What is it?
This is the Bentley Continental Supersports and it's best to think of it as a Porsche 911 GT3-type version of the regular first-generation VW-era Conti GT. The Supersports is a stripped-out, lighter, more hardcore version of the W12-powered Conti; a step on from the likes of the still-plushly-appointed GT Speed and something which not only begat a Mk2 Conti Supersports with 710hp in 2017, but also other go-faster Contis such as the V8 S and the short-lived yet wonderfully bonkers GT3-R.
The thing is, we've driven a lot of Bentley Continentals of all types since we drove this Mk1 Supersports when it was new. And so it's a pleasure to drive one that's seen a few years and plenty of mi... hold on a second! What's going on here? This car, DK12 FZM, seems like it is suspiciously well-kempt. Paintwork's really tidy. Wheels look immaculate. Oh! And when you open the door, its striking black-and-red (Beluga and Hotspur, in official Crewe-speak) interior appears as if it has barely been sat in.
Which is true, of course. This, apparently, is the last Mk1 Supersports to have left the production line, some time in 2011 at the end of a short run which began in 2009. Only 1,800 cars were built in total and this example, which belongs to Bentley itself as part of its heritage fleet, was only ratified for road use purely for the purposes of the event we were attending. Hence why this Supersports' odometer only showed 432 miles from new by the time we got in it, with 249.2 miles of that distance displayed on the trip (which was presumably reset before it left Crewe for Northamptonshire). Blimey! That's a brave move on the part of the carmaker, it really is; lending a priceless, as-new collector's piece to the likes of, well... us.
Anyway, before we get onto the whys and wherefores of this retro drive, a quick word on what made a Continental GT Mk1 into a Supersports. Firstly, its engine was uprated. With the 'regular' W12 GT delivering 560hp at the time and even the Speed only mustering up 610hp, the 630hp Supersports immediately became the most powerful and fastest (204mph flat out) Bentley Continental yet to see the light of day when it launched in 2009. But it was also green. Weirdly enough, its mighty motor could run on both familiar unleaded petrol and also E85 bioethanol, with no real impact on performance on the latter fuel but a significant 70 per cent reduction in tailpipe emissions as a result. Not only that, but this was the first Conti to dip beneath the four-second barrier for its 0-62mph run and it could achieve 0-100mph in a sizzling 8.9 seconds. Part of the reason for this was not just the uplift in power and peak torque (standing at 800Nm, 150Nm more than a W12 of the day and 50Nm more than a contemporary Speed), but the fact that the Supersports was 110kg lighter than its source material.
This diet was achieved with the removal of the back seats, plus standard-fit carbon fibre-reinforced silicon carbide brake discs - at 420mm diameter on the front axle, these were said to be the largest on any production car available at the time - that sat behind lightweight 20-inch alloys. The ZF six-speed gearbox had 50 per cent faster shift times than the W12's transmission, there was a Torsen T-3 centre differential for a 40:60 front-to-rear torque bias on the four-wheel-drive system, Continuous Damping Control (CDC) variable shocks were fitted and, at the back, a retractable spoiler automatically deployed at speeds in excess of 50mph. Finish the whole cabin with lots of carbon-fibre and some slimline carbon-backed bucket seats, and voilą - the first Supersports was born.
Why are you driving it?
It was part of a Bentley 'Toy Box' event held at a glorious castle in the East Midlands, where we could drive all manner of Bentleys of all ages on all sorts of roads/surface conditions to see what makes this particular marque tick. Like we said above, letting assorted journalists drive this stunning, veritable museum-piece Supersports amidst the cut-and-thrust everyday traffic on the A428 and A509 was... ballsy, Bentley, we'll give you that.
Is it any good these days?
At 2,240kg overall, this Supersports Mk1 is hardly some sylph-like, Exige-baiting sports car that's all agility and nimbleness. It's still, when all's said and done, a hefty old grand tourer with a slight bit of its heftiness removed. Thus, we weren't expecting much from it.
But, on exactly the same day when we drove the very machine which set the production-car record at the Pikes Peak 'Race to the Clouds' Hill Climb in 2019 - itself a stripped-out, raucous take on the current Mk3 Continental GT - it was astonishing that the Supersports actually turned out to be about our favourite road-based drive of the day. And it also raises the intriguing possibility that Bentley, once it has got a GT Speed version of the current Conti out of the way, might be well-served by revisiting the Supersports formula for the 2020s. Imagine a circa-800hp, two-seat Conti now. We're trying not to drool.
Seriously, this Supersports is one of the sharpest, tautest, most rewarding Continentals we've ever had the pleasure of driving. The old Benters has a gravelly voice from its W12 engine but it makes a terrific noise at all times and you know, given it arrived in 2009, that its soundtrack is entirely natural. Better yet, while the car is still comfortable enough to cruise along in, you can sense the CDC shock absorbers have an iron-fisted grip on the weighty body shell of the Bentley. And in the corners, there's keener turn-in, more feel from the steering than on Continentals of the same era - and a general, overriding sense that this is a car on which the handling will get better the more speed and commitment you can pile onto it, rather than having to keep it just within itself because it's essentially a stately home on wheels doing things stately homes really shouldn't do. Sure, the Supersports is no match for the rapier responses of most 911 GT3s, but it certainly feels a long way removed from a grand tourer and far closer to the serious sports coupe it most clearly is purporting to be. It's a quite remarkable thing to drive now in 2020; it must have been epic to have been behind the wheel 11 years ago, when a 630hp Continental was not the norm in the wider product portfolio.
Is it a genuine classic, or just some mildly interesting old biffer?
It's a classic and no mistake. What you're looking at here is an 1,800-off collectible of a truly prestige, exotic car marque; and, while we would hardly argue that these sorts of digits are what you could ever call 'cheap', we reckon the current used values of the 2009-2011 Conti Supersports of between roughly 60 and 85 grand are bottomed out, so tidy examples should only go one way, financially speaking, from hereon in. Not only that, but this car paved the way for the second-generation Supersports in 2017, which would go on to have 710hp and a build run of just 710 units. So while that later model might look like the obvious go-to piece for the discerning, well-heeled automotive investor, you always tend to find that the progenitor of a particular breed is a touch more desirable still. That the Conti Supersports Mk1 is also brilliant, brilliant fun to drive is just the icing on the nailed-on-classic-car cake, really.
The numbers
Model tested: 2011 Bentley Continental Supersports
Price: when new in 2011, £163,000 (circa £210,500, inflation-adjusted for 2019); used examples anything from £58,000 to £85,000 today
Build period: 2009-2011
Build numbers: 1,800
Engine: 6.0-litre twin-turbo W12 petrol
Transmission: all-wheel drive with Torsen centre differential, six-speed ZF Quickshift automatic
Body style: two-door performance coupe
Combined economy: c.16.8mpg
Top speed: 204mph
0-62mph: 3.9 seconds
Power: 630hp at 6,000rpm
Torque: 800Nm at 2,000-4,500rpm
Weight: 2,240kg
