Bentley Continental: Back on track

The classic road-going racer has received an upgrade, making it the fastest four-seater on the market

Motoring 5 Sep 2017

The new limited-edition Supersports is the most powerful road-going Bentley ever made

It was back in the 1920s that Walter Owen Bentley cottoned on to the fact that a good way to sell cars for the road was to make sure they were seen performing well on the track. But rather than sink money into a ‘works’ team from the outset, he was canny enough to simply encourage his existing clients to get out and start competing themselves.

The image of a Bentley being a high-end automobile for the true sportsman soon caught on and, thanks to the patronage of wealthy owners such as Woolf Barnato, Bernard Rubin and Sir Tim Birkin, cars carrying the celebrated ‘Winged B’ mascot began to take the laurels at major races and speed trials both at home and abroad.

Walter Owen even developed a turn-key, road-going racer called the Super Sport, which was designed to make it as easy as possible for buyers to take to the track. Based on a shortened version of the standard three-litre chassis, the car had a tuned, four-cylinder engine, giving it a top speed of 100mph – a figure guaranteed by the manufacturer and a full 20mph more than that of the regular three-litre model.

Cracking the ton seems old hat now, but back in 1925 it was a phenomenal achievement for a road-legal car. The world land-speed record, set by Sir Malcolm Campbell in a specially-developed Sunbeam, stood at ‘only’ 150mph.

Bentley 3 litre Supersports chassis 1179 competing at Le Mans 50th anniversary in 1973
Bentley 3 litre Supersports chassis 1179 competing at Le Mans 50th anniversary in 1973. Image courtesy of WO Bentley Memorial Foundation

A mere 18 examples of the original Super Sport were sold however, and with the bankruptcy of the original Bentley company in 1931 – when it was bought by Rolls-Royce – the model name disappeared for close to 80 years before being revived in 2009 as ‘Supersports’ on a souped-up version of the Continental GT, with less weight, fewer seats (the rear ones were ‘deleted’) and a top speed of 204mph.

Around 1,500 Supersports were made as a run-out model based on the body style of the original Continental GT that launched in 2003. But now the Supersports is back as a limited-edition with an even more powerful engine, which has helped to edge-up the top speed of the new car by – wait for it – 5mph.

Prod the throttle on the motorway and the thrust is nothing short of remarkable

Just 710 examples in coupé and convertible form will be made – a figure selected to match the PS (metric horsepower) output of the six-litre W12 engine. The new Supersports is, therefore, both the quickest and most powerful road-going Bentley ever built. And, now that the rear seats have been reinstated, is claimed to be the fastest four-seater production car currently on the market (although few average-sized adults would want to travel too far in the back. It’s more of a ‘two-plus-two’).

The model is, however, more impressive for its effortless pulling power than it is for its top speed, which few owners are likely to exploit. But prod the throttle when cruising at the motorway limit and the thrust is nothing short of remarkable, thanks to the fact that the engine has been tuned to produce 1,017 newton-metres of torque from a mere 2,050rpm. For the non-technically minded, that is nothing short of lorry-like grunt.There’s nothing lorry-like about the rest of the Supersports, though. In the best Bentley tradition, its racy interior is trimmed in quilted, hand-stitched leather, with carbon fibre and engine-turned aluminium to such a degree that it feels as much ‘limousine’ as ‘sports’.

Bentley Continental Supersports interior
Bentley Continental Supersports interior

And that’s entirely fitting since the best of both worlds is what it’s all about. Performance-wise, the phenomenally powerful engine is complemented by massive carbon-ceramic brakes and computer-controlled ‘torque vectoring’, which automatically applies them, on one side or the other, when the car is being hustled through the S-bends.

In more relaxing moments, the Supersports still offers a luxurious ride, despite having stiffer suspension than the standard Continental GT, isolating its occupants from the world outside within the cocoon of its hyper-insulated interior.

In keeping with its sporting nature, meanwhile, the car is available in an extensive range of 90 eye-catching colour schemes – including an ‘X-Specification’ option of in-vogue two-tone, with bonnet, roof and boot in black and the
rest of the car in a contrasting hue. There are also 17 different interior hide colours on offer and 10 alternative finishes for the dashboard and centre console.

Which is all a far cry from Walter Owen Bentley’s day, when customers could have their Super Sport any colour they liked – so long as it was British Racing Green.
bentleymotors.com

 

Bentley Continental Supersports

Top speed: 209mph
0-60: 3.4 seconds
Engine: W12, six-litre
Power output: 710 PS @ 5,900 rpm
Torque: 1,017 Nm @ 2,050?-?4,500rpm
Weight: 2,280kg
Fuel consumption: Average 14mpg
Price: £212,500 (coupé);
£233,000 (convertible)