First-ever RWD Bentley GT Supersports inbound
Bentley all but confirms exclusively combustion mega-GT for launch next week
You hardly need to be in sight of a windsock outside the factory at Crewe to know which way the wind is blowing at Bentley. Yes, there is an all-electric model coming - but clearly (and understandably), the firm is in no rush to talk about it. The prospect of a battery-powered Luxury Urban SUV, while relevant to the kind of niche that the firm operates in, is hardly going to have its customers beating down the door. It will serve a purpose in global cities; it will not do much for brand building when it comes to the job of differentiating Bentley from Rolls-Royce.
Its super-special Continental GT, on the other hand, is so flagrantly of-the-moment, it might as well be called the Bentley Home Run. Or the Bentley Sticking Plaster. But it isn’t, it’s called the Supersports, which, before we even get to the car, has the added value of a 100-year heritage. More importantly, there is recent and very memorable precedent: the 2009 Supersports established a ceiling with 630hp; its short-lived successor crashed through it with 710hp and enough stick-on aero addenda to make it stand apart from any other Continental GT.
The full reveal of the latest variant (one that will obviously not feature a twelve-cylinder engine) is scheduled for next week in New York - a clue as to where Bentley hopes to make hay - but already we have learned enough to know that it will be a chip off the old block. Firstly, because the firm has released a second teaser picture confirming the presence of some air-fettling bodywork, and secondly, for what it has told us about the limited-edition model.
‘The new Bentley Supersports will be the lightest, most driver-focused and first rear-wheel drive Continental GT ever’, the manufacturer confirmed in a short statement. The prospect of a rear-drive flagship, the configuration specifically chosen ‘for maximum driver engagement’, is obviously the headline attribute for a car that has been exclusively all-wheel drive for more than 20 years. What better way to reassert the idea that Bentley is for more than wafting about the place, staring out the window? Or to help it compete with the likes of the new Aston Martin Vanquish?
Hence, you’d assume, the emphasis on it being the lightest, the GT famously having struggled to keep its kerbweight within touching distance of two tonnes. The switch to RWD obviously reduces complexity, though the amount of weight loss required for it to be lighter than the 2,195kg claimed for the old GT3-R, almost certainly means the Supersports has dispensed with the hybrid powertrain that has been a feature of the MSB-platform’d Continental GT since last year.
Certainly, that would correlate with there being no claim made for power or outright pace; with the V8 powering the rear axle exclusively, the Supersports is unlikely to eclipse the 782hp available to the current GT Speed, nor the 3.2 seconds it takes to get to 62mph. Nevertheless, a lightened, exclusively combustion-engined variant that Bentley insists will be ‘rare’ is likely to prove catnip to a core audience that has only begrudgingly accepted the idea that the GT needs to be a hybrid. Don’t be surprised if a lively queue forms in NYC almost immediately.
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