“This is not a track car” was something we heard more than once, and from the Bentley people to the trio of real, live Bentley Boys - racers Guy Smith, Maxime Soulet and Andy Soucek - who joined us for the launch. In case you were concerned that your Continental wasn’t quite assertive enough, the supersports coupe adds this rear wing. But it trades the GT3-R’s snarling V8 for the flagship W12, here reworked and retuned for 700 hp and 750 lb-ft. From the Continental GT3-R, itself a tribute to the marque’s crop of GT3 racers, the Supersports borrows a torque-vectoring system. The new Supersports gets a fresh face and rear end, with a new carbon-fiber splitter up front and diffuser out back, but the combination of parts under the skin will be familiar to Continental aficionados. It’s not a quantum leap, but it’s one made without any compromises in refinement or reliability. Naturally, this Supersports - the latest incarnation of a nameplate that traces its origin to the hairy 100-plus-mph 3 Litre speedsters of the mid-1920s - has to push things further than its predecessor, which managed 621 hp, 590 lb-ft and a 204-mph top speed back in 2010. But the coolest Bentleys always have been. It’s a little bit outrageous and totally unnecessary. This is the 2017 Bentley Continental Supersports. A rear wing stolen from some Chevrolet Racing garage. Leather and Alcantara wrapped around nearly everything in the cockpit carbon-fiber trim covering everything else. Stunning acceleration and a stupefying top speed. A twin-turbocharged W12 engine with monstrous thirst for fuel and air an equally monstrous output.

2017 bentley continental gt supersports