2010 Bentley Continental Supersports First Drive

Bentley Continental Supersports

Bentley Continental Supersports

If you keep the throttle mashed, you can hit 140+ on Monticello Motor Club's long straight. Massive carbon-ceramic front rotors bleed off speed, and you'll flick the downshift paddle numerous times in preparation for the (relatively) low-speed first corner. Aluminum suspension components and sticky Pirelli's bite hard, and once past the apex, you'll press the twin-turbocharged, 12-cylinder engine's 590 pound-feet of torque back into the New York track's surface.

Lapping Monticello in a 24 Hours of Le Mans-winning prototype? No. It's a leather-lined, roadgoing Bentley. One that weighs 5000 pounds, at that. Welcome to the latest, hottest, best-performing model in the Continental lineup, called Supersports.
"We had one group of engineers working on getting more power out of our 6.0-liter W-12 engine," says Brian Gush, Bentley's director of Powertrain and Chassis Engineering. "Another was addressing vehicle weight reduction. A third was working on the ZF transmission, in search of quicker shifts. We decided to meld these efforts together, add a body/chassis improvement program, and make the ultimate Continental GT."

If there's one thing the Continental suffers from, it's weight. There's just too much of it, and too much of it on the front end; all of the engine sits forward of the front axle line. So out came the scales. Semi-racing style, non-power-adjustable Sparco seats account for the first 100 pounds out of the middle. As the Supersports was conceived to compete with cars like the Ferrari 599 Fiorano and the Aston Martin DBS, the rear seats hit the dumpster entirely. This, and extensive use of carbon-fiber trim, saved another 57 pounds in the cabin.

Switching from iron to the aforementioned carbon-ceramic front brake rotors saved another 44 pounds. This move gets bonus points, as the weight lost here is unsprung and also reciprocating mass, so this seemingly small benefit is vast. Lighter binders allow suspension components that could be designed 20 pounds lighter. The Supersports' new 20-inch wheels weigh 5.5 pounds a corner less than those on other Continentals. All the abs crunches led to over 240 pounds less girth.