Bentley Continental GT Speed
Bentley’s electrification effort finally takes in its core two-door GT coupé Exotic '2+2' sporting coupes hardly come any more different than the Bentley Continental GT and the Porsche 911, and yet Crewe seems to be following Stuttgart’s philosophy as it develops its modern luxury grand tourer into its third decade.Just as ‘all-new’ model generations of the Porsche can be considered in pairs (the 2004 ‘997’ being a technical development of the ‘996’, ditto the 2019 ‘992’ of the ‘991’), Continental GTs have developed similarly. The second-generation GT of 2011 refined and improved the chassis of the 2003 original, and now the fourth generation has refined and improved the Porsche-developed platform and body of the third.When, in 2023, Crewe announced the end of production of the W12 engine that powered the GT for so long, we all knew major change for the Continental series must be afoot. That change now manifests itself as the first plug-in hybrid Continental coupe that Bentley has made, and also its most powerful GT yet: the Bentley Continental GT Speed Hybrid.The car has taken on a new electronic architecture to facilitate that under-bonnet change; features a new active suspension system which, it’s claimed, extends its dynamic repertoire; and gets quite widely revised exterior styling and cabin technology, the former intended to sprinkle some of the stardust of the firm’s ultra-rare limited-series cars – the Bacalar and Batur – on this series-production model.
Bentley’s electrification effort finally takes in its core two-door GT coupé
Exotic '2+2' sporting coupes hardly come any more different than the Bentley Continental GT and the Porsche 911, and yet Crewe seems to be following Stuttgart’s philosophy as it develops its modern luxury grand tourer into its third decade.Just as ‘all-new’ model generations of the Porsche can be considered in pairs (the 2004 ‘997’ being a technical development of the ‘996’, ditto the 2019 ‘992’ of the ‘991’), Continental GTs have developed similarly. The second-generation GT of 2011 refined and improved the chassis of the 2003 original, and now the fourth generation has refined and improved the Porsche-developed platform and body of the third.When, in 2023, Crewe announced the end of production of the W12 engine that powered the GT for so long, we all knew major change for the Continental series must be afoot. That change now manifests itself as the first plug-in hybrid Continental coupe that Bentley has made, and also its most powerful GT yet: the Bentley Continental GT Speed Hybrid.The car has taken on a new electronic architecture to facilitate that under-bonnet change; features a new active suspension system which, it’s claimed, extends its dynamic repertoire; and gets quite widely revised exterior styling and cabin technology, the former intended to sprinkle some of the stardust of the firm’s ultra-rare limited-series cars – the Bacalar and Batur – on this series-production model. 
