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Publicity photos courtesy Bentley Motor Co. Picture of GT at Gingin British Car Day by Terry Walker

Continental GT

The Bentley Continental GT was the first all-new Bentley since 1933, carrying over nothing from previous models. It was powered by a 6-litre twin-turbo W12 engine, used alloy extensively in the chassis, and was both incredibly fast and incredibly luxurious. It is also full-time 4-wd.

The W12 engine layout is hard to visualise.

First think of an extremely narrow angle twin-cam V6, with a vee of 12.5 degrees, in the style of a 1960s Lancia. Now imagine two of those V6s set at 72 degrees (on the centrelines) on a common crankshaft. The resulting engine is very short, very rigid, and capable of very high revs.

The GT has been a huge sucess, so much so that the production line at Crewe is maxed out.

Continental Flying Spur

The Flying Spur is the long wheelbase four-door edition of the GT, and was designed at the same time as the GT, although introduced three years later. A strict four-seater, it uses all the same running gear, engine etc as that car. It is naturally heavier, which means it is a little slower through the gears (but still lightning fast) but apparently no slower at the top end.

The production of these two cars, added together, will be the first in the history of the Crewe factory to go into five-figures per annum. At the peak of Silver Shadow production, Crewe was building 3,500 cars a year. These two together come to 10,000 cars per annum.¶