NEW CONTINENTAL GT
Octane takes an early drive in the brand new Bentley Continental GT. Could it be the king of the crop?
Prototype unleashed in North Wales
Even just the name is exciting. In the 1950s, ‘Continental’ was associated with some of the most beautiful-looking GT cars known to man. And then in 2003 the legendary moniker was reborn and attached to the very first car Bentley produced after it was taken over by Volkswagen. So it’s a big deal for Bentley, the new Continental GT.
For 2018, it has been completely re-engineered, to a degree that Bentley claims it is now 100% brand new. And the major news this time is that it shares its underpinnings not with a humble VW but, instead, with those of the Porsche Panamera. Bentley’s engineers were involved at ground level with their equivalents at Porsche throughout development, so they could dictate exactly which parts they were going to end up with. And that has made a huge difference to the quality of the end product.
At its heart the Conti GT is still powered by a thundering 6.0-litre twin-turbo W12 engine, but although it features the same capacity as the previous W12 this particular version is brand spanking new, even to the point that it has a different firing order. And it’s mated to a similarly fresh (for Bentley) eightspeed dual-clutch gearbox, the exact same one that’s used in the Panamera.
As before, the GT is four-wheel-drive and its outputs are predictably ground-shaking. Maximum power is 626bhp at 6000rpm while maximum torque is a whopping 664lb ft, developed between 1350 and 4500rpm. More plateau than peak, then, and a figure that’s almost 40% bigger than before. Combined with a launch control system, this is sufficient zeal to fire the 2244kg GT to 60mph in 3.6 seconds and to a top speed of 207mph, with 0-100mph taking well under nine seconds. For such a vast machine the new GT is seriously rapid, far more so than before, despite weighing only 76kg less than the previous model.
But if anything it’s the GT’s chassis and suspension that represent the biggest steps forward, because Bentley claims the car is not only more comfortable than before but, crucially, also a lot more sporting in its intent. And once again, the sharing of parts with Porsche has aided it in this respect.
For a start, the W12 engine is set around 150mm further back in the chassis than previously, which makes a huge difference to the GT’s balance, say the engineers. There are double wishbones at the front and a multi-link arrangement at the rear, but at both ends there is a three-chamber air suspension system with a 48V electronically ‘active’ anti-roll bar. Together, these elements provide the new GT with vastly more control. The brakes are also the biggest of any production road
car’s yet seen (an echo of the old car’s claim), with 420mm steel vented discs at the front and 380mm rotors at the back.
This time, the way in which the four-wheel-drive system deploys its power and torque has been radically altered, and you get to choose how it works by scrolling between Comfort, Bentley and Sport. Plus you can then tailor everything individually by venturing deeper into the drive menu and selecting Custom.
‘It almost doesn’t matter how heavy the car is because we can control everything so much better this time,’ says the GT’s chief chassis engineer Keith Sharp.
WE’RE IN ANGLESEY, testing some pre-production protoypes, well ahead of customer cars arriving next summer. In Comfort mode up to 38% of torque goes to the front axle, which makes the GT feel like a regular four-wheel-drive car. But if you then select Bentley
mode, a little bit less torque goes to the front axle and the car starts to feel a touch more sporting, with a corresponding step up in control from the dampers plus a more thrusting map for the throttle and gearbox.
In Bentley mode there is a delicious sense of serenity about the way the GT glides across the landscape. It feels sporting but also supremely refined, with light yet hyper-accurate steering and a lovely sense of balance to the ride and body control.
On these twisting roads the new GT feels properly rapid, partly because it manages to disguise its vast weight so effectively, just as Sharp claims, but also because the responses from the engine and gearbox are so keen. And the way it summons its energy with such effortless efficiency really does need to be experienced to be believed. It feels ever-so-slightly Veyron-like in the way it sucks in the horizon and deposits you so instantly upon it.
The sense of acceleration it produces is total, yet the suspension and ride control it displays are also extraordinary. As is the way the new dual-clutch gearbox operates. Which is to say, brilliantly. Turbo-lag from the W12 engine also doesn’t seem to exist, as far as I can tell. Basically the GT goes, and goes hard, from the moment you squeeze the throttle.
But it’s not until you select Sport mode and drive it on a track that you can fully appreciate how far
Bentley has gone with the GT this time. Because in Sport mode only 17% of drive goes to the front axle, and everything else – dampers, throttle, gearbox, exhaust – is set to deliver maximum sporting thrills. And in Sport mode the new GT feels quite a lot like a full-blown sports car, displaying an agility that is extremely difficult to associate with its vast kerbweight. You can’t quite throw it around like a BMW M3, but it’s not far off delivering that kind of agility.
And if you turn off the ESP, as Bentley insists I do, it will do things that you will find even harder to believe. You want great big 100-yard powerslides from a Continental GT? No problem, sir, just press the right buttons in the right order and you can shred the new 22in rear tyres to your heart’s content.
And yet at the other end of the scale the new GT is more comfortable and more refined than ever before to drive on the road. And it has one of the most highquality feeling and best-equipped cabins of any car available, at any price. Oh yes, and in the flesh it also looks around ten times better than the old model.
For a shade less than 160 grand, it could well be the best GT in the world right now. Or pretty much ever, come to think of it. But if you can’t wait for yours to arrive, or you don’t quite have that much to spend, there’s a lot to be said for the outgoing car: 200mph for £25,000? Turn the page…