Bentley Continental GT Second generation

Track beckons for new Continental GT / #2018 / #Bentley-Continental-GT / #2018-Bentley-Continental-GT / #Bentley / #Bentley-Continental-GT3

Sub-1300kg, 550bhp, #V8-powered racer revealed hot on the heels of new Bentley road car
Bentley is taking the Continental GT to the track in #2018

It took Bentley a decade to get its original Continental GT out of the paddock and onto the track, but a GT3 racing version of the new Conti GT will line up on the grid at Monza in 2018 within a couple of months of the first road cars being delivered. And it has a lot to live up to. The original Continental GT3 race car racked up 528 races, 120 podiums and 45 wins during its short, four-year life. And with GT3 racing becoming evermore competitive, the new Bentley contender can’t afford the smallest confidence lift on its way into the first corner.

To create their second-generation GT3 racer, Bentley’s motorsport engineers and Malcolm Wilson’s M-Sport – the race team charged with running the cars – started out with the new Conti GT road car. Job one was to shed over 850kg to give a sub-1300kg race-ready weight.

Ditching the hand-finished interior accounted for most of that mass, but the use of carbonfibre for the non-structural body panels and other body parts (front splitter, rear wing, arch extensions) also contributed to shedding the pounds, as did the loss of the front driveshafts – the racer is rear-wheel drive. Hours in the wind tunnel have dictated its aggressive aero package, which hangs from the road car’s new Porsche Panamera-derived aluminium structure.

Rather than the road car’s W12 , the racer will feature a development of the 4-litre twin-turbo V8 that served the team so well over the last four seasons. Updates for 2018 include a redesigned dry sump and new inlet and exhaust systems. Bentley claims its unrestricted output is ‘in excess of 550bhp’.

Drive is delivered via a six-speed sequential gearbox, a carbon propshaft and a limited-slip differential. The suspension is all-new and so, too, are the six- and four-piston (front/rear) #Alcon brake calipers and iron discs.

For 2018 a pair of Continental GT3s will race in the #Blancpain-GT-Series-Endurance-Cup as well as the four-round Intercontinental GT Challenge. With the driver line-up yet to be confirmed, evo is prepared to throw its Arai into the mix. It’s the least we can do while we wait for the GT3-inspired Continental Supersports road car to arrive.

Bang, not a whimper / #2017 / #Bentley-Continental-GT / #Bentley-Continental / #Bentley / IGNITION / New Cars / #2017-Bentley-Continental-GT / #Bentley-Continental-Supersports / #Bentley-Continental-GT-Supersports /
The new Continental GT looms. So Bentley has powered-up the old one… Words Dan Prosser

Having been launched way back in 2003, the Bentley Continental GT is due for replacement next year. With close to 60,000 cars sold during those 14 years the heavyweight coupé has been a huge success for Bentley so, rather than let the model fade away with a whimper, Crewe has instead produced the fastest and most powerful version yet. In fact, the new Continental Supersports is the most potent roadgoing Bentley full stop, its twin-turbocharged #W12 engine having been wound up to a titanic 700bhp. The Supersports badge was revived in 2009 for a run of 1800 special edition models, but this latest version will be more exclusive still, with only 710 set to be built across coupé and convertible body styles. With a list price of £212,500 the Supersports coupé, tested here, costs £43,600 more than the erstwhile range-topping model, the W12 Speed.

In keeping with its king-of-the-swingers status the Supersports is the most aggressivelooking Continental GT yet, its new front splitter and rear diffuser, both in carbonfibre, lending a more menacing look. The ungainly rear spoiler can, thankfully, be deleted.

The 6.0-litre W12 has been reworked for the Supersports with new intake and exhaust systems, bigger turbochargers and strengthened main and conrod bearings. The 750lb ft torque figure is available from 2000rpm, giving a vast, tabletop torque curve and enormous straightline performance: Bentley quotes 0-60mph in 3.4 seconds and a 209mph top speed. There’s so much power and torque at your disposal that the force of acceleration seems to be entirely unrelated to engine or road speed, gear, incline, load or any other of the variables that normally impede a car’s performance. The Supersports just fires itself at the horizon regardless.

As amusing as that trick might be, it isn’t what makes this the best #12-cylinder Continental GT yet. Instead, it’s the combination of gargantuan performance, longdistance refinement and the surprisingly fleetfooted agility that make it such an outstanding Bentley. The four-wheel drive system and chassis settings are carried over from the Speed and, despite its 2280kg kerbweight, the Supersports is very good to drive on a twisting road, with its light, direct steering, very taut body control and a neutral chassis balance.

Some of that weight-defying agility can be attributed to the car’s torque-vectoring-by-braking system, borrowed from the 2014 GT3-R special edition, which shuffles torque between the four wheels to where it can be used most effectively. Without it, the Supersports would feel heavier and flat-footed.

What’s harder to reconcile with the winged ‘B’ on its nose is the Supersport’s raucous titanium exhaust system, which emits such violent pops and cracks on downshifts that you wonder if the entire thing isn’t being dragged along the road behind you.

There isn’t anything subtle about the Continental Supersports and some will doubtless find its styling and soundtrack crass, but, thanks to its vast turn of speed and total indomitability in all conditions, this is a high-performance Bentley of the highest order.