Premium brand Bentley looks set to launch its first rear-wheel drive sports car of the company’s modern era for sale from next year. It will be an even more focused version of the GT3-R, which debuted last year.
Much of the news around the development of this hardcore new Bentley is that it will lose in excess of 200 kg – making it the first car from the British marque to tip the scales at less than two tonnes in a generation. Apparently, less than half of the weight loss will come from the conversion from all-wheel drive to rear-wheel drive, and the use of lightweight materials will reach an unprecedented high.
“A lot of people expected the GT3-R to be a proper rear-wheel-drive sports car,” Bentley engineering boss Rolf Frech told Autocar.
“But the problem was timing. We needed the car at the end of the first season of our GT3 racing car, and to do a proper change of the complete powertrain needed longer than we had. But we have the concept in our mind, so why not?”
The new Bentley will use the same twin-turbocharged 4,0-litre V8 that does service in the roadgoing and racing Continentals, but it’s likely to be boosted beyond the 426 kW and 700 N.m of the GT3-R. With the focus on creating the brand’s ultimate driving machine, don’t expect the guys on the production line to fit the car with all sorts of everyday driving comforts…
