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Has Bentley stolen the show at FoS with the Continental GT3?
Is that not the loudest, most brutal engine noise you've heard in a long time? In an age of eco buttons and turbochargers supposedly sapping induction roar the Bentley Continental powered up the hill at Goodwood to the most tumultuous soundtrack.
Whilst BMW M5s have to play engine sounds through the stereo the Continental GT3 just plays us an honest to goodness V8 symphony, and by god it's a masterpiece. Bizarrely the Continental GT3 has been developed by M-Sport.
The Continental bodyshell remains but pretty much everything else has been chucked in the bin or revised. The engine is a race-prepped version of the Bentley 4-litre V8 with twin-turbochargers. The doors, boot lid and bonnet have are carbon fibre. The interior is gone, and a roll cage installed. The suspension has double wishbones all round with 4-way adjustable dampers, and competition brakes have been installed.
1,000kg in weight has been shaved off the standard road car which means it'll weigh around 1700kg - a little more than a Porsche 911.
The GT3 has been designed to go racing. The only series mentioned so far is the FIA Blancpain championship. Surely something will be amiss if Bentley do not go racing at Le Mans in 2014 with the GT3.
I took some photos of the GT3 on display at the Bentley stand on the Thursday of the Goodwood Festival of Speed. If you study the photos and watch the video again you'll see they are different cars. The biggest difference is that the one on the stand has its spoiler mounts coming from the rear of the car whilst the GT3 in the video had a bootlid mounted spoiler. Strange to see such a difference between the two.
