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How Good Is the New Bentley Continental GT?

We've been waiting for this review ever since the new Bentley Continental GT made its motor show debut in Frankfurt two months ago: Steve Sutcliffe in "the best British GT car," as he puts it.
How Good Is the New Bentley Continental GT? 2 photos
Photo: YouTube screenshot
How Good Is the New Bentley Continental GT?
Only it's not very British and has other roles besides GT-ing around from Paris to Monaco. Bentley co-developed the platform for this car with Porsche, which the all-new twin-turbo W12 also falls under the Volkswagen Group umbrella. So it's more of a German GT.

Also, as entertaining as the footage might be, nobody buys such an expensive car to use on the race track. Sure, it may have been developed there. But the value of the car drops like a stone even if you don't torture the suspension.

It's not Sutcliffe's fault. This is the kind of advertising Bentley wanted to have for the car, so the Anglesea race circuit is used to demonstrate the fact that track-readiness is the new Conti GT's most improved attribute.

Steve didn't mind, as he tortured the car into doing amazing sideways skids. He says it doesn't feel anywhere near as heavy as the numbers say. That might be true, but the sound of clicking flappy paddle... buttons are driving us crazy. In fact, many of the YouTube comments are about the fact that you're not supposed to constantly change gears in a GT.

But hey, if it feels fast on the track, it probably feels insane on the road, which is a good thing. The new suspension setup also deserves a lot of praise. Using a combination of air and computers, it feels soft even on 22-inch wheels yet exhibits no body roll in the corners. The Porsche-borrowed gearbox is also much better than what you got in the old car.

So overall, we have nothing to complain about other than the sound of the paddles.

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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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