Conti GT V8 Driven: How Bentley Does Entry-Level

Conti GT V8 Driven: How Bentley Does Entry-Level

via Car Reviews, News, and Features on 1/10/12

• January 2012
• BY JUERGEN ZOELLTER

Driving the big-daddy Bentley Mulsanne is like driving a very powerful, very deluxe English drawing room. Driving a twin-turbo 567-hp, 12-cylinder Continental GT is less so, even if the smaller car still does a fine impersonation of Ron Burgundy's apartment—i.e., many leather-bound books, smells of rich mahogany. And it's probably a safe bet that nobody who bought either one ever cared about what kind of mileage it got.

"But those days are over," says Bentley marketing director Mark Tennant. "Today, Bentley customers are as much focused on environmentally friendly technology as on power." In that spirit, the German-owned British luxury brand is soon to launch a new, smaller twin-turbo V-8 for its top-selling Continental models, starting with the coupe and convertible, followed by the Flying Spur sedan. The target is to reduce consumption by 40 percent compared with the existing W-12–powered cars. "We are expecting to sell 50 percent of the Continental range with the new V-8," Tennant says. After driving the new car, we have ¬little doubt he's right but probably not for the reason he thinks.

Our first access to the Continental GT V-8 coupe came at the Silverstone circuit in the U.K. and on English back roads. The V-8 GT—call it the entry-level entry-level Bentley—is powered by a version of the direct-injected 500-hp, 4.0-liter turbocharged V-8 that does duty in the Audi S8 (520 horsepower) and S7 (420). But it sounds different here than in the Audis and transforms the car into one that's more aggressive yet ¬better balanced than its 6.0-liter, W-12–powered sister. That said, acceleration suffers from the loss of two liters and four cylinders: 0 to 60 mph comes in an estimated 4.6 seconds (we figure the W-12 GT at 4.2 seconds); top speed drops 13 or so mph to 185.

Under acceleration, the engine emits a strong burble—a less metallic, more couth version of the classic American V-8's rumble. Between 3000 and 4500 rpm, the sound hardens to a growl. At 5000 rpm, it's wailing like Hendrix at Monterey. If you ignore the turbos' little gaps during load changes, this engine mimics a big-displacement, naturally aspirated V-8. It has cylinder deactivation to knock out four pots at opportune moments, but the system is so well managed that you never notice the dropout.

So: direct injection, cylinder shut-off, an alternator programmed to charge the battery mainly during deceleration, an eight-speed automatic transmission, and a tougher personality than the version fitted in the Audi S8. Not bad. Nor are these numbers, as if any potential buyer cares: 22 mpg on the European driving cycle, 8 mpg better than the W-12 GT. On our open-road tour of the U.K., we observed 13 mpg.

The new GT V-8 coupe offers 12 percent less power and 6 percent less torque than the 12-cylinder model, but it costs 10 percent less. That might sound like a fair bargain, but we wonder if that narrow pricing gap does enough to decisively define these two models for what they are: the fun one and the fancy one.

The V-8 GT's agility is mainly the result of the 175-pound-lighter engine up front, which changes the car's front-to-rear weight distribution from 56/44 percent to 51/49. Turning into corners, you can immediately feel that balance pay dividends in steering precision and turn-in sharpness. And once you breach the stability limit, the car exhibits less tendency to understeer than the front-heavier W-12 version. With the traction control off, the stability system allows the right amount of slip to push the car into an easily controlled drift. The eight-speed gearbox also enhances the car's agility. It shifts faster than the regular ZF six-speed in the W12 GT, which is nice when you're at part throttle and need to pass—now.

And yet, Bentley highlights this athleticism only barely, with minor trim changes such as red "B" badges, a black-gloss mesh grille, a new three-segment lower-front-bumper design, and double-oval exhaust tailpipes. This strikes us as more of a ¬German than British approach to product differentiation. Otherwise, we're hardly complaining. We don't even mind that it cruises 500 miles on a tank of gas.

Specifications >

VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, 4-wheel-drive, 4-passenger, 2-door coupe

ESTIMATED BASE PRICE: $176,000

ENGINE TYPE: twin-turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 32-valve V-8, aluminum block and heads, direct fuel injection

Displacement: 244 cu in, 3993 cc
Power: 500 hp @ 6000 rpm
Torque: 487 lb-ft @ 1700

TRANSMISSION: 8-speed automatic with manual shifting mode

DIMENSIONS:
Wheelbase: 108.1 in
Length: 189.2 in
Width: 76.5 in Height: 55.3 in
Curb weight: 5050 lb

PERFORMANCE (C/D EST):
Zero to 60 mph: 4.6 sec
Zero to 100 mph: 11.5 sec
Standing ¼-mile: 13.0 sec
Top speed: 185 mph

FUEL ECONOMY (C/D EST):
EPA city/hwy driving: 17/26 mpg