The Continental GT brought Bentley into the 21st Century.
Or at least obsolescence, if not complete doom. At the turn of the 21st Century, Bentley and Rolls-Royce were trapped; even though the Volkswagen Group was in control of the former and BMW owned the latter, legal maneuvers and machinations meant the two British marques were stuck making twinned vehicles until 2003, with Bentley making the same stately, Rolls-Royce-lite rides it had been building for decades.
And the W-12 launched with a bang, with its inaugural form drumming up 552 horsepower and 479 lb-ft of torque — this in a day when Ferrari’s V-12 gran turismo, the 456M, only made 436 hp and Aston Martin’s range-topping V12 Vanquish made 466. In another drastic change for the Flying B, that engine was tied to a six-speed automatic connected to all four wheels, not the rears alone as in previous Bentleys.
While the eight-cylinder engine was down on power, it wasn’t by much; it made 500 hp and 487 to the W-12’s 567 and 516, respectively. As such, it was only a tick slower — forward progress aided by a new eight-speed automatic versus the 12-cylinder car’s older six-cog ‘box — while also being more fuel-efficient, more agile and more acoustically delightful.
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