A Muscular and Contemporary Design Statement

The new Continental GT Speed continues the three key design aspects seen through Bentley’s heritage since the iconic R-Type Continental of 1952.

The fourth generation follows the form of the modern two-door Bentley in that it has the stance of a resting beast – muscular but relaxed, and confident with strong, well-defined haunches indicating the power beneath the skin. The favoured image of Bentley’s designers is a tiger at rest – calm and collected, but ready to unleash incredible force.

The front of the car is inspired by the upright elegance of a thoroughbred horse – reinforcing the status of this exceptional luxury grand tourer. Finally, the ‘endless bonnet’ creates a strong horizontal line through the car indicating the high-performance engine and pure speed.

The whole car has been visually cleaned, with fewer breaks in the surfaces giving more muscularity and a more refined shape. The complete front aspect of the car is new, from the body-coloured integrated body kit to the biggest change in the last two decades for the Continental GT – single front headlamps. Not since the S2 of 1959 has a mainstream, non-coachbuilt Bentley had single front lamps, but the change brings a more determined expression to the face of the GT, again inspired by the focused expression of a hunting tiger.

The headlamp features a new horizontal ‘eyebrow,’ a deep crystal cut diamond effect to the top of the lamps and an illuminated lower pattern. The matrix LED lamps contain 120 separate LEDs that are digitally controlled with differing responsibilities for low beam foreground to high beam power boost. This increases the capability of the lamp with main beam widened field of illumination and improved fade out, which gives a more gradual transition from lit to unlit areas. This makes reading the road more natural and gives a more relaxing driving experience by avoiding the perception of “black holes” in the field of vision.

The rear of the car has also been redesigned including the bumper, taillights, boot lid and exhaust tail pipes. The boot lid incorporates an integrated aerodynamic form to provide rear downforce without the need for a deployable rear spoiler, and the bumper is much more dramatically styled emphasising the width of the car, whilst being cleaner with less embellishment.

The taillights have a dramatic new appearance with a much wider graphic stretching into the boot lid. The lamps protrude out from the boot and internally they feature a deep three-dimensional diamond pattern across their form. When illuminated the tips of the diamonds accentuated creating a molten lava-like visual effect.

New 22” wheels has a strongly directional design again takes inspiration comes from the tiger – with the ‘claws’ of the wheel digging into the road. The new wheel style is offered in dark tint paint with polished accents, gloss black or silver painted.

The Benchmark Interior

The Continental family already features some of the most beautifully executed interiors in the world and showcases the pinnacle of craftsmanship from the skilled team at Bentley’s carbon neutral factory in Crewe, England.

The new grand tourer features a new precision quilt pattern taking inspiration from modern fashion design to the seats and doors. With sculptured quilting, fading perforations and a new quilt embroidery, the cabin provides the ultimate cocooning environment for any extraordinary journey.

The 20-way adjustable seats in the Continental GT have long set industry standards in comfort and refinement. New interior features include the optional Wellness seating with Postural Adjust and Auto Climate to the front seats, minimizing fatigue and providing a level of relaxation that is truly unique.

The new Dark Chrome Specification provides a more contemporary aesthetic and gives a more understated character to the cabin. This applies to door handles, switches, speak grilles and many other areas around the cabin. Bentley’s bespoke division – Mulliner – will also be offering a collection of unique features enabling further personalisation to the latest model.

A choice of three audio systems is offered in the Continental GT. The standard system features 10 speakers and 650 Watts, while a Bang & Olufsen 1,500 W, 16-speaker system with illuminated speaker grilles is aimed at lifestyle-oriented customers. A Naim 2,200 W, 18-speaker system with Active Bass Transducers built into the front seats and eight sound modes is offered for the true audiophile. Laminated acoustic glass is retained for the windscreen and side windows, resulting in a nine-decibel reduction in exterior noise versus non-acoustic glazing.

The new Continental GT continues to feature the innovative Bentley Rotating Display – the three-sided display featuring a 12.3” high-definition display, three elegant analogue dials, and an unbroken side of handcrafted veneer. The three sides are selectable at the touch of a button.

Mood lighting around the cabin works the sculptural shapes of the seats and doors to create a cocooning effect, with the user able to choose the colour of the lighting from 30 options.

Bold Colours

For the next generation of GT, new colours are being added to the already extensive palette, updating the world-class offer of virtually unlimited paint and interior trim combinations.

This includes a new modern Gravity Grey hide, also offered with a matching sophisticated metallic exterior paint that looks solid until the sunlight hits it, revealing metallic copper accents.

The new Continental GT will be launched in Tourmaline Green, a vivid and modern interpretation of the iconic Bentley green and a striking statement for any new Bentley.

Technology

The fourth generation Continental GT and GTC Speed benefit from the latest generation of electrical architecture, enabling a significant step forward in infotainment and driver assistance technology. This technology is the most advanced in the luxury segment, and extremely competitive for customers coming to Bentley from premium brands.

The environment display (shown in the drivers instrument panel) supports and enables driving in semi-assisted mode providing feedback to the driver how the car is responding to other vehicles. The vehicle’s understanding of the surrounding environment allows for Intelligent Park Assist – the latest generation self-parking system with speed control. The technology is not just limited to driving aspects. Theair conditioning system has been revised to increase cabin wellness including air ionisers, a new particulate matter filter and displays showing air quality outside and inside the vehicle. The new convenience features will make every journey more relaxed experience and can be tailored to reflect customers personal preferences. The system also synchronises with the car’s satellite navigation, knowing when it might be necessary to improve cabin air quality (for example by recirculating the cabin air when in a tunnel).

Improvements have been made with essential features such as wireless Apple CarPlay, wireless Android Auto and over-the-air map updates. Beyond these features, customers who choose to pair their mobile phone will enjoy connected car services, including:

• Remote charging status, allowing monitoring and control of vehicle charging when plugged-in
• Remote Park Assist – enabling the possibility for a customer to park or summon their vehicle remotely from their phone
• Remote cabin pre-conditioning – ensuring the climate in the car is set before a drive starts, including seat heating

Each year further new features will be available, such as green traffic light prediction – which is increasingly activated in major cities in the US and Europe and allows a “magic carpet” drive through the city centre.

The fourth generation Continental will also benefit with the introduction of My Bentley app studio. The new My Bentley App Studio is the next addition to Bentley’s digital ecosystem for customers. Customers can gain access to a wide variety of vehicle and third-party applications which can be downloaded directly, independent of a smartphone to the infotainment system. Applications include, Music, video, gaming, navigation, parking and charging etc. The applications are seamlessly implemented in the infotainment system and can be used safely and reliably even whilst driving. The application portfolio is adapted specifically to each market.

The Continental GTC Speed

For the first time in the Continental family’s history, the new open-top GTC is being launched at the same time as the coupe. The Convertible features Bentley’s seven-bow fabric roof system, available in a range of seven exterior colours (including tweed) and deployable in 19 seconds at speeds up to 30 mph (48 km/h).

Performance of the Continental GTC Speed is breath-taking for an open-air Grand Tourer. 0-60 mph takes 3.2 secs, with 0-100 km/h taking 3.4 secs. Top speed is electronically limited to 177 mph / 285 km/h.

The Underwater Speed Record

To prove the performance of the new Continental GT Speed, Bentley set out to establish a new speed record – one not formally attempted before. The authentic sound of the cross-plane V8 exhaust note inspired the idea of running the car above 200 mph through a tunnel – and a project lasting 18 months set out to achieve exactly that.

With the incredible support of the Norwegian highways authority (Statens Vegvesen) and the Norwegian police, the Ryfylke Tunnel in Rogaland county, Norway was secured for the attempt. The Ryfylke Tunnel is the world’s longest subsea road tunnel at 8.9 miles / 14.4 km long, and the deepest tunnel of any kind in the world – descending to 292 metres below sea level.

Rounds of engineering analysis and simulation evaluated the airflow around the car at high speed in an enclosed tube to ensure safety. Then, in April, a team from Bentley and supporting suppliers headed to Norway to run the new Continental GT Speed through the tunnel, as part of the creation of a launch film for the new car. Running on renewable second-generation biofuel, and charged with electricity from fully renewable sources, the car went from a standstill to its 208 mph / 335 km/h top speed in just 33 seconds. Several runs were completed for filming, in so doing establishing a new unofficial speed record for a car in a tunnel.

More details on the Underwater Speed Record project, including a behind-the-scenes film, will be released in due course.

As Peter Smith, the General Manager of Bentley Saudi Arabia, stated, “We are thrilled to announce the reveal of the extraordinary Continental GT Speed in Saudi Arabia. As Bentley’s flagship grand tourer, the Continental GT Speed offers our customers the pinnacle of grand touring capabilities, combining immense power, dynamic performance, and unparalleled luxury.”