Bentley has gone through many phases in its 107-year life. There was the pre-war phase, dominated by the suave and swashbuckling Bentley Boys, the wafty ‘walnut wood and cigar smoking’ phase under rival Rolls-Royce between the 1930s and the 1970s and, most recently, the ownership of German juggernaut Volkswagen Group. That parentage gave birth to the Continental, which transformed Bentley’s brand image and fortunes back in 2003. Now comes the latest iteration, the unapologetically athletic Bentley Supersports.
Bentley Supersports
The Supersports is nothing new for Bentley. The name dates back more than 100 years, when it graced a lighter, shorter and faster version of its 3.0-litre model. The rebirth came in 2009, with a dialled-up version of the Continental GT, before a successor arrived with the next-generation Continental GT in 2017. Each model was engineered for performance but kept the Continental GT’s proven four-wheel drive formula, while the latter came with four seats, ensuring its reputation as a refined grand tourer remained unscathed.
Bentley Supersports
But much of that has gone out of the window with the latest iteration. In place of the current Continental GT’s hybrid system, sits a 4.0-litre, non-hybrid twin-turbo V8, while the rear seats are replaced with a carbon-fibre tub and all 657bhp is pushed to the rear wheels exclusively.
On paper, it’s the most radical interpretation of Bentley’s Continental GT yet and in practice, it certainly lives up to that mantle. ‘[Supersports] signifies a return to Bentley making more extreme cars, ones that combine extraordinary breadth of ability with true driver engagement,’ said CEO Frank-Steffen Walliser at the car’s launch. ‘Bentley has always thrived when revealing a more daring side, and the new Supersports is a statement of our intent.’
Bentley Supersports
California’s Laguna Seca racetrack is a particularly unforgiving test ground. Its infamous Corkscrew has a vertical elevation drop of 18m between the entrance and exit of Turn 8. It is not a place you’d expect to find a Bentley, yet the Supersports shrugs off every inch of the track with an ease that belies its grand tourer underpinnings.
Bentley Supersports on the track at Laguna Seca
The most significant improvement on its weightier, more pedestrian sibling is its clear and sharp steering. It feels lighter and sprightlier through the corners, the rear wheels lighting up and stepping out playfully when prompted. It doesn’t feel threatening or unpredictable. It’s controllable, fun and raucous, with its titanium exhaust (supplied by specialist manufacturers Akrapovič) providing a burbling, spitting and rasping soundtrack to match.
Behind the wheel, it’s still very much a Bentley. The ride is on the right side of firm and the cabin is still filled with the creature comforts you’d expect from a car stemming from the Continental’s bloodline. Bentley has developed leaner, more supportive seats for the Supersports but they’re still comfortable enough to crack on with a cross-country drive if the opportunity came about. The carbon-fibre tub that replaces the rear seats is a structural component, lined with leather.
The rear seats have been replaced with a carbon fibre tub
Externally, the Supersports shouts a little louder than most Bentleys, though never simply for the sake of it. Dr Matthias Rabe, Bentley’s board member for research and development, told the design team that nothing on the exterior could change for the sake of appearance alone. Every new surface had to be proven to work through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tests before any of the design team were allowed to judge how it looked.
What that brief produced is the largest aerodynamic splitter ever fitted to one of the marque’s road-going cars at the front, flanked by cooling channels feeding the engine and front brakes separately. Stacked wings on each corner add more aerodynamic and visual enhancement, while more blades sit behind the front wheel arches. At the rear, a fixed one-piece spoiler and an integrated diffuser. Together, they add more than 300kg of downforce.
Bentley Supersports on the track at Laguna Seca
For all the fun and bravado, the Supersports delivers, it arrives at an odd moment. While the industry is busy adding batteries, and let’s not forget the marque’s very first electric car is due in less than a month, Bentley has taken one out of the Continental GT and charged an additional £140,000 for the privilege. But the Supersports has a different objective. The limited 500-car run is designed to shift people’s perspective about the 107-year-old brand and rekindle some of the experimental and pioneering spirit the marque was founded on over a century ago and to pave the way for what is to come.
Bentley Supersports
Bentley Supersports, from £342,900, BentleyMotors.com, @BentleyMotors