OFFICIAL Official : Bentley Continental GT V8

Wunderkind · Dec 13, 2011

martinbo said: ↑

I see exactly that my friend. I also see that where it terminates results in the front differential being ahead of the torque convertor (a very Audi-esque solution recently for AWD packaging).

Oh, I thought you meant there is a driveshaft coming out from around the torque converter to drive the front wheels.

Almost all German 4WDs have the transfer case and front differential packaged in such a way. The Mercedes ML and GLK and the Porsche Cayenne.

mini_cooper4 · Dec 13, 2011

Price it right and I'll be driving only VAG cars

martinbo · Dec 13, 2011

Wunderkind said: ↑

Almost all German 4WDs have the transfer case and front differential packaged in such a way. The Mercedes ML and GLK and the Porsche Cayenne.

Technically speaking, not exactly.

Where Audi's AWD is unique in such an arrangment is in the distance of separation from the flywheel to torque convertor / clutch(es). Ordinarily, the flywheel and torque convertor are packaged as closed together as possible but not in the case of Audi. Y'see, Audi wanted to keep their drivetrain as symmetrical as possible (a previous differentiator of quattro) but wanted to move the front diff closer to the engine in order to improve packaging - particularly with respect to the distance of the front wheels from the front of the engine (front overhang, weight distribution et al). So they're the only ones to package the front differential between the torque convertor and the flywheel.

In the case of MB, Porsche etc, the drivetrains are less symmetrical; the front diff is offset mounted in line with or even ahead of the flywheel with the driveshafts running through the block or underneath it.

Wunderkind · Dec 13, 2011

Martinbo,

Now I know what you mean.

mini_cooper4 · Dec 13, 2011

Any expectations about the price ?
This, M6 and SL are the contenders for my next car if the S-Class doesn't look stunning enough

MarcinM · Dec 14, 2011

Bentley badly needs a new Continetal GT/Spur.

What we are getting now is in essence 2002 front wheel drive chassis based model which has been facelifted.

In 2012 after MB will release new S class models, Bentley will be massively out of date.

VW needs to invest and need to provide Bentley with new real wheel drive architecture which will be available also to Audi A8/9 and VW Pheaton II.

MarcinM · Jan 9, 2012

Bentley Continental GT V8 / GTC V8 unveiled in Detroit [videos]

Finally unvailed in Detroit. 4.8 s 0-100 km/h 40% fuel saving over W12, EUR 136,000

Centurion · Jan 9, 2012

MarcinM said: ↑

Bentley Continental GT V8 / GTC V8 unveiled in Detroit [videos]

Finally unvailed in Detroit. 4.8 s 0-100 km/h 40% fuel saving over W12, EUR 136,000

That is an astonishing price for a Bentley and could take the car back to its winning ways of 8,000 units per year though Bentley must do something about the weight. The next CL will likely be all aluminium and be much quicker will offering a much more spacious cabin.

MarcinM · Jan 9, 2012

Well Bentley needs to replace Continental, after all it is a facelifted 2002 VW Pheaton.

However new engine and gearbox, together with lower price will allow the car to sell for another 24-36 months.

Soup · Feb 3, 2012

K-A · Feb 3, 2012

Looks so hot.

Cashmere · Mar 2, 2012

[video=youtube_share;r8uzOXKfOOM]http://youtu.be/r8uzOXKfOOM[/media]

tristatez28lt1 · Aug 20, 2012

Very good numbers for the V8 model:

Acceleration, 0-30 mph (sec.) 1.8
0-45 mph (sec.) 2.8
0-60 mph (sec.) 4.2
0-60 with 1 foot of rollout (sec.) 4.0
0-75 mph (sec.) 6.0
1/4-mile (sec. @ mph) 12.4 @ 113.2
0-30 mph, trac ON (sec.) 2.4
0-45 mph, trac ON (sec.) 3.5
0-60 mph, trac ON (sec.) 5.0
0-60, trac ON with 1 foot of rollout (sec.) 4.6
0-75 mph, trac ON (sec.) 6.9
1/4-mile, trac ON (sec. @ mph) 13.0 @ 111.5
Braking, 30-0 mph (ft.) 28
60-0 mph (ft.) 111
Slalom, 6 x 100 ft. (mph) 66.4
Slalom, 6 x 100 ft. (mph) ESC ON 63.9
Skid pad, 200-ft. diameter (lateral g) 0.84
Skid pad, 200-ft. diameter (lateral g) ESC ON 0.84
Sound level @ idle (dB) 46.9
@ Full throttle (dB) 75.6
@ 70 mph cruise (dB) 61.6
Engine speed @ 70 mph (rpm) 1,500

http://www.insideline.com/bentley/continental-gt/2013/2013-bentley-continental-gt-v8-full-test.html

2013 Bentley Continental GT V8 Full Test
12 - 4 = Great
By Mike Magrath, Features Editor | Published Aug 20, 2012

It was bound to happen sooner or later. I've been wasting plankton and wearing top hats for about 30 spins around the sun now, but it wasn't until piloting the 2013 Bentley Continental GT V8 down Santa Monica Boulevard that I was finally called a fat cat.
The epithet, hurled from behind the cowering mustache of a fixie-riding hipster weaving through the stopped traffic with a carelessness we'd avoid on a vehicle without brakes, stung.
This is, after all, the V8 version of the Continental GT, a car that gives up 2 liters, four cylinders and 67 horsepower to the W12 that's long been the darling of the 1 percent. The V8 Continental is lighter, cheaper and returns 40 percent better fuel economy.

Fat cat? In the meager, 18-mpg combined, $176,725 V8? The injustice couldn't stand. When the light went green, the pedal went down; hipster-cyclist was in for the lecturing of his life.

Addition by Subtraction
It's here, at wide-open throttle, that the 2013 Bentley Continental GT V8 and its 500-horsepower, twin-turbo, 4.0-liter separates itself from the 6.0-liter W12 living under the hood of every other Continental on the road today. Crack the throttle open and the GT V8 responds with a low, burbling growl and a tremendous leap forward. That said, nobody will confuse this Audi-derived (it makes 512 hp in the 2013 Audi S8) V8 for any of the free-revving, racecar-derived engines used in so many of the Continental's competitors.
Thankfully, what the V8 lacks in character, the eight-speed ZF-built automatic makes up for in performance. In Sport mode, a quick kick of the accelerator sends the transmission into full-on attack mode, downshifting up to five gears with a wicked quickness. From there, upshifts are dual-clutch fast, but with that pleasant kick and shove that accompanies a torque-converted shift. Track testing only confirmed what our butts have been telling us for days: despite a 67-hp deficit, the 500-hp V8 is faster than the W12.
Drive it too hard and you'll soon find yourself piloting the world's most well-appointed lawn dart.

Getting the 5,107-pound coupe out of the hole couldn't be easier. With the transmission in Sport mode, you simply power brake it to get the engine spinning and then let it fly. Sixty mph comes up in 4.2 seconds (4.0 seconds with 1 foot of rollout like on a drag strip) en route to a quarter-mile time of 12.4 seconds at 113.2 mph.
The last Continental we tested, a 2012 W12 weighing only 59 pounds more, took 4.7 seconds to hit 60 (4.4 with rollout) and lugged itself across the quarter-mile line in 12.9 seconds at 109.8 mph.

Mystery Math
Open the hood of a 2013 Bentley Continental GT and the first thing anyone with a passing knowledge of vehicle dynamics will notice is that the engine is nearly entirely ahead of the front axle line. And the first thing anyone with a passing knowledge of vehicle dynamics will feel about that is disappointment. With fewer cylinders and less weight up front, however, this new V8 GT teased us with potential never to be fully realized.
Like the W12, the nose-heavy V8 Continental bends to the whim of momentum and defaults to understeer. Drive it too hard and you'll soon find yourself piloting the world's most well-appointed lawn dart. Making matters worse, our car was fitted with the Mulliner Driving Specification Package. This $12,230 option adds goofy 21-by-9.5-inch rims with 275/35ZR21 Pirelli P Zero tires that fill out the wheel wells, but offer all of the compliance of steel-soled shoes. The package also includes alloy sport pedals and an insanely heavy, jeweled fuel filler cap.

All of the excitement of the acceleration testing was scrubbed off in the slalom and skid pad where we managed a best speed of 66.4 mph — 1.1 mph slower than the heavier, less-well-balanced W12 — and circled the pad at 0.84g. It redeemed itself slightly in the braking tests where it turned in a short, precise stop of just 111 feet, although with its optional carbon-ceramic rotors and 8-piston front calipers we expected slightly better numbers there, too.
Thanks to full-time all-wheel drive, automatic transmissions, sticky tires and preposterous weights, Continentals have always been easy to drive up to their limits. The V8 is no different in that regard, but with lower limits and higher expectations, we left the handling portion of our testing wanting more.

Priorities Intact
Try as we might, the 2013 Bentley Continental GT can't be explained or rationalized on paper or with any battery of testing. Trying to do such things would force us to rationalize how a less powerful, lighter car could be faster in a straight line, but handle worse. Or to acknowledge that the shifter gate is just a duded-up version of the one found in the Jetta and that the infotainment system would be laughed out of any Audi dealer. And then we'd have to justify that after a few hundred miles of truly mixed driving, both casual and spirited, we averaged only 14.4 mpg.

Things only get worse if you try to rationalize the window sticker: $13,600 for carbon-ceramic brakes; $3,810 for adaptive cruise control, $3,675 for an extended center console that further delineates the rear seats, eliminating one of the few visual differences on the interior between the 8 and the 12; $1,865 for the contrasting stitching; $640 for a space saver spare; $470 for a heated steering wheel plus $180 for more contrast stitching on said wheel. Oh, and don't forget that $12,230 Muliner Driving Specification package we mentioned earlier.
Do the math that no Continental GT buyer will have to do to make this decision and you're looking at a base model car loaded up to $214,025.

Fat Cats Rejoice
None of that matters when you're sitting in the amazingly well-appointed, hand-stitched interior with leather seats so supple you'd swear the cow was still wearing it. The engine is devilishly smooth and the Continental deceptively fast and even with the performance-robbing 21-inch wheels, the GT V8 rides like a hovercraft over the most abused pavement.
Even the ultra-light steering seems designed from the get-go to coddle the driver and to isolate rather than inform. At a 70-mph sustained cruise, the Continental registered just 61.6 decibels inside the cabin; at 120 mph our meter shot up to all of 62.5 dBs. We've measured cars that were louder at idle.

The 2013 Bentley Continental GT V8 may be the cheapest car in the Bentley lineup, but nobody will notice. Not your accountant. Not the guy at the gas station and certainly not bike-riding hipsters.

Merc1 · Aug 20, 2012

I try to like this car, almost get there, but just can't. It still looks like a shoe or a whale next to an Aston or Maser, though it is clearly the better all around, engineered car with the VW empire behind it.

M

Centurion · Aug 20, 2012

Merc1 said: ↑

I try to like this car, almost get there, but just can't. It still looks like a shoe or a whale next to an Aston or Maser, though it is clearly the better all around, engineered car with the VW empire behind it.

M

I

Merc1 said: ↑

I try to like this car, almost get there, but just can't. It still looks like a shoe or a whale next to an Aston or Maser, though it is clearly the better all around, engineered car with the VW empire behind it.

M

It's not that awful And the facelifted version is rather nice. I think it's quite a muscular and well thought out luxury car by a brand you would not have expected to produce such a car.

klier · Aug 20, 2012

Merc1 said: ↑

I try to like this car, almost get there, but just can't. It still looks like a shoe or a whale next to an Aston or Maser, though it is clearly the better all around, engineered car with the VW empire behind it.

M

Aston I can get...but Maserati Gran Turismo?? You have got to be kidding? Still not driven one, Marcus?

Merc1 · Aug 20, 2012

klier said: ↑

Aston I can get...but Maserati Gran Turismo?? You have got to be kidding? Still not driven one, Marcus?

Not yet, but you know I want to. I was just going by looks here though. The Bentley is the best car I know that, but I hate the way it looks.

M

K-A · Aug 20, 2012

I sat in a Quattroporte today. Interior is a POS in workmanship qualities. I can't believe it has that same "sticky/gummy" factor for the plastics after they've been sun baked, like Ferrari. Felt absolutely ridiculous. Nice leather and such, however. I can only hope the GranTurismo has a better executed interior in terms of workmanship and fit/finish.

I agree that the Maser GT is one of the nicest Coupes out, still. Beautiful car, ahead of the Conty GT I think due to those sexy ass proportions that the Bentley just still fully doesn't grasp, due to being ridiculously placed on a VW FWD chassis.... makes it look like a frog.

Still, I do like the essence of the new facelift Conty GT, a lot more than the previous one.

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OFFICIAL Official : Bentley Continental GT V8

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