McLaren GT Obliterates Bentley Continental GT W12 in Drag Race

The Conti GT can be considered the face of the segment. It came out 17 years ago, and for about half of those, it was the main pick of football players across Europe. Bentley's formula focuses on raw power, AWD traction, and suspension that hammers out road imperfections.

Meanwhile, the McLaren GT is this new kid on the block. Using the bones of its Sports Series chassis, the supercar maker created its own GT. It looks like a 570S with muted styling, but packs quite a potent sting, as we're about to find out from this drag race.

In terms of power, the McLaren's V8 produces 612 hp while the W12-powered Continental GT has 6 hp more. However, the larger displacement gives Bentley almost 50% more torque, but we fear that's not going to be enough. Thanks to the AWD, massive engine, and luxury features, a W12 GT is about as heavy as the bulkiest German SUVs.

Based on the 0 to 62 times, it's not looking too close, as the McLaren is faster by about half a second. And that's the kind of gap we see in this the drag race video below. Both cars get a good launch, but the W12 quickly falls behind. It's even worse when they do a rolling race, as the mid-engine supercar-based GT doesn't have any traction advantages it abused from a dig.

Back in February, we featured another race that was almost identical with the exception of one engine: the Conti' featured a 542 hp 4.0-liter V8. The results were quite similar, while wet track conditions did make a small difference.