RE: Bentley Continental GT smashes Pikes Peak record

[Europa1]

I'm liking the cut of Bentley's jib at the moment.

[sidesauce]

Amanitin said:

sidesauce said:

aybe not hard to do but what IS not easy is making the sum of the parts come together in such a devastatingly effective way.

i fully agree, but he said, as per your quote, _weight_ helps performance.
Which is either a mistranslation, or Nissan marketing kool-aid in case he said that for real.

What he said isn't as important as the fact that, upon release in 2007, the GT-R destroyed everything in its class in terms of its performance and for less money too. I remember seeing so many on the forum arguing his points with this accusation of "marketing speak" whilst totally ignoring the actual performance of the thing! I feel as if there's more than one way to skin a cat and thinking laterally can (and has) resulted in some genuine surprises - just like this Pike Peak record by Bentley. As someone said above, I'm liking the cut of their jib at present.

[soad]

Nice one.

[ntiz]

Mr-B said:

Impressive for such a big lump to have beaten the Pork, nice one Bentley. Bit of a clean sweep by the "Brits", Robin Shute was the overall winner too, first ever British winner.

I was surprised no one had mentioned that Robin won the whole thing.

[Wills2]

sidesauce said:

hat he said isn't as important as the fact that, upon release in 2007, the GT-R destroyed everything in its class in terms of its performance and for less money too. I remember seeing so many on the forum arguing his points with this accusation of "marketing speak" whilst totally ignoring the actual performance of the thing! I feel as if there's more than one way to skin a cat and thinking laterally can (and has) resulted in some genuine surprises - just like this Pike Peak record by Bentley. As someone said above, I'm liking the cut of their jib at present.

This thread has nothing to do with the GTR.

[sidesauce]

Wills2 said:

sidesauce said:

hat he said isn't as important as the fact that, upon release in 2007, the GT-R destroyed everything in its class in terms of its performance and for less money too. I remember seeing so many on the forum arguing his points with this accusation of "marketing speak" whilst totally ignoring the actual performance of the thing! I feel as if there's more than one way to skin a cat and thinking laterally can (and has) resulted in some genuine surprises - just like this Pike Peak record by Bentley. As someone said above, I'm liking the cut of their jib at present.

This thread has nothing to do with the GTR.

Obviously...

[nobrakes]

epom said:

What tyres were they using ? Are the rules a little more relaxed for what is deemed production ?

‘Ere gunva, is it April 1st? There’s a joker on the phone wants tyres to do Pikes Peak - in a Bentley...

[AussieFozzy]

With all due respect to Bentley they were not really racing anyone were they? In fact i think technically this is not a 'record' at all as there is no production car class at Pikes Peak. It would be running in exhibition class which means is not eligible for class records.
Again i am not wishing to take anything away from them. I think it's great that a big manufacturer is coming to play at Pikes Peak and they did place 14th overall of 48 finishers. It does still seem like they are shooting fish in a barrel though.

[CanAm]

A1VDY said:

Yaaaawn.... So fu. Ki. In what...

Because this is Pistonheads (you know, where Speed Matters) not Mumsnet.

[TomTVR500]

sidesauce said:

Nightshade said:

That's pretty incredible - I would think a heavy car like a Continental GT would make an awful hillclimber! To beat a 911 Turbo S is very impressive.

Given the Nissan GT-R is also a heavy car but even 12 years on keeps up with almost everything (not to mention the fact it destroyed everything, including the 991 Turbo, on its release back in 2007), maybe Mizuno-san knew exactly what he was talking about when he said that adding weight helped performance... Possibly there's some similar thinking going on for the MSB platform with VW's engineers...?

Minor point I know but it was the 997.1 Turbo that it beat in 2007 not the 991 Turbo.

Porsche seemed to level the playing field again shortly after (and most likely because of) the release of the first R36 GTR's with the 997.2 Turbo and Turbo S. It then (in my opinion at least) re-established itself as the class leader with the 991.1 Turbo/S and put more space between itself and the GTR (even the regularly updated models and Nismo special editions) with the 991.2 Turbo and Turbo S which still has to be the fastest/most usable real world supercar money can buy. I can't with to see what the 992 Turbo S can do!

And an impressive achievement by Bentley here, I'm genuinely surprised it managed to topple the 991 Turbo S with all that extra weight!

[WCZ]

Nightshade said:

That's pretty incredible - I would think a heavy car like a Continental GT would make an awful hillclimber! To beat a 911 Turbo S is very impressive.

Continental GT's have always been good track cars and competed with 911's etc

[nismo48]

Get a grip you negative person..:-(

A1VDY said:

Yaaaawn.... So fu. Ki. In what...

[Adrian W]

It would be nice to see a list in the article of other production cars have tried, that way we could scale the achievement, just in case Bentley are the only one to try.

[anonymous-user]

Absolutely glorious. I want one of these so much.

[anonymous-user]

A1VDY said:

Yaaaawn.... So fu. Ki. In what...

Run along you tedious troll.

[rossub]

Videos of this place always make it look like there’s loads of room to throw the car about.

Proud to say I drove up it a few weeks ago and there bloody isn’t - it’s tight as hell, especially higher up.

[AMGSee55]

rossub said:

Videos of this place always make it look like there’s loads of room to throw the car about.

Proud to say I drove up it a few weeks ago and there bloody isn’t - it’s tight as hell, especially higher up.

Too right - you'd need a lot of confidence in your own abilities to throw a car around with those drops

I'd love to have tried PP in my old AMG - obviously I would have been rubbish as I'm an amateur driver, but what fun

[Paddy78]

Is it just me or is he driving in auto mode? I don't profess to be some kind of driving god, but some of the up shifts and down shifts seem to be in odd places. There is also at least one down shift on a hairpin where his hand isn't near the left paddle.

Amazing achievement btw and he looks like he's driving the arse off it.

[moffat]

Paddy78 said:

Is it just me or is he driving in auto mode? I don't profess to be some kind of driving god, but some of the up shifts and down shifts seem to be in odd places. There is also at least one down shift on a hairpin where his hand isn't near the left paddle.

Amazing achievement btw and he looks like he's driving the arse off it.

On the dash is said M2/3/4 etc. so I guess he was in Manual, but it might change up itself of you don't select up in time.

Interesting to see the temp change from 25.5C to 11C at the top!

Epic driving though.

[gary71]

Great stuff, making it look easy!
The GT changes up when you hit the limiter so best to let the car do it and avoid pulling the paddle just before then getting two upshifts.