Driver's Notebook: Speed Merchant
December 1, 2007
There will always be those for whom even a sensationally powerful car is not quite powerful enough. It is to these fervent few—specifically, the Bentley faithful who have implored the English automaker to produce a more potent version of its 552 hp, 198 mph Continental GT—that we submit the 602 hp, 202 mph Continental GT Speed. The aptly named coupe takes its inspiration from founder W.O. Bentley’s original Speed models, launched in 1923 also in response to enthusiasts’ pleas for a more fearsome Bentley.
Although the four-year-old Continental GT has been thoroughly revised, inside and out, it will take a fairly keen eye to spot the differences between last year’s model and this new car, and (because Bentley wisely eschewed the boy-racer look for its most powerful model ever) an even keener one to discern the Speed edition from the standard-issue GT. Both models sport a revised front fascia, with a more upright, crosshatch grille opening (dark-tinted on the Speed) and broader lower intakes, which improve airflow to the engine by 14 percent. The Speed boasts a pair of larger, rifled oval exhaust outlets and exquisite 20-inch wheels wrapped in 275-series Pirelli P-Zero tires made with a bespoke tread pattern and a unique rubber compound formulated to withstand the extraordinary forces encountered near the limit of the car’s performance envelope.
Behind the famous winged-B emblem, the 6-liter twin-turbocharged W-12 engine benefits from a passel of modifications—including lighter pistons and connecting rods and a new crankcase designed to minimize energy loss due to friction—intended to boost not only performance, but fuel efficiency as well. Horsepower is up by 9 percent, to 602, and torque rises by 15 percent, to 553 ft lbs. Surprisingly, fuel consumption and CO2 emissions for both the Speed and the standard GT are down by 3.5 percent. The engine pairs to an excellent ZF 6-speed automatic transmission driving all four wheels. The standard 50/50-percent front/rear torque split will shift when wheel slippage of less than 1 percent is detected.
Inside, the Speed incorporates the Continental GT’s optional Mulliner Driving Specification equipment, including drilled aluminum pedals, a knurled-chrome and hide-wrapped shifter, and sumptuous diamond-pattern quilted leather seat facings. There’s also a new three-spoke steering wheel with a smaller diameter and a thicker rim—just right for the kind of vigorous use the GT Speed inspires—flanked by column-mounted shift paddles.
It is on the open road, however, that the GT Speed proves worthy of its vaunted name, and reveals to be much more than simply the sum of its (admittedly very fine) parts. Whereas the standard model coddles and soothes its occupants in ways that belie its huge performance potential, the Speed edition is a different animal altogether. Stunning thrust (60 mph arrives in a scant 4.3 seconds) is never more than a flex of the calf muscle away—turbo lag is nonexistent, and the engine’s colossal torque crests at only 1,750 rpm and holds steady all the way to the 6,000-rpm power peak. A clear-voiced tenor at full-throttle, the engine resounds in a basso profundo back-burble when the accelerator is lifted, thanks to a freer exhaust system, a big metallic catalyst, and some creative manipulation of the engine-management software. It’s a completely thrilling performance, one best-experienced windows-down (all the better to show off the car’s sensuous, B-pillarless roofline).
The steering wheel provides accurate but unobtrusive feedback from the road, as the four fat Pirellis find their grip and relentlessly pull the car forward. This is a 5,180-pound grizzly bear, make no mistake, but greatly sharpened steering and the inclusion of lightweight aluminum suspension components and 22-percent stiffer springs favor the Speed with truly unexpected alertness.
Bentley fitted our test vehicle with the car’s only significant option, carbon-ceramic disc brakes—at 16.5 inches in diameter, they are the largest brakes fitted to a production car. Although they add $16,500 to the car’s bottom line, their effectiveness cannot be overstated. The cross-drilled carbon-ceramic front discs lighten up the front rotating mass by about 50 pounds. Their stopping power is prodigious—and relentless. Time and again they return two-and-a-half tons from triple-digit speeds with fade-free precision. If a 592 hp is this car’s yin, these astonishing brakes are its yang.
A remarkable luxury car, the Speed is, as a Bentley should be, unremittingly opulent. But it’s also more agile than anything this big has a right to be and faster than pretty much anything at all. It is perhaps the ultimate automotive bon vivant. The Continental GT Speed edition arrives in Bentley showrooms this December, priced at $199,990.
Bentley Motors, www.bentleymotors.com
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