Driving the GT3 racer

Ettore Bugatti mocked racing Bentleys, but driving the new Conti GT3 is a revelation

On track in the Continental GT

1

LOOKS TOO HEFTY. SOMEHOW ISN’T

Cast an eye over the machinery the Continental GT3 does battle with in GT racing (Lambo Huracans, 720S McLarens…) and they appear half its height. But the first-generation Conti GT3 was a hugely successful machine and, like the road car on which it’s based, the Mk2 is lighter, slipperier, smarter. Big, brash, but somehow elegant, the Conti looks like nothing else on the grid.

2

STANDARD BODY WITH A FEW* MODS

Like all GT3 cars, the Bentley begins life as a production bodyshell before getting a groundup rebuild. The V8’s so far back you can’t help but glance into the cabin to check the engine isn’t poking through the dashboard. The improved weight distribution makes the car more predictable on the limit and easier on its tyres than the Mk1. *Many, many mods

3

IT’S REAR DRIVE AND GRIPS HARD

The production Continental is all-wheeldrive but the racer is strictly rear-driven. Yet, in the dry at least, its limits feel almost unassailably high. That’s the main takeaway from our brief taste of the GT3 at Silverstone: its drivers must display serious commitment, working a bee’s-wingfine line between big-grip cornering speeds and a big (and spectacular) mistake.

4

IT STOPS, FULL STOP

They say it’s not the fall that kills you but the sudden stop at the end. The Continental’s as quick as you’d expect a GT3 racer to be, but the real shock is the way it stops. Hit the pedal with intent for the first time, with one of Silverstone’s trickier corners on its way to meet you with equal intent, and the Bentley pulls up like its rear wing’s snagged an anchor chain. You didn’t even trigger the ABS; try harder next time.

5

GETTING IT OFF THE LINE IS SMOKY

Hand clutch in, briefly stab the throttle to 100 per cent to automatically trigger a thrilling whubwhub-whub idle as the powertrain girds its loins, then re-apply full throttle and drop the clutch, letting the (coldish, in this case) rear tyres bonfire themselves until the car runs into the pit limiter or the traction control steps in, whichever comes first. Good times.

BENTLEY! Aluminium-intensive monocoque sports bodywork in carbonfibre and a stout steel rollcage – to which the likes of Woolf Barnato would surely have said ‘Pah!’ BOY! CAR’s James Taylor doing his best Birkin impression. He’s driven a couple of GT3 race machines, the lucky tinker, and describes the Conti as ‘a real goer’