Bentley Four-Way Drag Race Reveals How Much Faster Cars Are Today Than 93 Years Ago

For today's drag race, the guys over at CarWow have lined up four different Bentleys. The video was posted today, and the action is about to go down on the same airstrip we've seen hundreds of times before.

From the get-go, it's quite obvious which car is going to win this challenge. But determining a winner is not the main objective here. Instead, we'll see how Bentley's fastest vehicles have evolved over the last 93 years. That's right, they've brought out the classic Blower for this test.

This vehicle is now insured for a cool $23 million, and it's a genuine piece of automotive history. It runs on a supercharged 4.5-liter, inline-four engine, that should have an output of about 240 hp and 258 lb-ft (350 Nm).

That's not bad at all, considering its age and all. With an unsynchronized four-speed crash box, you know it can't be easy to drive this thing fast. The most advanced car on the grid is the new Continental GT Speed, which makes use of a massive twin-turbo 6.0-liter, W12 engine. That should give the driver access to 650 hp and 664 lb-ft (900 Nm) of torque, which is enough to propel it to a top speed of almost 210 mph (338 kph) even though it weighs about 5,000 lbs (2,268 kg).

The Continental R Mulliner is special in its way, as only 131 units have been built by the British manufacturer. This one has a turbocharged 6.75-liter, V8 engine which translates to a maximum output of 420 hp and 650 lb-ft (881 Nm) of torque. It also happens to be heavier than the GT Speed, but slightly lighter than the older Turbo R.

But this one will have to do away with just 296 hp and 487 lb-ft (660 Nm) of torque coming out of that boosted 6.8-liter V8. You also have to consider that the three-speed and four-speed gearboxes in the older cars here weren't built for raw acceleration. Meanwhile, the dual-clutch eight-speed one in the GT Speed is light-years ahead and should provide formidable results.

For the first test of the day, cars are lined up for the standing quarter-mile (402 meters) race. Everything goes as expected, as the newest car is the first to cross the finish line. The old Blower comes in last, but it surprisingly gets up to 70 mph (112 kph) in the process. Alas, after two runs, the stopwatch reveals how much faster Bentleys have become over the past century.

The GT Speed only needed 11.4 seconds to get the job done. The Continental R Mulliner required an additional 2.8 seconds to cross the line, while the Turbo R further added 2.6 seconds to that result. Looking at the evolution between the oldest and newest cars here, 93 years of technological advancements translate to 9.9 seconds down the quarter-mile. The rolling race provides similar results, but it also shows that the Blower can match the top speed of a modern-day entry-level EV. Surprisingly enough, the gap between these cars wasn't as big for the braking test.