No hairpins today. No stopwatch either, really — just three open-top grand tourers, the Basse Corniche at golden hour, and a question that has nothing to do with lap times: which one would you actually want to arrive in?
The corniche built for looking, not attacking
Of the three coast roads linking Nice and Monaco, the Basse Corniche sits lowest and closest to the water — none of the Grande Corniche’s switchbacks or the Moyenne Corniche’s elevation, just a road that hugs the shoreline through Villefranche-sur-Mer and Beaulieu, with sightlines straight out over the Mediterranean for long stretches. It’s not the road anyone picks for outright pace. It’s the one built for exactly what we came to do: three roofs down, low sun, no urgency about getting anywhere.
Three open-top grand tourers, each answering a slightly different version of the same brief. Ron claims the Rolls-Royce Dawn without a second’s hesitation — presence over pace, and he knows it. Juliana takes the Bentley Continental GTC Speed, the one with real performance numbers behind the luxury. The Mercedes SL63 goes to whoever’s running the test.
The numbers, for anyone who wants them before the story
| Bentley Continental GTC Speed | Rolls-Royce Dawn | Mercedes SL63 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seats | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Engine | 4.0L twin-turbo V8 | 6.6L twin-turbo V12 | 4.0L twin-turbo V8 |
| Horsepower | 659 hp | 563 hp | 585 hp |
| 0–100 km/h | 3.7 sec | 4.9 sec | 3.6 sec |
| Top speed | 335 km/h | 250 km/h | 315 km/h |
| Rental (per day) | ~€1,700 | ~€2,400 | ~€1,500 |
| Drivetrain | AWD | RWD | AWD |
Juliana’s first comment on the table: “The Rolls is the most expensive car here and the slowest by nearly a second and a half.” Ron didn’t dispute the numbers. He just didn’t think they were the point.
First stretch: Villefranche-sur-Mer
Juliana opened the Continental up first, and it did exactly what a 659-hp AWD grand tourer with real performance credentials should do on a road with any kind of straight at all — genuinely quick when asked, composed through the corniche’s gentler curves, and comfortable enough at a cruise that the performance felt like a reserve rather than the point. “This is the car that can actually do both jobs,” she said. “Fast when you want it, effortless when you don’t.”
The SL63 came through the same stretch with a similar case to make — slightly less outright power, similarly composed, and a roofline and cabin that feel unmistakably sportier than the Bentley’s more formal grand-touring character. It’s the car that splits the difference most obviously between the other two: not as outright plush as the Rolls, not quite as complete a performance package as the Bentley, but genuinely competent at both.
Second stretch: Beaulieu, and the argument Ron actually won
Then the Dawn came through, roof down, low sun catching the Spirit of Ecstasy on the hood, and the entire conversation changed register. “Nobody on this road is looking at the other two,” Ron said, and he wasn’t exaggerating by much — heads turned in a way that had nothing to do with any number on the spec sheet. The V12 is quieter and less urgent than either turbocharged V8, which is precisely the point: this isn’t a car built to be driven hard, it’s built to be experienced at exactly the pace we were driving it. “You’re not renting this for the 0-100 time,” Ron said. “You’re renting it because for one evening, you want to be the most interesting thing on the road.”
By the final stop, Juliana didn’t really disagree. “It’s the most complete car,” she said, nodding at the Bentley. “But if someone told me I could only pick one car for a single golden-hour drive along this exact road, I understand why Ron picked what he picked.”
A bit of context on each car
The Bentley Continental GTC Speed sits at the top of Bentley’s convertible grand-touring range, and the “Speed” designation specifically means more power and sharper chassis tuning over the standard Continental GTC — Bentley’s answer to being asked for genuine performance without sacrificing the brand’s core comfort proposition.
The Rolls-Royce Dawn is the drophead version of the Wraith coupe, and its 6.6-liter twin-turbo V12 — the largest engine of the three by a wide margin — is tuned specifically for smoothness and effortless torque rather than outright output, which is exactly why its numbers look modest next to two cars with far smaller engines.
The Mercedes SL63 represents the current generation of a nameplate with genuine sports-car roots going back decades, now built on a shared AMG performance platform — the most overtly sporting character of the three despite carrying four seats and a full grand-touring brief.
Practical considerations
All three run roof-down comfortably at coastal speeds, though the Rolls-Royce’s more relaxed demeanor makes it the easiest of the three to simply cruise in without thinking about the drivetrain at all. The Basse Corniche gets crowded with local traffic through the town centers it passes — an early evening run, timed for the light rather than an empty road, is the point here anyway. All three are available out of Monaco and the French Riviera.
Our call: the Bentley Continental GTC Speed. As a single car that has to do everything — genuine pace, real comfort, everyday usability — it’s the most complete of the three. Choose the Rolls-Royce Dawn if presence and occasion matter more than the stopwatch, or the Mercedes SL63 if you want the sportiest character at the most accessible price of the three.
All three are standalone rentals — a separate booking from Pure Adrenalin’s Supercars Rally Monaco, which drives a different stretch of this same coastline as part of its route. Get in touch and we’ll set one up.