Burnt coffee, unlined trousers, post-Achtung Baby U2. Life is rife with mild disappointments.

With four fewer cylinders under its hood than its W-12 cousin, does the V-8 Bentley Bentayga deliver another?

Math with us here for a moment. A W-12 Bentayga with 600 horsepower lashes out at 60-mph runs in 4.0 seconds, hardly restrained by its 5,379-pound curb weight.

A 542-hp Bentayga V8, a hundred-odd pounds trimmed from the weight over its nose at 5,264 pounds, covers the 60-mph dash in 4.4 seconds.

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Translated into English, that means the Bentayga V8 is barely slower, not enough to register through mortal sensory inputs. That credit-card-slim performance gap aside, it avoids gas-guzzler taxes, steers more finely, and makes nearly all the W-12 model’s lavish features available, if not standard.

So, about that possible letdown. “No” about covers it, don’t you think?

2019 Bentley Bentayga V8

2019 Bentley Bentayga V8

Specs appeal

More color may help you see how well the latest Bentayga fits into the expanding niche of ultra-luxury SUVs, and why the V-8 model becomes so very important.

The landscape’s already punctuated by Range Rover and Cayenne stalwarts, where prices vault beyond $200,000 with ease. The really high rollers have hardly begun to roll in: Maybachs and Cullinans and Uruses loom on the horizon.

Bentley wisely chose to lead with the profit-making W-12 Bentayga, stickered at more than $230,000, to grab its piece of the utility waterfront. Now it’s time to flesh out the lineup with the V-8, priced at less than $168,000, ready to elbow aside intenders trying to press their luck in this particular ether.

MORE: Bentley Bentayga Mulliner revealed

The linchpin is that marvelous V-8. It’s been spread liberally across a host of VW Group products, impossible to find flawed in any of them. The twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8 plumbs every cubic inch for power as it couples that 542-hp output with 568 pound-feet of torque, delivered from 1,960 rpm, a few hundred revs higher than the W-12’s 664 lb-ft torque pinnacle—a K2 of automotive output, at least until electrics become commonplace.

The V-8 gives up the whuffling off-beat rap of the W-12 for the muffled roar of the twin-turbo V-8. It’s the equivalent of the stripped-down band that goes on tour, not the lavish and costly setup afforded for session recordings.

It gives up a grand total of 7 mph on the top end, too, 180 mph versus the W-12’s 187-mph limit.

2019 Bentley Bentayga V8

2019 Bentley Bentayga V8

Spirits lifted

Both engines couple to an 8-speed automatic and permanent all-wheel drive. The shifter could be telecommuting, for all the quiet efficiency it throws off, without any Skype-like interruptions or iffy connections. The all-wheel-drive system spins through drive modes that let it drift from a ski chalet’s valets to its snow-slicked figure-eight loops like a Conti GT wearing its winter weight well. We pressed a V-8 Bentayga into lurid powerslides through the final throes of winter; minus the ermine toilet-seat covers, it’s exactly how we thought being rich would feel.

The V-8 extracts some simpler joys from its SUV form factor. The hundred-plus pounds it leaves behind lift the variable-ratio steering’s spirits. From the helm of the slightly undersized wheel, the Bentayga V-8 responds with gentle reassurances whether you’re culling ice chunks from the herd, or avoiding white Sprinters as they careen unwisely into the fast lane of the Autobahn.

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It does leave one critical box unticked, but not grayed out: Bentley charges $5,235 extra for the plush ride and firm responses of its complex height-adjustable suspension, a cassoulet of active roll bars, air springs, and adaptive dampers. It’s gratis on the W-12, highly recommended still on the V-8, where the thousands of dollars go a long way toward providing the supple ride sophistication that badge should command anywhere, anytime.

Add that in, and opt for the carbon-ceramic brakes (your choice of color: otherwise, the iron brakes’ calipers glow red) and that $168,000 sticker floats closer to the $200,000 ceiling that separates W-12 owners from everyone else, not to mention all that extra cash.

2019 Bentley Bentayga V8

2019 Bentley Bentayga V8

2019 Bentley Bentayga V8

2019 Bentley Bentayga V8

2019 Bentley Bentayga V8

2019 Bentley Bentayga V8

2019 Bentley Bentayga V8

2019 Bentley Bentayga V8

Stitch in time

The Bentayga V8 offers the same five- or four- or even seven-seat cabin that it introduced in the SUV for the 2018 model year. With power seats with heating and cooling and multiple massage modes, the adults in front should be in a perfect mood by the time the driver flips the keys over to parkers.

The Bentayga has excellent second-row seat space, a third row that won’t violate any legal voter’s personal space, and enough cargo space behind the second row to fit a custom-made picnic basket or quilted tailgate bench.

That’s where the Bentayga world vectors off from any other SUV you might name. A no-holds-barred approach to custom touches ensures that your Bentayga V8 won’t be exactly like anyone else’s, unless you’re cheating off their paper. The V-8 has a black-trimmed grille and figure-eight exhaust tips. Beyond that, have you got the picnic basket and tailgate quilt already? Fine, how about picnic tables trimmed in ethically sourced woods? Lambswool rugs? Magnolia stitching on Damson hides? High-gloss carbon-fiber trim? A wood and leather steering wheel? With 15 leathers, seven woods, 100 paint colors, and two-tones interior themes, you could configure Bentaygas all day and all night, and not run out of choices for weeks.

2019 Bentley Bentayga V8

2019 Bentley Bentayga V8

The bottom line

All Bentaygas boasts the same blind-spot monitors, automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, and night vision. Each has a power sunroof and permanent all-wheel drive.

Bentley suits up a base sound system, navigation, and an 8.0-inch touchscreen; a 1,950-watt Naim audio system with 18 speakers lurks on the options sheet.

Distinct packages bundles features such as automatic park assist, tow bars, or massive 22-inch wheels. A Mulliner-spec Bentayga gets the fabulous Breitling timepiece on the dash, crystal champagne flutes, and a bottle chiller.

It all comes at a price. The W-12 Bentayga carries all the top-end prestige and power, but costs more than $230,000. The V-8, at under $168,000 with destination charges, represents a substantial savings for people who consider $168,000 a bit of a rounding error. Still, a deal is a deal.

All it’s missing: those mild disappointments. No charred coffee taste, no chilled thighs, no “Lemon” (really, where it all started to go off track for the boys from Dublin). With the V-8, the Bentley Bentayga gets smart about wielding its enormous power.