Thursday 2nd January 2014

Bentley GT3 at Yas Marina: Time For Tea?

Race footage from Bentley's GT3 debut; when does the 2014 season start?

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Apologies first, we missed this Bentley video over the Christmas period. It would appear quite a lot of people did actually, given it has only had 5,000 views so far. It deserves, and will surely receive, a lot more soon.

You may have seen that the Bentley Continental GT3 came fourth on its race debut out in Abu Dhabi at the Gulf 12 Hours. That's a great result, and certainly augurs well for this year's full campaign. Hopefully they can give the dominant Mercedes SLS entries some competition in the Blancpain Endurance Series.

Well done Bentley for making the GT3's engine a V8 and not the W12 too. It gives the GT3 a properly thunderous noise, one that befits its menacing and aggressive stance. As expected, the car looks amazing driven in anger amongst the Porsches and Ferraris. With the GT3 and Speciale respectively, they already have track focused road cars. There must be some potential beyond the V8 S, surely...

See the video here.

 

[zebedee]

I'm not sure the SLS is particularly dominant, indeed nothing is dominant in GT3, that is the point.

[Curlyapplehead]

Can't wait to race this bad boy in British GT's this year!

[Mastodon2]

That looks really good on track, a really good looking racer, looked fast too - though I appreciate that looking fast and being fast are not the same thing.

[zippyprorider]

Amazing car, amazing race engineer at one point

[H100S]

sounds sensational

[HorneyMX5]

Endurance racing clearly not popular out there, not one person in the stands.

Car looks and sounds awesome.

[chevronb37]

I went to school with a couple of guys intimately involved in the Bentley GT3 programme and very proud of their result. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the cars campaigned in British GT and the Blancpain Endurance Championship.

[Matt UK]

Curlyapplehead said:

Can't wait to race this bad boy in British GT's this year!

You lucky git!!

Good luck James, hope to see some of the footage!

[Hairbrakes]

Matt UK said:

Curlyapplehead said:

Can't wait to race this bad boy in British GT's this year!

You lucky git!!

Good luck James, hope to see some of the footage!

+1 - do us proud!

It's rather fitting that a Bentley bruiser returns to the track this particular year - it's 90 years since the first of many victories for le camions du monde la plus vitesse

[Curlyapplehead]

Matt UK said:

Curlyapplehead said:

Can't wait to race this bad boy in British GT's this year!

You lucky git!!

Good luck James, hope to see some of the footage!

I'll put all footage up on my YouTube channel here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/curlyapplehead/videos

Some of my Aston GT4 stuff was uploaded by my Team Mate at the time:

http://www.youtube.com/user/antscragg/videos

[SR]

Fantastic looking and sounding car.
Yas Marina looks well worth a visit for that race, I'll be looking at going sometime in the very near future.
Does anyone know what the backing music is, I've tried with no success to Google it, thanks.

[dank]

car looks stunning in the metal, they had one in London / Bishops-gate awhile back, not sure if it was the actual racer, probably just the shell minus engine, but it looks mean as hell !

[e21jason]

HorneyMX5 said:

Endurance racing clearly not popular out there, not one person in the stands.

Car looks and sounds awesome.

The only thing that gets a crowd is f1. Club racing is free and there are more mechanics than spectators. The Dubai 24hr is free and the pit lane is open without restrictions and you still only get a few hundred people.

[Europa1]

e21jason said:

HorneyMX5 said:

Endurance racing clearly not popular out there, not one person in the stands.

Car looks and sounds awesome.

The only thing that gets a crowd is f1. Club racing is free and there are more mechanics than spectators. The Dubai 24hr is free and the pit lane is open without restrictions and you still only get a few hundred people.

I find the empty grandstands bizarre,.particularly in Abu Dhabi where many of the marques racing have significant client bases. I am becoming increasingly bored/disenchanted with F1 (all the political manoeuverings, the inequity of the division of revenues, daft ideas like double points for the last race (which would only have chanegd the outcome of the chamoionship something like 3 times in the last quarter of a century)). The revival of GT racing, with the prototypes at the top but also the GT cars that look like their roadgoing brethren, much closer racing/uncontrived overtaking, much more accessible pits & paddock, is fantastic.

[OleVix]

aaaah the awesomeness!

[Asterix]

e21jason said:

HorneyMX5 said:

Endurance racing clearly not popular out there, not one person in the stands.

Car looks and sounds awesome.

The only thing that gets a crowd is f1. Club racing is free and there are more mechanics than spectators. The Dubai 24hr is free and the pit lane is open without restrictions and you still only get a few hundred people.

Yeah - it's such a shame and the racing is awesome.

[turbo-ww]

I did't miss the footage as I was streaming it live A number of my marshaling colleagues were actually present too.

(Also saw the one in Bishopsgate which was the one that Top Gear went rallying in. So I doubt it was the actual racer)

Much congratulations due to the Team for 4th place on their debut.

[zebedee]

Are the M Sport guys running the car for anyone (ie strategy calls, crew etc) or just engineering and supplying the cars to customers?

[sortedcossie]

I saw some of these at the M-Sport factory, very nice bits of kit.

[zebedee]

How many did you see?