Continental Supersports test drives by Autocar and CAR magazine
Oct 2, 2009 | 05:12 AM
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Continental Supersports test drives by Autocar and CAR magazine
First one is new Autocar review of new Continental Supersports.
Bentley Continental Supersports
What is it?
On first acquaintance with the Bentley Continental Supersports, it’s hard not to be mesmerised by its power and speed. The ordinary Continental GT coupe is impressive enough in the poke department, but this new one has its power boosted by 13 per cent and its kerb weight cut by 110kg, which means its power-to-weight ratio jumps from 238 to 271bhp per tonne, its 0-100mph time is cut from 11.1 to 8.9sec and its top speed climbs from 198 to 205mph.
In short, the Supersports is as fast as any of us could want to go. It should not be lost, in all this, that the Continental Supersports is Bentley’s idea of an economy car. It has been painstakingly engineered to produce its 621bhp whether burning E85 (15 per cent petrol, 85 per cent ethanol) or pure pump petrol, or any combination of the two.
Making the engine management system versatile enough to cope is a more important engineering achievement than is generally perceived – apart from which, ethanol-based fuels are inclined to attack conventional plastics and rot fuel lines and gaskets. You must practically start again.
Even so, Bentley says its entire range will have this capability by 2012, bringing a CO2 fleet reduction of 15 per cent. Bentley insists that on a ‘well to wheel’ basis for all calculations an E85 Bentley’s emissions are around 70 per cent lower, not so far north of a Toyota Prius’s.
What’s it like?
Many experts disagree with the green hypothesis associated with the Bentley Continental Supersports, as you can imagine, but it does allow Bentley to claim that “cars can be green without being small, slow or boring”.
None of these three adjectives springs to mind when (with rising excitement) you scan the elegant grey-green flanks of the Supersports you’re about to drive, complete with an extra expanse of meshed grille, two no-nonsense extractor gills on the top surface of the bonnet, a complete lack of shiny trim and a set of the most beautiful gleaming black alloys, forged for strength and light weight.
Slip into the uncharacteristically firm, enveloping leather bucket seats, frames by Sparco, hand-trimmed at Crewe, thumb the starter button and the engine starts with a smooth, all-powerful thrum.
Snick ‘D’ with the knurled gear lever and you’ll be surprised as you pull away by the firmness of the suspension, oddly unaccompanied by surface jiggles that usually go with cars as stiff as this, riding on 20-inch wheels. At 40mph this car just glides.
Double, then treble the speed and it still glides, its powerful, adaptable dampers translating even the most body-heaving hump into a controlled, passenger-friendly movement. This is one of those mythical cars whose suspension is stiff and wheels are huge but which insists on riding brilliantly.
Cornering meets the same exalted standards. This big, heavy car eats corners like 2200kg coupés almost never do. On neutral throttle in bends it’ll understeer slightly.
Give it big power in faster bends and you can make it tighten the line by increasing the slip angle of its rear tyres, without encouraging the admirably laissez-faire ESP to intrude unless the surface gets slippery or you’ve made a truly hideous miscalculation. Come off the power and it’ll restore you to the line you first thought of.
Body roll is never an issue. Cornering loads don’t affect you, either, because you’re well and truly nailed into the seat by its firmness and shape. In fact, the main challenge is matching the quality of your own inputs to the responses of this car and making sure that, seduced by 621bhp, you don’t arrive at bends too fast. Even if you do, the carbon-ceramic brakes give you half a chance, washing speed away with an amazing lack of effort.
By the time my stint at the wheel of the £160,000 Continental Supersports had ended, I hardly cared that this was “the fastest and most powerful Bentley ever built”. Why? Because the sensations in my hands, feet and rump were telling me that this Supersports was something even more important in the Bentley hierarchy. It was the best.
Should I buy one?
Yes, and not only if you’re in the market for top-end pace. The clear intention of this car’s creators has been to build a performance car, capable, in the right hands, of running with Ferraris and Porsches. But the Supersports turns out to be so brilliant that some of its facets deserve airplay in a wider range of cars than the hard-nut performance minority.
The refined and unconventionally comfortable ride, the superb steering, the prodigious brakes, would all be loved by owners whose priority is not necessarily ultra-high speed. Let’s hope they’re bound, in appropriate form, for the rest of the Bentley range.
Bentley Continental Supersports - Road Test First Drive - Autocar.co.uk
Bentley Continental Supersports
What is it?
On first acquaintance with the Bentley Continental Supersports, it’s hard not to be mesmerised by its power and speed. The ordinary Continental GT coupe is impressive enough in the poke department, but this new one has its power boosted by 13 per cent and its kerb weight cut by 110kg, which means its power-to-weight ratio jumps from 238 to 271bhp per tonne, its 0-100mph time is cut from 11.1 to 8.9sec and its top speed climbs from 198 to 205mph.
In short, the Supersports is as fast as any of us could want to go. It should not be lost, in all this, that the Continental Supersports is Bentley’s idea of an economy car. It has been painstakingly engineered to produce its 621bhp whether burning E85 (15 per cent petrol, 85 per cent ethanol) or pure pump petrol, or any combination of the two.
Making the engine management system versatile enough to cope is a more important engineering achievement than is generally perceived – apart from which, ethanol-based fuels are inclined to attack conventional plastics and rot fuel lines and gaskets. You must practically start again.
Even so, Bentley says its entire range will have this capability by 2012, bringing a CO2 fleet reduction of 15 per cent. Bentley insists that on a ‘well to wheel’ basis for all calculations an E85 Bentley’s emissions are around 70 per cent lower, not so far north of a Toyota Prius’s.
What’s it like?
Many experts disagree with the green hypothesis associated with the Bentley Continental Supersports, as you can imagine, but it does allow Bentley to claim that “cars can be green without being small, slow or boring”.
None of these three adjectives springs to mind when (with rising excitement) you scan the elegant grey-green flanks of the Supersports you’re about to drive, complete with an extra expanse of meshed grille, two no-nonsense extractor gills on the top surface of the bonnet, a complete lack of shiny trim and a set of the most beautiful gleaming black alloys, forged for strength and light weight.
Slip into the uncharacteristically firm, enveloping leather bucket seats, frames by Sparco, hand-trimmed at Crewe, thumb the starter button and the engine starts with a smooth, all-powerful thrum.
Snick ‘D’ with the knurled gear lever and you’ll be surprised as you pull away by the firmness of the suspension, oddly unaccompanied by surface jiggles that usually go with cars as stiff as this, riding on 20-inch wheels. At 40mph this car just glides.
Double, then treble the speed and it still glides, its powerful, adaptable dampers translating even the most body-heaving hump into a controlled, passenger-friendly movement. This is one of those mythical cars whose suspension is stiff and wheels are huge but which insists on riding brilliantly.
Cornering meets the same exalted standards. This big, heavy car eats corners like 2200kg coupés almost never do. On neutral throttle in bends it’ll understeer slightly.
Give it big power in faster bends and you can make it tighten the line by increasing the slip angle of its rear tyres, without encouraging the admirably laissez-faire ESP to intrude unless the surface gets slippery or you’ve made a truly hideous miscalculation. Come off the power and it’ll restore you to the line you first thought of.
Body roll is never an issue. Cornering loads don’t affect you, either, because you’re well and truly nailed into the seat by its firmness and shape. In fact, the main challenge is matching the quality of your own inputs to the responses of this car and making sure that, seduced by 621bhp, you don’t arrive at bends too fast. Even if you do, the carbon-ceramic brakes give you half a chance, washing speed away with an amazing lack of effort.
By the time my stint at the wheel of the £160,000 Continental Supersports had ended, I hardly cared that this was “the fastest and most powerful Bentley ever built”. Why? Because the sensations in my hands, feet and rump were telling me that this Supersports was something even more important in the Bentley hierarchy. It was the best.
Should I buy one?
Yes, and not only if you’re in the market for top-end pace. The clear intention of this car’s creators has been to build a performance car, capable, in the right hands, of running with Ferraris and Porsches. But the Supersports turns out to be so brilliant that some of its facets deserve airplay in a wider range of cars than the hard-nut performance minority.
The refined and unconventionally comfortable ride, the superb steering, the prodigious brakes, would all be loved by owners whose priority is not necessarily ultra-high speed. Let’s hope they’re bound, in appropriate form, for the rest of the Bentley range.
Bentley Continental Supersports - Road Test First Drive - Autocar.co.uk
Oct 2, 2009 | 05:16 AM
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Posts: 3,533
CAR magazine review
Bentley Continental Supersports (2009) CAR review
What’s this? Bentley’s answer to the Renault R26R? Well they’re not exactly rivals, but the concept is similar: more performance, less weight and much less seating thanks to the deletion of the rear chairs. And to save everyone else having to peer into your car to confirm it’s a Supersports, the exterior features extra air intakes in a redesigned bumper, more vents in the bonnet, different tailpipes and arches flared by 50mm.
And just how much less weight and how much more performance does the Bentley Continental Supersports have?
Ditching the back seats and fitting lightweight fixed-rake fronts contributed massively to a 110kg weight reduction. Impressed? You’ll be less so when you hear that this whale still weighs 2240kg, over a tonne more than the Renault. Okay, that comparison is stupid, but you get the picture – this is still a grotesquely heavy car.
Which only makes the rate at which can devour tarmac all the more gob smacking. The standard GT musters 552bhp from its twin-turbo W12, the more performance oriented Speed, 600bhp, but the Supersports pushes 621bhp to both axles through a six-speed automatic gearbox. Zero to 62mph occupies just 3.9sec, down from 4.5sec for the Speed, while the top speed climbs fractionally to 206mph.
This engine is all about torque though, and there’s 590lb ft of crank-writhing action available almost all the way from 1800-6000rpm. This is now a truly rapid car, ducking below 9sec to the ton and emitting a deep bassy growl that’s part big band, part distant machine gun fire as gears slip home in half the time normally needed.
Going is one thing, but turning and stopping quite another when you weigh 2.2 tonnes...
That’s why the Superpsorts is the only Bentley to feature standard carbon brakes (they’re normally around £10k as an option), why the track is wider and why there are bespoke 20-inch Pirelli boots under each corner. Contrary to what you might expect, the Superpsorts not only turns in smartly but rides with real compliance. You can even drift it a little if you’ve got enough space thanks to the recalibarated stability system and the body control is deeply impressive given the heft.
Is it exempt from the London congestion charge?
Very droll. Owners should consider themselves lucky not to pay £50 a day to drive into London given the woeful 388g/km of CO2 spewed from those new oval tailpipes. To be fair that is an improvement on the 396g/km the standard car emits and fuel consumption improves by an inconsequential 0.3mpg to 17.3mpg. The big news (for Bentley, anyway) is that the Supersports can run on an E85 ethanol/petrol mix thanks to an upgraded fuel system. Because the ethanol bit comes from a renewable source, well-to-wheel emissions are said to be reduced by 70%. But when did you last see an E85 pump? E85 is hard to come by and most owners will just fill up on dirty old 98 octane.
How many? How much?
It’s not a limited production model according to Bentley, although the recession, impaired practicality and £163,000 price (£20k more than the Speed) means the reality will be quite different.
Verdict
You can dress a granny in hot pants but that won’t make her 25 again. Back seats or no back seats, this Continental is still too heavy, still too thirsty and still out of step with the times. Next year’s all-new alloy-bodied Conti replacement can’t come soon enough. But in the meantime, the rather pointless Supersports is the best driving Bentley yet, a luxurious British GT with real supercar performance.
Bentley Continental Supersports (2009) CAR review | Road Testing Reviews | Car Magazine Online
What’s this? Bentley’s answer to the Renault R26R? Well they’re not exactly rivals, but the concept is similar: more performance, less weight and much less seating thanks to the deletion of the rear chairs. And to save everyone else having to peer into your car to confirm it’s a Supersports, the exterior features extra air intakes in a redesigned bumper, more vents in the bonnet, different tailpipes and arches flared by 50mm.
And just how much less weight and how much more performance does the Bentley Continental Supersports have?
Ditching the back seats and fitting lightweight fixed-rake fronts contributed massively to a 110kg weight reduction. Impressed? You’ll be less so when you hear that this whale still weighs 2240kg, over a tonne more than the Renault. Okay, that comparison is stupid, but you get the picture – this is still a grotesquely heavy car.
Which only makes the rate at which can devour tarmac all the more gob smacking. The standard GT musters 552bhp from its twin-turbo W12, the more performance oriented Speed, 600bhp, but the Supersports pushes 621bhp to both axles through a six-speed automatic gearbox. Zero to 62mph occupies just 3.9sec, down from 4.5sec for the Speed, while the top speed climbs fractionally to 206mph.
This engine is all about torque though, and there’s 590lb ft of crank-writhing action available almost all the way from 1800-6000rpm. This is now a truly rapid car, ducking below 9sec to the ton and emitting a deep bassy growl that’s part big band, part distant machine gun fire as gears slip home in half the time normally needed.
Going is one thing, but turning and stopping quite another when you weigh 2.2 tonnes...
That’s why the Superpsorts is the only Bentley to feature standard carbon brakes (they’re normally around £10k as an option), why the track is wider and why there are bespoke 20-inch Pirelli boots under each corner. Contrary to what you might expect, the Superpsorts not only turns in smartly but rides with real compliance. You can even drift it a little if you’ve got enough space thanks to the recalibarated stability system and the body control is deeply impressive given the heft.
Is it exempt from the London congestion charge?
Very droll. Owners should consider themselves lucky not to pay £50 a day to drive into London given the woeful 388g/km of CO2 spewed from those new oval tailpipes. To be fair that is an improvement on the 396g/km the standard car emits and fuel consumption improves by an inconsequential 0.3mpg to 17.3mpg. The big news (for Bentley, anyway) is that the Supersports can run on an E85 ethanol/petrol mix thanks to an upgraded fuel system. Because the ethanol bit comes from a renewable source, well-to-wheel emissions are said to be reduced by 70%. But when did you last see an E85 pump? E85 is hard to come by and most owners will just fill up on dirty old 98 octane.
How many? How much?
It’s not a limited production model according to Bentley, although the recession, impaired practicality and £163,000 price (£20k more than the Speed) means the reality will be quite different.
Verdict
You can dress a granny in hot pants but that won’t make her 25 again. Back seats or no back seats, this Continental is still too heavy, still too thirsty and still out of step with the times. Next year’s all-new alloy-bodied Conti replacement can’t come soon enough. But in the meantime, the rather pointless Supersports is the best driving Bentley yet, a luxurious British GT with real supercar performance.
Bentley Continental Supersports (2009) CAR review | Road Testing Reviews | Car Magazine Online
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