2018 Bentley Continental GT debuts with W12 engine

The all-new Bentley Continental GT has been teasing us for a while now by making numerous partially camouflaged appearances around the world. But now Bentley has uncovered it fully. The all-new 2018 Bentley Continental GT has shown its face, ahead of its launch at the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show.

The 2018 Bentley Continental GT retains the classic shape of the previous model but the body is more sculpted than before. A new “Super Formed” process is used to form the body panels for the new model. The new model is 80 kilos lighter than its predecessor. The sleeker front end retains Bentley’s generic round headlamps but in the new model they flaunt Audi’s LED matrix technology. The heavily raked rear houses a pair of completely redesigned tail lamps. The new GT rides on 21-inch alloys as standard while a set of 22-inch wheels are available as an option.

Even though it offers a bespoke program that tailors cars according to each customer’s demand, Bentley claims that the list of standard options for the new GT is virtually endless. The standard range consists of 17 body colors which increases to 70 shades in the extended range. The interior can be appointed with any of the 15 carpet options, 8 handcrafted veneers (with 4 extra dual-veneer options) and 15 interior trims.

The creature comforts list of the Bentley is as long as the options list. Two tech packs, City Specification and Touring Specification, are available as options which adds different gizmos to the GT in order to spec it for specific purposes.  The City Specification adds hands-free boot opening, pedestrian warning, traffic sign recognition system, city braking systems and more. The Touring Specification is for long distance travels and it adds adaptive cruise control, active lane assist, a heads up display, night vision camera and pre-sense braking.

The GT is powered by the same twin-turbo W12 engine albeit in a hiked up state of tune. The power has been upgraded to 626 hp and the torque now soars at 897 Nm. This can propel the fully loaded luxury coupe from 0-100 kph in 3.7 seconds and onward to an impressive 333 kph top speed. The power is handled by a dual-clutch eight-speed automatic gearbox. Apart from the IC engine, Bentley uses the 48-Volt mild-hybrid system from VW to aid in improving fuel efficiency by using stop-start, coasting and cylinder shutdown. Thanks to this, the new model returns 10.1 l/100 km instead of 11.8 l/100 km figure of the old model.

An active four-wheel drive system helps the new GT lay down its colossal power on to the tarmac. Bentley says that it is rear-biased even though it can read the conditions swiftly and channel the power to the wheels in need.

Bentley will unwrap the GT officially at the upcoming 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show in September. Expect a UAE, KSA and GCC debut early next year.