Track beckons for new Continental GT
Sub- 1300kg, 550bhp, V8- powered racer revealed hot on the heels of new Bentley road car
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 (driven on page 28) 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.