'Base' Conti GT shows less is more | PH Footnote

Bentley's idea of an entry-level hybrid has a tremendous amount going for it...

It is impossible now to conceive of a Bentley without the Continental GT. Not just for its longevity or best-selling popularity, but because the firm would likely not exist without it. Or certainly not in its current state. Bentley’s size and importance is easy to take for granted more than twenty years later, yet at the turn of the millennium it was a very different animal; a mostly unkempt one emerging with blinking eyes from two decades of Vickers plc guardianship. It delivered some mighty cars in this period, although the question of turning it into a modern-day, mass-producing manufacturer fit for the 21st century was still wide open.

On its first try at a ground-up new Bentley, Volkswagen emphatically proved that money and good looks could take you anywhere. Save perhaps for the Bugatti Veyron (a car conceived around the same time and in similar circumstances), it is hard to think of a single model that so completely revitalised the reputation and financial well-being of a European carmaker. Even freed from the painstaking process of building each car by hand, Bentley could not initially assemble the first-generation GT quickly enough. The nouveau riche of its day - newly minted top-flight footballers prominent among them - embraced the car with the kind of enthusiasm they usually reserved for top-heavy glamour models or mock Tudor mansions.

The current version, now in its fourth generation, has come far - yet strives in many ways to remain exactly as it was. Bentley is no more likely to change the core recipe now than Porsche is to mount a 911’s flat-six ahead of the windscreen. Hybridisation has arrived, sure, but repeat customers have been placated with the reassuring presence of a lusty V8 - and based on the noises coming from Crewe, your mortgage equity would be safe if bet on that combination being around basically forever (or a long way beyond 2030 anyway).

Moreover, it is a reflection of the GT’s prominence - and its revised attitude toward the electrification roadmap - that Bentley is still keen to underline its flexibility. At one end, we have the incoming promise of not just a mid-tier GT S, but also a rear-drive Supersports that eschews battery power altogether. At the other, we have the car pictured: real-world, UK-registered evidence of the existence of an entry-level GT Continental, one shorn of a ‘Speed’ or ‘Mulliner’ or ‘Azure’ label - and starting from £202k. Which is basically as cost-effective as a new Bentley gets.

Of course, given its preference for frenzied option box ticking, Bentley’s new UK press car is some way beyond that asking price - the Touring, Blackline and Front Seat Comfort Specification packs adding many choice items and the best part of £20k to the total before you even get to niche items - yet, in fairness, that what-the-hell instinct is likely reflective of its clientele. The Speed we sampled in the UK not so long ago was not far from £300k when all was said and done, meaning the ‘base’ version (Bentley’s in-house terminology) does represent a fairly significant saving in the grand scheme of such things.

Perhaps that thought does not appeal to every Continental GT buyer - this is a model, after all, often bought to demonstrate affluence, not to hide it under a bushel - yet if the cheapest version hasn’t left much of a blip on their radar so far, it has nothing much to do with the car’s objective qualities. Admittedly, and predictably, it is down on outright power versus the 782hp Speed, but in the real world the relegation to 680hp, while seeming sizeable enough in headline terms, hardly registers as a demotion in a practical sense.

There are three reasons for this. Firstly, even Bentley's own on-paper scores effectively concede the impact on performance is trifling: will you agonise over the 0.3-second shortfall in 0-62mph time? Not when the base GT still manages the feat in 3.5 seconds. Straight-line speed, you will hardly be shocked to learn, remains a forte. Secondly, the difference in combined output has been subtracted from the V8 (now developing 519hp and 568lb ft of torque), meaning the instantly available 190hp and 332lb of e-motor assistance remains intact - and this is inevitably the bit of the hybrid powertrain you’ll lean into most during everyday driving.

Thirdly, there is the underlying dynamic character of the fourth-generation GT. In no guise has Bentley’s flagship ever been small or waif-like, yet the fact of its two-and-a-half-tonne kerbweight and two-metre girth, though well disguised, is never entirely forgotten. This doesn’t mean that there is too little enjoyment to be had - far from it - but rarely are you inclined to bear down on the clever chassis and give it something approaching death. Which, of course, means that only very occasionally does it even occur to you to consider that the car is moving very marginally slower than it would be if you’d lavished yet more money on it.

Instead, you tend to just dote on the GT for all the reasons that marked out the more senior variant at launch: this is, without question, a very pleasant way to see the English countryside. In terms of hardware, the model’s air suspension and twin-valve dampers remain, as do the four-wheel steering and e-diff. There is the same sensation of oily heft to the control surfaces, the same well-judged compromise to the ride and handling - and the same deep pleasure at sitting amid so much Imperial Blue leather, or for gazing at Open Pore Crown Cut Walnut veneer. Unlike so many new cars - even very expensive ones - the GT rewards internal finger prodding.

Elsewhere, it says much about the rascally engine note in Sport mode (and the V8’s always-on presence in this drive setting) that you might choose to ignore its quieter Bentley setting altogether - but who now, amid rising petrol prices and a potential supply crisis, would choose to moan about the 50ish miles of e-range a fully-charged 25.9kWh battery buys you? The GT is plainly less interesting when using nothing but electrons, yet it is perfectly usable, too, and does avoid the attention of passersby if the muscle car burble seems too much for your local high street.

Granted, as ever, you’ll need to be diligent with your charging schedule to fully reap the benefits of the plug-in powertrain - something Bentley has privately conceded that its customers are less than keen to do - though perhaps the per litre cost of super unleaded will now focus their minds, especially with the (anecdotal) prospect of circa 14mpg if you opt to resupply the battery via the engine. But that is the same for all versions of the new hybrid.

One wonders, in all the quiet moments the GT offers you, what noughties-era buyers would have made of the current car. It is sharper suited and quicker than the old W12, certainly, yet battery power offers a Jekyll and Hyde quality to proceedings, and insists that you pay at least some attention to what mode you’re in - even if it’s just to extract more pleasure. The old GT was easier to understand, much like the times that surrounded it. People favoured the more expensive Speed then, even though the lower-powered V8, launched in 2012, was in many ways the superior option. Coincidentally, without the e-motor factored in, the base GT now produces almost exactly the same power as the first eight-cylinder S. All these years later, it still feels about the right amount.

Image credit: Roger Chan

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wistec1

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