“A way of driving that’s really ‘entre nous’ “
(‘The Continental’, with apologies to songwriters Con Conrad and Herbert Magidson)
Since its launch in 2003, the Bentley Continental has quite possibly been the ultimate grand tourer of the motoring 21st Century. Taking its inspiration from the iconic definition of luxury grand touring, the 1952 Bentley R-Type Continental which at the time was the fastest four-seater car in the world, the Continental GT has epitomised what one would expect from a modern luxury grand tourer.
The third iteration of the modern Continental GT has now arrived, taking Bentley’s blend of luxury and performance to its apotheosis. The Continental GT, whilst sharing its lineage with its predecessors, and heritage with the R-Type of over 60 years ago, is of an entirely new construction, with every panel, engineering, and detail starting from scratch, apart from (I am told by the Bentley Motors boffins) the glove box latch, which was the only item that they felt could not be improved upon!
The shape is instantly recognisable as a Bentley Continental GT, but the stance of the third-generation car looks lower, wider, and more dynamic than the vehicle it replaces. Using aerospace manufacturing techniques, the vast single sheets of crafted aluminium of which the exterior surface is composed, have subtly changed the look and feel of this motor car. Moving the front wheels forward by 135 mm has not only provided dramatically improved weight distribution and therefore balance and handling, but this has also enhanced the flow line. The new Continental GT has a longer bonnet leading the eye towards the muscular hips redolent of the R-Type, and the dramatic sloping roofline. The designers’ inspiration however was not only Bentley heritage models, but ideas as diverse as London’s The Shard building, and also the exclusive 1930s Spartan Executive aeroplane (just 35 or 36 were built by the company owned by J.Paul Getty) and owned by such notaries as Howard Hughes and King Ghazi of Iraq who reputedly had a royal throne installed in his example.
The Continental GT may not have a throne, but the interior and the car in general certainly make one feel ‘King of the Road’. The cabin is a plethora of attention to detail, almost too much to comprehend. To provide a few examples though, the use of exquisite materials, leather, wood and chrome, combine and align in dimensions measured down to tenths of millimetres, the new ‘diamond in diamond’ quilting technique of the upholstery contains 712 individually-angled stitches per square, whilst the tolerance of the new knurling surfaces to the haptic controls is to 0.1 mm (just twice the thickness of a human hair)! Suffice to say it is an environment in which luxury, comfort and pleasure combine in equal measure. Nothing has been forgotten about, nothing is spared and in the Mulliner Driving Spec of the car I drove, the cabin features exactly 310,675 stitches using 2.8 km of the finest thread to pull it all together in harmonisation.
The facts and figures behind this ultimate driving machine are mind boggling, and we have not even talked about the utterly magnificent hand-built six litre, 12-cylinder in W configuration engine with two parallel twin-scroll turbochargers providing seemingly limitless power. This, connected to the smoothest of eight-speed gearboxes, can take the Bentley Continental GT effortlessly past 205 miles per hour to 333 km/h. The power, torque and speed are even more exhilarating than the bass pumped into the heated or air-cooled seats from the optional ‘Naim for Bentley’ premium audio system with its 2,200 watts 21 channel amplifier.
With Bentley it is all about attention to detail and what attention there is to those details. Could I criticise the car? Only if I quibble about the indicator and other steering wheel stalk controls. Can I praise it? Yes, unequivocally. It is a marvel of modern mechanical and electrical engineering; a thoroughly convincing integration of the digital and the analogue; a car that interacts with both the new (my co-driver had just turned 25 and behind the steering wheel of his first supercar he was at once exhilarated and calmed by this amazing machine), and the traditional Bentley customer (whose desires and needs have been thoroughly market researched).
The intrinsic feel and beauty of this car, however, has not been compromised. The overall look is athletic and of high speed, all destined and harnessed for the command of the person behind the controls. It is truly a sum of constituent parts. My favourite of these parts has to be the new headlights. Inspired by the finest cut-crystal glassware the headlamps feature 82 individual LEDs with matrix technology, so powerful that a headlamp wash system is unnecessary, but which will never dazzle other road users even when on main beam.
The Continental GT is like a Swiss timepiece, a Savile Row tailored suit, an exclusive aeroplane, a diamond necklace, a design artefact, all rolled into one for use on the road. I liked it from the moment I opened the light-weight door, which holds itself open in any position, as I entered the future of Bentley Motors. Bentley celebrates its Centenary in 2019 but continues to look forward to the destiny of the motor car with the tour de force that is the new Continental GT, fulfilling the words of its founder W.O. Bentley, “To build a good car, a fast car, the best in its class”.
