Review / We review the new 2020 Bentley Continental GT V8, and it's a devastatingly handsome beast
Bentley has given the V8 enough juice to make anyone question why you’d buy the more expensive, gas-hungrier W12, writes Hannah Elliott
Along the Pacific Ocean just west of Napa, California, a section of Skaggs Springs Road is known for fog-shrouded curves perfect for uncorking your stress and shaking down new cars. It was there I realised why Bentley is so darn confident about its new V8 Continental GT.
The US$198,500 beast (US$218,350 for the convertible version) is as devastatingly handsome as its W12 predecessor, with chiselled sides and a latticework grille and four round headlights so brash they look like they’re spoiling for a fight.
But more important, as you round corners and hit the gas, it feels as if you’ve harnessed a linebacker with the footwork of Roger Federer. The 2020 Bentley Continental GT V8 is power and agility blended into a cocktail you’ll want to pour down your throat.
With a new engine, new light(er)-weight aluminium body, and new double-clutch gearbox (more on those later), Bentley has given the V8 enough juice to make anyone question why you’d buy the more expensive, gas-hungrier W12.
I’m convinced that those lucky ducks who purchase one of the new V8s will feel giddy with their choice. There will be many of them, proportionately speaking. Bentley has delivered more than 70,000 Continental GTs worldwide; it’s the bestselling Bentley ever. In the United States, they make up half of all Bentleys sold, Bentley North America president Christoph Georges told me at dinner the evening after my test drive. Nearly 80 per cent of the Continental GTs sold in the US will be V8s, rather than W12s, saving their owners US$16,100 in (for them, inconsequential) pocket change while providing grander engine notes and edgier handling under duress.
A core of traditionalists will remain loyal to the W12, Bentley’s most historic engine configuration; for the rest of us, the V8 will be the happy go-to.
Leaner and meaner
With 542bhp and 568 pound-feet of torque, the car has 84bhp fewer than the W12. But that’s on paper. I’d bet good money you’d never know the difference driving it; unlike the W12, this all-wheel-drive V8 is heavily rear-wheel-drive biased, especially in Sport mode. It feels like a “real” sports car, which any track enthusiast will tell you must be rear-wheel-driven, no? Plus, it’s 200 pounds or so lighter than the W12. And this is an all-new engine, updated since the first V8 Bentley made in 2012. The coupe will go to 60mph in 3.9 seconds (4 seconds for the convertible). It has a top speed of 198mph.
The part about the engine that blew me away, though, was not its starting-line sprint speed. It was what it did between third and fourth gears.
Stretching out on an uphill grade, blasting toward Highway 1, the GT went from 65mph to 91mph in the same time it took for me to glance from the excellent heads-up display to the passenger seat and back. That’s 91 miles per hour – uphill. For a 4,773-pound car to be able to gather itself so seamlessly and quickly from an already fresh clip was shocking. Heck, for a car of any weight to be able to glide like that was shocking. Note to self: Buy police radar detector immediately. Because there would be no way I could self-regulate this level of tantalising power.