Bentley continental GT

                                                                              BENTLEY 
                 CONTINENTAL GT                                

Bentley has now racked up 50,000 examples of its modern Continental. And it has been less than a decade coming. You wonder whether ‘Walter Owen’ would have envisaged such popularity for the marque that bears his name, 90-odd years ago – either in his wildest or even most troubling dreams.  

Remember that the ‘Continental’ moniker used to be applied internally to any model that had been taken to mainland Europe by WO himself, and tested at high speed there. The first official Continental was the 1952 R-type coupé. The name was used on updated versions of that car through the later 1950s and 1960s, and subsequently applied to Rolls Corniche-based coupés and convertibles of the late 1980s and 1990s.

There’s no doubt, though, that the most recent incarnation has done more for Bentley’s bank accounts than any of its predecessors. So 2011 was about time that the Continental GT coupé, bedrock of the company’s sales figures, had a facelift.

The 2011 model wasn't an all-new car, although Crewe would like you to believe it is. The generously proportioned two-plus-two has been put on a diet, given a styling massage inside and out, and had some telling mechanical updates, chief among which was the introduction of a V8 option as an alternative to the continuing W12 variant.

DESIGN

The very latest aluminium superforming production technology has allowed Bentley’s design team, led by Dirk van Braeckel, much greater freedom for sculpture in the Continental GT's panels, carved into which are sharper, more pronounced creases and curves than the original could ever have had.  

The updated GT looks contemporary and sacrifices a little of the original’s simple elegance for greater visual muscularity. To our eyes, it’s an appealing compromise. There’s even scope for a few references to pre-war Bentleys.

The Continental sits on 20-inch wheels as standard, but there’s a choice of 21-inchers as options. That’s a restrictive line-up by Bentley’s standards, of course; the company’s reputation for craftsmanship and bespoke interior trim is just as applicable to the Continental as it is a Mulsanne.

The 2011-revised styling is only quietly suggestive of what Bentley has done to the mechanicals of this car to make it a match for the Aston Martins, Ferraris and Porsches of this decade. The updated GT’s body is 40mm wider than it was, and the track widths of its chassis are 41mm wider up front and 48mm greater at the rear.

INTERIOR

It would be entirely fair to record that Bentley didn't reinvent the wheel inside the revised Continental – if it weren’t for the fact that a new steering wheel is actually chief among the revisions. The new tiller is smaller in diameter than before and it also acts on the front wheels via a slightly faster steering rack.

Most of the cabin is carried over from the superseded car, however. In our test car, soft embroidered leathers, attractive walnut veneers, handmade aluminium fascia inserts and chrome-bezelled control dials all contributed to a superbly rich and luxurious ‘old English’ cabin ambience that few car makers can pull off.

Fit and finish in our test cars has been excellent – as it should be from Crewe’s self-proclaimed ‘master craftsmen’, whose attention to detail would still seem to be the envy of the industry.

The biggest substantive difference inside comes courtesy of two new, slimmed-down, scalloped front seats, which, claims Bentley, liberate an extra 46mm of legroom for rear passengers. The extra space is welcome, but it doesn’t transform the GT into a car fit for four adults. In the back, headroom for anyone over six feet tall is still tight.

Up front, while the new touchscreen multimedia system is welcome, there’s still room for improvement in some areas. The ergonomics of the column stalks leaves a little to be desired, too; you’ll lose count of the number of times you tug on the left-hand gearchange paddle while you’re fumbling for the indicators.

Equally frustrating is the fact that changing the damper settings from Comfort, through two intermediate settings, to Sport means pressing a button on the transmission tunnel and then cycling through a menu on the fascia-mounted touchscreen.