Bentley Continental Supersports takes world’s fastest four-seater title
CHANGING the way consumers perceive a brand is a monumental task that requires a careful balance of many elements, including marketing strategy, customer service, faith in the product and persistence.
It doesn’t matter how good your mobile phone is, if bursts into flames and you aren’t allowed to take it on a plane anymore – even if it hasn’t blown up yet, but then no discerning consumer will invest in a smartphone if it works just fine but makes you look like a 1980s Wall Street yuppie.
The very same applies to cars and changing your target audience’s attitude takes a lot of effort.
On Australian turf, South Korean brands Kia and Hyundai have gone from being the laughable range of vehicles that used to be the last-ditch option if price was your only concern, to a respectable line-up of desirable cars that often give the Europeans a run for their money.
But it takes more than build quality to turn the tides, and the relentless pursuit of quality almost once put British luxury car-maker Bentley out of business, highlighting the fact that if you build a car that never goes wrong, you wipe out almost any returning customers overnight.
After forging a solid customer base of well-heeled owners, years later Bentley is reinventing itself again and is gradually building a new younger audience that still has the cash to splash, only on something a little more sporty.
When the Continental GT came along in 2003 the stunning coupe embarked on a whole new direction for the company with a more driver-focused and sporty model, but it has just been given the most incredible update.
Under the bonnet of the original GT, a 6.0-litre turbo W12 engine pumped out a whopping 412kW and 650Nm, but after 13 years evolving the car-maker has now introduced the Supersports which has been squeezed to produce 522kW and more than 1000Nm of torque. Wow.
So what does that mean for the latest variant of the company’s sports star? A record-breaking top speed of 336km/h, crowing the Supersports as the fastest four-seater production car on the planet.
It is quick to get there as well with 100km/h demolished in just 3.5 seconds thanks to the momentous torque and a four-wheel-drive system to handle it. That’s a tenth faster than a Mercedes-AMG GT R!
Want some more hyperbole? Okay. The Continental Supersports is Bentley’s fastest and most powerful vehicle to date and it probably has a price tag that also breaks records but Bentley has not gone public with the price as yet and, as is often the case with the most opulent vehicles in the world, if you have to ask then you will probably be asked to leave the showroom.
The mighty, unorthodox engine is largely the same unit that the Volkswagen Group developed more than a decade ago, but for the most recent power boost, the engineers slapped on a pair of bigger turbochargers and revised the intercooler circuit.
At the bottom end, the W12 conrod bearings were beefed up to take the extra grunt, while the torque converter was upgraded to a faster-locking version.
Producing that huge output and flinging the Supersports to stratospheric speeds is an impressive feat but hauling the car up is almost as notable. The coupe version weighs-in at a hulking 2280kg while the convertible takes that figure up to 2455kg so braking has to be world-class as well.
Carbon silicon carbide rotors are housed in the 21-inch wheels at each corner and measure 430mm at the front end – the largest of their kind says Bentley. That’s the same size as the wheels bolted to a Toyota 86.
Under full load, the exotic material can reach 1000 degrees, resists fade even under punishing conditions and can glow red at the limit.
More carbon composites are used in other areas including a whole host of body parts but customers are offered even more carbon panels including its huge bonnet, if they have the extra cash to splash.
Redesigned front and rear bumpers, side skirts and the inclusion of bonnet vents to clear the additional heat stand the Supersports out from the rest of the Continental range, as does its bigger rear spoiler, racing-style splitter and gloss black exhausts.
On the inside, the luxurious diamond-quilted seats are upholstered in an unapologetic tri-tone colour scheme, which extends to the door trims, steering wheel and gear lever.
The car-maker has tried a similar stunt before when it introduced the stripped-out, GT3 racecar-inspired Continental GT3-R, but with a relatively mild turbo V8 for power, the boy-racer fell short of the latest iteration with a zero to 100km/h dash of 3.8 seconds and 273km/h top speed.
The Continental Supersports is without doubt one of the most sensational vehicles to be born at the Crewe factory in the UK and will certainly appeal to the more performance hungry Bentley fan, but does the most potent car to date enhance the new reputation Bentley is working so hard to build for itself?
Daniel Gardner GoAuto.com.au
Protect your Classic. Call Shannons Insurance on 13 46 46 to get a quote today.
