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Searing heat, long open tarmac and the dry Australian outback – welcome to the location of Bentley’s high-speed run of the 16MY Bentley Continental GT Speed. The intention was to reach the car's claimed top speed of 331kmph.
The Bentley Continental GT Speed is something like the cheetah, its long athletic legs propelling it to go the distance without tiring. When launched, Bentley had claimed a top speed of 206mph! Sure, it has a 12 cylinder engine but to reach those speeds in a 2.3-tonne car sounded ridiculous. It was time Bentley verified the claim.
Six-time Australian touring car and two-time Bathurst 1,000 champion, John Bowe was the perfect choice of driver for Bentley’s high-speed run. It only helped that he has previous experience with the Bentley’s Flying B Racing under his belt.
The venue for this speed run was the Northern Territory route, one of only three derestricted roads in the world. On this route, you have The Stuart Highway, which covers a distance of 1,761 miles (2,834 km) from Darwin in the Northern Territory to Port Augusta, South Australia – approximately the same distance as London to Istanbul or New York to Denver. Now, what better place than this to allow the luxurious grand tourer to stretch its legs.
The 626bhp, 820Nm, W12-powered GT Speed Grand Tourer reached Vmax in just 76 seconds, covering a distance of 9.4 kilometres in the process. At top speed, the 6.0-litre twin-turbo Grand Tourer was covering a staggering 92 metres per second. If we were to do some number crunching then, you will find that at Vmax the 16MY Bentley Continental GT Speed was circulating 216 litres of coolant through its engine and radiator per minute; drawing over 4,700 litres of air through its radiator each second; and using 80 per cent of its engine power just to overcome aerodynamic loads. This speaks volumes about its performance and engine prowess.
Bowe, who performed the feat, was quite in awe of the feat himself. He said, “This isn’t a modified racecar; it’s a luxurious grand touring road car fresh off the production line. It took us a little over a minute to go from a standstill to 206 mph. That’s extraordinary. Even when you break through the 200 mph barrier, the GT Speed just keeps accelerating.”
We’ve got the video to show you how the feat was accomplished. Watch the speedometer closely as the express locomotive goes barrelling down the road.
Source:BentleyMedia
