What's all this about?

Exciting stuff. It's a new Bentley Continental GT Supersports, the third in a line of these highly specialised Contis dating back to 2009. Frequently forming the pinnacle of each Continental family, this Supersports has a strangely unique distinction.

Strangely unique? What do you mean by that?

We mean that although this newcomer will be strictly limited to just 500 units, making it the most desirable and almost certainly the most expensive of the current family of Conti GTs and GTCs when prices are announced, it will also be the least-powerful model in the range.

This flies completely in the face of traditional Supersports convention: the first iteration, launched in 2009 and on sale until 2011, had 630hp and was therefore 22hp brawnier than a contemporary Speed, making it the fastest-accelerating (the first car from the British firm capable of sub-four-seconds 0-62mph) and outright swiftest (205mph) Bentley in the company's history at that point; and then the second-gen Supersports, landing in 2017, had a colossal 710hp from its breathed-upon 6.0 W12, a headline figure which was unsurpassed by any Bentley until the current V8 plug-in hybrids (PHEVs) arrived.

But therein lies the point. The present-day Continental family, which Bentley refers to as the Mk4 since a hefty facelift and the addition of entirely V8-PHEV powertrains - replacing the old V6-PHEV, regular 4.0-litre V8 and 6.0-litre W12 options - in 2024, yet we'd say was just a heavily overhauled Mk3 (from 2018-on), is incredibly powerful. Regular GT and GTC models, and the ones carrying Azure badging, have 680hp/930Nm. Opt for something with 'Mulliner' or 'Speed' nameplates on them, and you'll have a thumping great 782hp/1,000Nm to play with. This new Supersports? It enters the fray with a devilish 666hp, accompanied by a 'mere' 800Nm.

Oh dear. What's gone wrong?

Hold your horses. This is not bad news. Because there is such a thing as context, and context makes the latest Supersports sound completely mesmerising. For starters, Bentley says this is the 'most driver-focused car ever' in its history, eclipsing not only the previous two Conti Supersports, but also the Mk3 Speed (if you adhere to Bentley's own 'Mk3/Mk4' differentiation, that is) and the ultra-hardcore GT3-R of 2014. Timely, because 2025 is the 100th anniversary of the Supersports name, the moniker initially used a century ago on the first Bentley capable of exceeding 100mph.

And the new one is not a PHEV. It uses an electrically unadorned 4.0-litre V8 twin-turbo petrol engine, plus it is the first rear-wheel-drive Continental GT in the modern-era history. Yup, Bentley has stripped out the electric propulsion and lumpen lithium-ion battery pack of the V8 PHEVs, plus it has dropped the front driveshafts for handling purity. The result is a Continental GT that is - wait for it - a massive 500kg lighter than any other car in the range. This thing is sub-two tonnes, when a GT Azure comes in at a whopping 2,459 kilos, and that makes the Supersports (apparently, and rather incredibly) the lightest car Bentley has launched in the past 85 years.

OK, consider my interest piqued. What else can you tell me about the new car?

Not only is it rear-wheel drive, which is a juicy enough nugget of goodness on its own, but its stripped-out cabin features just two seats - one of the many weight-saving measures employed in the Conti GT Supersports. It has broadly the same eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox as any of the PHEV models, but it comes with carbon-ceramic brakes as standard, a set of gorgeous 22-inch lightweight forged-alloy wheels developed with competition specialist firm Manthey Racing, and an Akrapovic full-length titanium exhaust system too. Those 22s, by the way, can be optionally wrapped in sticky Pirelli Trofeo RS tyres if you want.

Then there's the exterior. It's not just pointless addenda to make the Conti GT Supersports look good (which it does, BTW). No, the biggest front splitter ever fitted to a Bentley road car, carbon-fibre used for all of the dive planes, sides sills, fender blades and rear diffuser, and that stunning fixed rear wing ensure the Supersports can generate more than 300kg greater downforce than the contemporary Continental GT Speed.

The roof of the hardcore Conti is made from carbon-fibre too, which lowers the car's centre of gravity but also maintains structural rigidity in the process, while inside are a pair of bolstered sports seats up front, and a carbon-fibre and leather 'shell' in the rear of the cabin to replace the rear row of seating. A two-seat configuration is something the new car shares with the previous two Supersport GTs, incidentally. Further material finishing within includes Dinamica microfibre and carbon-fibre trim panels, for the maximum in sporty ambience.

Have you any other technical details to impart?

Yes, if you'll permit us to get geeky. The 4.0-litre V8 biturbo unit is the one used in previous Bentley incarnations (usually badged as 'S' cars), but it has had a significant reworking to develop its 666hp, which in turn makes it the Bentley engine with the highest specific output of any right now: running 166.5hp/litre. The ZF dual-clutcher might outwardly be the same unit as used in the V8 PHEVs, but it has been redeveloped for the Supersports with uprated clutches and a new shifting strategy for the control software.

There's more. The unique rear-wheel-drive nature of this Conti GT requires an eLSD, assisted by torque-vectoring by brake, which controls a rear axle with a 16mm-wider track measurement than any other model in the line-up. All of the calibrations for the steering, suspension, traction management and ESC systems are all-new and bespoke to the Supersports, including a Dynamic Mode that allows for a certain level of slip and oversteer before it reins things in. The front suspension has aluminium double wishbones, like a 992 Porsche 911 GT3, as well as a multilink rear, air springs and new twin-chamber dampers, with their ECU-controlled independent bump and rebound oversight. Even the carbon brakes are the biggest in the world, ginormous 440mm front rotors gripped by ten-piston callipers, with 410mm discs and four-pot shoes at the back.

And if you fit the Trofeo RS tyres to the 22-inch rims, then all the chassis changes and weight-saving techniques mean this Supersports can corner 'approximately 30 per cent quicker' than a GT Speed, developing up to 1.3g of lateral force in the process. That ultra-rapid cornering technique perhaps 'makes up' for the fact that 0-62mph takes 3.7 seconds and the top speed is 192mph; obviously, not as Top Trumps-ish stats as the other Contis possess, but still surely more than enough grunt for anyone's reasonable road-going needs, eh?

I'd agree with that. Anything else to add?

Only that this is the most exclusive Supersports yet, with its run of 500 individually numbered examples. The Mk2 Supersports predecessor was limited to 710 units, to match its peak horsepower output, while the original of 2009 was built to the tune of 1,800 examples. Oh, and rather brilliantly, the top-secret development name for this Conti GT Supersports during its gestation was 'Project Mildred'. Not, as you might think, named after one half of an old-fashioned sitcom duo, but instead Mildred Mary Petre: born in 1895 and a record-breaker on land, sea and in the air, in 1929 she drove a Bentley 4˝ Litre around the Montlhery circuit in France, solo, for 24 hours. She averaged almost 90mph in the process and duly set an endurance record to boot, hence her name was the chosen disguise for the prototype Supersports programme of the 2020s.

The Continental GT Supersports will gain its world debut in Dubai in January, but it won't go into production until the end of next year, with customer deliveries taking place at the start of 2027. It will be available in the UK, all 27 countries still in the EU (plus Switzerland and Turkey too), the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Oman, Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar and Kuwait.

Dr Frank-Steffen Walliser, Bentley's chairman and CEO, said: "The new Supersports is more than just the most driver-focused Bentley yet. It signifies a return to Bentley making more extreme cars - ones that combine extraordinary breadth of ability with true driver engagement, while remaining pieces of automotive artwork unique and bespoke to each customer.

"Bentley has always thrived when revealing a more daring side, and the new Supersports is a statement of our intent while celebrating 100 years of the name. This is the first project developed from start-to-finish since I joined Bentley Motors, and I'm proud of our team and the speed at which we've created a car so different to the GT on which it's based."

Matt Robinson - 14 Nov 2025