BRITISH luxurious marque Bentley has teased a hard-core Continental mannequin in a teaser video, drip-feeding details about the “return of an iconic title”, with modern aero and a rumoured concentrate on lightness over outright energy.
The 20-second video, posted to the model’s social media channels on October 1, reveals a car inside a bunker, clearly a Continental however extra aesthetically hard-core than the present line-up’s performance-focused GT Velocity.
Whereas the video’s caption is cryptic, it gives greater than sufficient clues to counsel the return of the Continental Supersports, which hasn’t been up to date since 2018.
The caption means that “the return of an iconic title to Bentley is imminent, 100 years after it was first launched,” probably referencing the primary Supersports mannequin in 1925, which in its day was a world-class performer able to 100mph (160km/h).
It’s also prone to be a razor-sharp track-ready weapon, with Bentley suggesting it is going to be “raring to carry out”.
Whereas the final Supersports, launched in 2018, featured a stonking 7.0-litre turbocharged W12 engine producing 522kW/1017Nm, the brand new mannequin is rumoured to make use of the identical boosted V8 as its GT stablemates, albeit with out the extra nudge of a hybrid system.
Based on Autocar within the UK, the mannequin will characteristic the twin-turbocharged V8 engine tuned to provide “greater than 640bhp (447kW)”, which means it’s prone to provide much less peak energy than its GT Velocity sibling which produces 575kW/1000Nm.
This is because of the truth that, in keeping with the Autocar report, it’s prone to eliminate the 140kW electrical motor in favour of a pure-ICE powertrain, with the publication additionally suggesting it is going to be rear-wheel drive in comparison with the GT Velocity which sends energy to all 4 corners.
That is an unsurprising transfer, if true, as a consequence of Bentley’s latest backpedalling on its plan to ‘go electrical’, with Autocar reporting final month that the marque is getting ready to launch pure-petrol successors to the Bentayga, Continental GT and Flying Spur nameplates.
Autocar additionally claims its sources have outlined a plan to place the Continental on a food regimen, with the Supersports set to weigh as little as 2000kg (down on the GT Velocity’s 2459kg), casting off pointless weight like battery, electrical motor and entrance differential.
If the final Supersports was something to go by, the incoming mannequin can be prone to characteristic lashings of carbon fibre, to additional cut back kerb weight and sure agency up the aerodynamic potential of the large Bentley.
Rumoured to be priced from a not insignificant £400,000 (AU$814,960) when it launches later this 12 months, a big value bump over the GT Velocity ($AU581,900), it’ll be probably the most costly grand tourers cash should buy.
