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The Saloons The Continentals The Concepts The History: Bentley's History in Le Mans A late May day in 1923 and a 3-litre Bentley leaves London for the coast. On board are two drivers, one mechanic and a few spares. Spool 79 years and one fortnight to an early June day. As you read this another Bentley is on its way to exactly the same place: Le Mans.
© 1998
- 2007 Copyright & |
Bentley: Continental GTC
The Continental GTC, Bentley Motors' new luxury 2+2 convertible, will be officially unveiled at the New York International Automobile Show in April 2006. When the stunning convertible goes on sale later this year it will complete the Bentley Continental model range, following the introduction of the highly successful Continental GT in 2003 and four-door Continental Flying Spur in 2005. With a top speed of 195mph (312km/h), a sophisticated all-wheel drive system, state-of-the-art 12-cylinder engine, advanced air suspension and ultra-stiff body structure, the Continental GTC displays all the poise, exhilarating performance and dynamic handling of the Continental GT.
In common with its stable mates, the interior of the new Continental GTC provides an unrivalled standard of craftsmanship, utilising natural wood veneers and leather hides of the finest quality, which are on full display when you lower the elegant, electro-hydraulically operated soft-top roof.
Design concept The Continental GTC is an open-top 2+2 in true Bentley tradition. Its convertible nature means that every sensation of driving is transmitted to the driver and passengers yet the Continental GTC succeeds in offering something more for the senses, as Bentley Motors’ Design Director Dirk van Braeckel reveals: "The sporting stance of the Continental GTC is unique and quite different from the Continental GT coupé, with its compact soft top and longer rear deck. And with the roof down the exterior becomes a showcase for the hand-crafted interior.
The new car blends clear Continental
lineage with its own personality and character - a unique mix of
sporting dynamism and the added elegance you expect from a
convertible. That means the new car has simple, clean lines that are
unimpeded by the shutlines and creases that so many convertibles and
retractable hard-tops are forced to adopt in order to package the
roof when it is folded. |
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To ensure that the design was not compromised in any way, the Continental GTC’s engineering team was charged with creating a completely new rear suspension package that allowed the rear design of the car to be kept as compact as possible while still giving enough space to stow the roof when folded. Similarly, a great deal of time was spent on ensuring that the soft fabric roof is perfectly taut and not ‘bowed’ or ‘pitched’ when raised.
As on the entire Continental range, the GTC’s design has also been influenced by the need to ensure perfect aerodynamic balance at speeds close to 200mph (320km/h). The convertible spent many hours in the wind tunnel to ensure a low drag coefficient and like the coupé and four-door versions it utilises an underbody diffuser and specially sculpted rear bumper and bootlid edge to provide downforce and stability at high speed. Interior design
The front seats have a new sculpted rear which produces an additional 30mm (1.2 inches) of knee-space in the rear. In the rear of the Continental GTC the centre console finishes with a veneered panel just behind the front armrests, therefore leaving the rear seats as an uninterrupted surface of leather hide, optimising the maximum space for the proportion of the car. As with all Bentley interior design, great attention to detail has been paid to the jewellery in the car, using a mix of polished and satin metals, such as you might find in modern watch design. Between the rear seats there is access to allow skis to be passed through from the boot area. The boot can also hold two golf bags, and of course plenty of luggage, making this a truly practical convertible. The inner roof of the Continental GTC is trimmed with a very high quality fabric that looks like the slung headliner in the original coachbuilt Bentleys. Customers have a choice of eight headlining colours enabling them to create a luxuriously light feel or a darker, more sporting ambience.
Exterior features and technology The Continental GTC combines the finest Bentley traditions and craftsmanship with highly advanced automotive technology. Wherever modern solutions have been introduced on the car, however, these are never to the detriment of driving enjoyment or passenger comfort. At Bentley we don’t believe in overloading our cars, or our customers, with technology that they don’t need or may never use. On the Continental GTC every feature content or safety system must make a case for itself before being added. What’s more, the full features list is almost entirely standard, meaning customers won’t be forced to trawl through an exhaustive options list at additional cost. The convertible roof with rollover protection The second target for the engineering team was to ensure that the car’s folding roof was as refined as possible while still fitting into a small stowage area behind the rear seats. Folding flat in just 25 seconds is a remarkable feat in itself for this complex, seven-bow, fabric roof. But just as impressive is its state-of-the-art three layer construction. The Continental GTC’s roof has superb acoustic-damping fabrics, with a thicker, more padded outer layer than is used in any other convertible. The ‘sandwich’ is also a thick, insulating layer while the third inner layer is made from the highest quality cloth material which echoes the roof lining on Bentleys of yesteryear.
Not only are the materials the best available, but the construction and packaging of the roof are second to none. Its designers were keen that absolutely all working parts would be covered, which means that whether you are inside the car as the roof is in operation or watching from the outside, not one piece of the mechanism will be visible. The roof comes with a heated glass rear window and also an interior rooflamp in the headlining. It can be operated after pulling away from standstill at speeds up to 30km/h (20mph). To ensure occupant safety, an advanced rollover protection system is installed beneath the rear headrests. If the car’s onboard computer senses that the car is about to roll during an accident, two reinforced steel hoops are deployed in a split second, thereby working in conjunction with the exceptionally strong windshield frame to protect passengers in the front and rear seats. New rear suspension To cater for the Continental GTC’s sleek design and packaging requirements, a new rear suspension has been created. The convertible shares the same suspension system as its coupé equivalent - a four-link arrangement at the front and a trapezoidal multi-link rear axle with computer-controlled air springs and fully variable, electronically controlled shock absorbers in place of conventional coils. On previous Continental models, however, the air damper unit was mounted to the upper lever of the rear suspension. On the convertible, the entire damper has been lowered by 210mm and is now mounted to a brand new lower trapezoidal link with an advanced aluminium-cast mounting point that provides the strength and stiffness to hold the damper in place. With a slightly altered weight distribution and a need to ensure the convertible is as luxurious and comfortable as it is sporting and dynamic, the Continental GTC has revised air spring pistons and damper hydraulics at the front and rear. As with the other Continentals in the range, the Continental GTC will allow the driver to select from four pre-programmed suspension settings ranging from Comfort through to Sport. These settings automatically adjust the computer-controlled shock absorbers to ensure that the car reacts in the right way to your driving style. At speeds above 152mph (245km/h), the suspension automatically lowers the car to ensure that aerodynamic lift is kept to a minimum, benefitting high-speed stability. Powertrain The Continental GTC is powered by Bentley’s magnificent W12 twin-turbocharged 6.0-litre engine, which will propel the car to 60mph in 4.8 seconds and on to a top speed of 195mph (312km/h). This awe-inspiring piece of engineering is identical to the unit used in the coupé and four-door versions of the Continental and delivers phenomenal power (552bhp/411kW) as well as that legendary wave of torque (479lb ft/650Nm) from low revs that is the hallmark of every Bentley. The 12-cylinder block has a 48-valve head with four camshafts that operate using continually variable valve-timing. Power is transmitted via a seven-bearing crankshaft to the car’s six-speed automatic transmission. To ensure compliance stringent emissions regulations, the twin turbochargers are designed with a unique bypass valve that automatically sends exhaust gases to heat the catalytic converters when the car is started from cold. This valve then operates as the turbocharger wastegate at all other times. The Borg-Warner turbochargers are also the ideal solution for producing the flat torque curve, ensuring that the driver has instantly available performance without a hint of turbo lag or having to shift down through the gears. That mighty torque curve is constant, with no drop-off from its maximum output of 479lb ft (650Nm) at just 1600 rev/min all the way up to 6000 rev/min. The Continental GTC’s prodigious power is channelled through a six-speed automatic transmission built for Bentley by ZF. The transmission can be left in fully automatic mode or used as a clutchless manual where gear changes take place only on the command of the driver, via either the gearlever or paddles mounted behind the steering wheel. Conclusion The launch of the Continental GTC means that the Continental range is now complete. Three years after the introduction of the Continental GT coupé, Bentley customers are now able to choose from three remarkable Continentals, all undeniably Bentleys, but all unique in character and appeal. 12 April, 2006 Photos: Bentley
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