Meet Bentley’s new 208-mph Continental GT Speed for $275,000

Bentley Motors will not be resting on its laurels following a file 12 months of gross sales in 2020 for the famed British luxurious carmaker.

The Volkswagen-owned firm on Tuesday unveiled the 2022 Continental GT Speed, a new efficiency model of its best-selling automobile nameplate. Bentley is asking the automobile the “most capable, performance-focused Bentley ever.”

The automobile is predicted to value about $274,900 when it goes on sale within the U.S. and Europe within the third quarter, adopted by different markets within the fourth quarter.

The two-door efficiency automobile includes a 6.0-liter 12-cylinder engine rated at 650 horsepower and 664 foot-pounds of torque. The automobile runs 0-60 mph in 3.5 seconds. Its prime pace is 208 mph, in accordance with the automaker. The efficiency is barely higher than the Bentley Continental GT and Continental GT convertible with the identical engine. It additionally options extra efficiency elements and tuning, officers mentioned.

“The new Continental GT Speed represents the very pinnacle of performance grand touring,” Matthias Rabe, Bentley’s head of engineering, mentioned in a launch.

The third-generation Continental GT Speed may very well be one of many final, if not the final, non-electrified variations of the automobile. Bentley plans to completely provide plug-in hybrid electrical or battery electrical autos by 2026, and full electric vehicles only by 2030.

“This is a big change for a company that’s grown up on 6.75-liter engines and W12 engines,” Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark mentioned throughout a media occasion. “We know that legislation, customer taste and the characteristics of a battery-electric transmissions fit perfectly with the Bentley strategy, so we’re very excited about it.”

Hallmark mentioned the corporate doesn’t plan to have plug-in hybrid electrical autos (PHEVs) with V-12 engines. He mentioned V-8 engines mixed with electrification are anticipated to attain comparable or higher efficiency. PHEVs mix battery know-how with inside combustion engines.

Bentley’s bought 11,206 vehicles in 2020 — regardless of a seven-week closure of its manufacturing unit in England through the top of the Covid-19 pandemic final spring. It topped the corporate’s 11,006-unit file in 2019. The Bentley Continental GT and Continental GT Convertible mixed to account for 39% of its gross sales.