Bentley Continental Supersports

British luxury grand tourer gets turned up to eleven

- Ged Bulmer

THEY say that nothing succeeds like excess, but even the great W.O. Bentley, founder of the storied British luxury marque and a man not known for his willingness to die wondering, would be proud of what the crew from Crewe have conjured this time around.

Building on the potent platform laid down by the original 2009 Continental Supersports and more recently with the GT Speed, Bentley has turned the dial up to 11 in reviving the Supersports moniker in a car it’s heralding as “the fastest and most powerful luxury four-seater in the world”.

That’s courtesy of the latest iteration of Bentley’s venerable twin-turbo W12 engine and its outputs of 522kW and 1017Nm. Those numbers are enough to overcome the coupe’s hefty 2280kg kerb weight to rocket it from 0-100km/h in just 3.5 seconds, on its way to a 336km/h top speed.