The Bentley Continental GT Speed is the heritage rich British marque’s fastest production car ever and the company decided to prove its performance credentials by organizing a speed run. For the purpose, the brand chose veteran Australian racer John Bowe and an arrow straight section of Stuart highway that runs between Darwin to Port Agusta, bifurcating the country.
Bowe has been racing for over 40 years with 1,000 race starts to his credit including two Bathurst 1000 championships and hence definitely knows a lot about high speed driving. Only difference is, the speed run was not conducted at a race track and the equipment used was a road legal car with no modifications whatsoever.
The video shows the mighty Continental GT responding beautifully to Bowe’s floored right foot by rumbling away towards the horizon with an unshakable poise. The racing driver is impressed with the luxurious GT’s monumental performance and straight line stability at high speeds.
The Bentley took 76 seconds to reach its top speed of 331 kmph from rest and at its limit, pumped 216 litres of coolant through its engine and radiator per minute. According to the company, at its top speed, the car used 80% of its engine power to counteract the aerodynamic loads and over 4,700 litres of air passed through the radiator every second!
Also read – Bentley Continental GT V8 Convertible successfully races against the dune locomotive
The Bentley Continental GT Speed is powered by a twin-turbo 6.0-litre W12 petrol engine which puts out an amazing 635 PS and 680 Nm of torque.
