS, and Ferrari Roma – three ultra-luxurious grand tourers. Representing Britain is the Bentley Continental GT Speed and Aston Martin DBS, while Italy is being represented by the Ferrari Roma, which is the brand’s entry-level GT car.

Bentley Continental GT Speed

The Bentley packs the biggest engine of the bunch. Its 6.0-liter twin-turbo W-12 packs 659 horsepower and 664 pound-feet (900 Nm), which go to all four wheels through an eight-speed, dual-clutch automatic. However, at 5,011 pounds (2.273 kg), it’s also the heaviest car here. In the UK, one of these starts at £209,900.

Aston Martin DBS

At 5.2 liters, the Aston Martin’s twin-turbo V-12 is smaller than the Bentley. However, it packs 715 horsepower and 664 pound-feet (900 Nm). All that power goes only to the rear wheels through an eight-speed torque-converter automatic. It also doesn’t come with launch control, unlike the Bentley. On the plus side, it weighs much less than the Bentley – 4,067 pounds (1,845 kg). Normally, a DBS would set you back £250,000, but this one is one of only 10 Concorde edition cars, so it costs £340,000.

Ferrari Roma

Ferrari’s baby GT comes with a 3.9-liter twin-turbo V-8 that puts out 620 horsepower and 560 pound-feet (760 Nm). Power goes to the rear wheels through an eight-speed, dual-clutch automatic with launch control. At 3,461 pounds (1,570 kg), the Roma is, by far, the lightest car here. It’s also the least expensive, at £170,984. Can it punch above its weight?

The Drag Race

As always, a quarter-mile drag race, from a standing start, is in order. As expected, the Aston Martin, being the only car without a dual-clutch automatic and launch control, struggled to put the power down. The Bentley, rocketed ahead, as expected, but it was the Ferrari that surprised us, as it closed in on the W-12 Continental GT Speed, and beat it to the quarter-mile.

The second race went, as we initially expected. The Bentley won easily and even the Aston managed to put the power down, this time. The Roma still beat it, though, finishing second. The trick here was, switching Bentley’s stability control off.

Race three was quite close, but the Bentley still beat the Ferrari, while the Aston was close behind. In the end, the Bentley had a best quarter-mile time of 11.4 seconds. The Ferrari was close behind with 11.5 seconds and the Aston Martin took 11.7 seconds.

Rolling Race

Things were quite different here since, in comfort mode, the Bentley took its time to kick down. The more powerful Aston Martin took off and was ahead by the half-mile mark. However, the Ferrari was reeling him in and, by the one-mile mark, it won by about a quarter of a car.

In sport and manual mode, the Ferrari put the power down easily, took an early lead, and stayed there. The Aston Martin DBS had traction issues when switching from third to fourth, but it still managed to beat the heavy Bentley.

Braking test

All three cars are equipped with carbon-ceramic brakes. The lightest car should have the advantage when braking from 100 mph (161 km/h). As expected the Bentley took the longest time to stop, but it’s worth noting that it’s the only car on all-season tires here. The Ferrari stopped the earliest, but the much heavier Aston did not stop much later.

Final thoughts

In the end, and you certainly don’t hear this every day, the Ferrari proved to be the biggest bang for the buck. That said, all of the cars performed admirably and are awesome for different reasons. In the end, it really boils down to which one you like, although if you are a potential buyer, you are probably able to buy all three of them at once.