In a world first, Bentley has revealed its all-new Bentley Continental GT live on the internet – allowing viewers to look at the car from a variety of different angles, inside and out, all via a live video feed.
The sportier-looking GT will be revealed in public at the Paris motor show later this month, and will be offered for sale with a £130,000 price tag after that.
“The V8 is our hedge against fuel-price spikes, carbon-dioxide-related legislation and uncertainty in the global supercar market,” says Uli Eichhorn, Bentley’s technical director.
For the first time, Continental GT customers will be offered a choice of two high-performance engines – an improved version of the current W12 unit, available from October and costing around £130,000, and an all-new 4.0-litre V8 with 40 per cent lower CO2 emissions, on sale in late 2011.
Eichhorn says the 4.0-litre V8 is an all-new engine co-developed with Audi and is yet to appear in a production model.
At the moment, its power output remains a secret, as does its induction. But given Bentley’s enthusiasm for turbo-charging, the likely output figures of the 4-0 litre V8 will probably rate between 350hp and 400hp.
Helped by slightly wider front and rear tracks, the changes from the current Continental GT are subtle, but add up to a significant transformation of the GT into a much sportier, sharper-looking sports coupe.
On the inside, the hand-crafted interior has been reworked for even greater luxury and functionality. Every surface is trimmed in metal, soft-touch leather or wood veneers. Under the foot, deep-pile carpets boost comfort levels even further. New ‘Cobra’ design seats are each 25kg lighter and more compact than the ones they replace, freeing up an extra 46mm of legroom for rear passengers.
“The great thing about Bentley is that we combine sportiness and luxury like no other brand,” says Bentley’s head of exterior design, Raul Pires.
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