This modern-classic Bentley twosome offers an interesting dilemma for anyone with up to £45,000 to spend. We experience both to decide which is best – Continental R or GT Speed
Words: Paul Wager Images: Gerard Hughes
These two luxury cars appear to be similar in their approach: glamourous, two doors, a winged-B badge on the nose and each sporting the historic and evocative Continental name. However, with a whole automotive generation separating the two, there are some significant differences.
The older of the two is a hand-crafted exclusive product that took the ageing Rolls-Royce SZ platform to its very limits, while the newer car was born from a brief to improve the sales volume of the Bentley brand in order to ensure its survival under the Volkswagen Group. It’s a temple to modern production processes and technology.
The pricing is perhaps the perfect illustration of their differences: the 1997 Continental R you see here would have been £187,000 before extras, while the 2008 Continental Speed GT retailed at £138,000. Factor in the ten years between them and you see just how exclusive the older car was.
Few will have failed to notice the rising enthusiasm for modern-classic Bentleys in recent years; and as values of early examples fall, the high-tech GT is an enticingly affordable proposition. As values of the older Continental R and T rise, meanwhile, they meet ten-year old examples of the later one on their way down, with a figure of around £40,000 being sufficient to secure a very nice example of either car. So which makes the better choice? We get behind the wheel of each in order to find out.
Even in a modern streetscape filled with lumbering SUVs, the Silver Spirit-based cars remain imposing vehicles and the Continental is no exception. It’s based, of course, on the same floorpan as the four-door saloons, yet somehow the extravagance of having a car this size with just two doors adds to the occasion.
The Continental’s shape has worn the passing of the years well, quite possibly because its basic three-box aesthetics weren’t particularly on-trend when it first appeared. This is a product of Crewe going its own way, regardless of whatever automotive styling directions were in vogue at that moment in the mainstream market. As a result, what might at first sight seem like a straightforward two-door version of the Mulsanne/Spirit is in fact a particularly elegant piece of work and very different from its four-door sibling.
The first unique Bentley model under Rolls-Royce ownership since the 1950s, the Continental was intended to replace the controversial Camargue as a range-topping model. It had its roots in the ‘Project 90’ concept that appeared at the 1985 Geneva motor show, produced after then managing director Peter Ward expressed a desire for a Bentley to stand apart from the Rolls-Royce models.
Styled by John Heffernan and Ken Greenley, the concept was revived as the more practical Continental R in 1988, based around a proposal for a replacement Rolls-Royce Corniche. One little-publicised fact is that the concept car inspired the Sultan of Brunei to commission the huge number of ultra-expensive special models which it’s reckoned kept Rolls-Royce afloat during the next few years.
The total development budget for the Continental R (and its later Azure-badged convertible derivative) was tiny by car industry standards at just £19 million, and the car entered production in 1991 at the rate of around six units per week. Although the Continental wore Mulliner badging, unlike the older coachbuilt Continentals they were constructed at Crewe using bodyshells supplied by Park Sheet Metal of Coventry, and were very much a factory production model.
Underneath, the running gear was identical to the contemporary Turbo R, which in the case of this 1997 example means 385bhp and 553lb.ft torque. Despite its not-inconsiderable bulk of 2.4 tonnes, that’s enough to give the big coupé serious pace: 60mph from a standstill in just over six seconds, plus a top end of well over 150mph.
It might seem an odd comment about a car that was the price of a decent house when new, but next to its younger brother, the Continental R seems classy and understated. The subtly flared arches give it a quiet, muscled presence without needing enormous rims and shallow-profile rubber to make it look the part. It’s a similar story on the inside too, with the traditional wood and leather of the Rolls-Royce/Bentley cabin of the era being very different from the bright embellishments and piano black gloss of the GT.
This car predates the era when cars with sporting pretensions had to have a racy ‘engine start’ button, so waking up the familiar 6.75-litre V8 involves nothing more than twisting a key in the dash-mounted ignition, with the age of the car’s electrical architecture being betrayed by the separate alarm key fob.
The Continental R is impressively refined in the finest Crewe tradition; once you’ve swung the heavy doors shut, the engine note is reduced to a distant ‘woofling’. Lift the selector, slip it into Drive and with a lean on the long-travel throttle pedal the car oozes forwards. The R has a relaxed feel to it, which is notably different from the more eager GT, with a lazier engine note and a mellower demeanour. In urban traffic speeds, it barely needs to rise much above idle to trickle the car through traffic, but once the road clears it’s happy to oblige. A distant, almost imperceptible whistle is evidence of boost building, with the prow rising slightly as the iron hand of that 553lb ft pushes you in the back.
Even by today’s standards, a well set-up Turbo R or Continental R is a fast car and it’s easy to see why road testers of the time were so awe-struck; quite simply, a car of this bulk didn’t really have any right to exhibit such pace. In some ways, however, the Continental R’s age does show – the pattering over broken road surfaces for example, which the more rigid GT has licked courtesy of modern computer-aided bodyshell design. Nevertheless, for a 20-year-old car it’s mightily impressive.
The story behind the Continental R’s high-tech descendant is a familiar one, so we’ll keep the recap brief. When Volkswagen Group outbid BMW for Rolls-Royce in 1998, it later discovered that the rights to the Rolls-Royce trademark weren’t part of the deal, which presented a fairly major blow to making the cars bearing the name.
With Volkswagen claiming that the Bentley brand was the prize it had wanted all along, a deal was eventually arrived at whereby Rolls-Royce cars would be built at Crewe until the end of 2002, with January of the following year seeing custodianship of the brand moving across to BMW and production shifted to a brand new plant at Goodwood. At that point, the historic Crewe factory – under Volkswagen control – would produce only Bentley-branded cars.
A new Volkswagen Group model was already well under way in the unlikely shape of the VW Phaeton, said to be a pet project of company chief Ferdinand Piëch. It contained all the elements that would later go into creating the Continental GT, chief among them the W12 engine. Looking like a slightly bloated Passat, the anonymous Phaeton was packed with high-tech and, although in many ways a massively costly folly, it did allow VW to fast-track development of the all-important new Bentley.
The W12 engine first appeared in the Audi A8 of 2001 before being employed in the Phaeton the following year, although in Audi and VW guise it produced ‘only’ 414bhp. In order to match the mighty heft of the old Turbo R models that Bentley customers were used to, it needed more – something that was duly achieved by bolting up a pair of KKK ‘blowers’ alongside much modification of the block and internals. The result was a handy 552bhp, backed up with 479lb.ft torque at just 1600rpm, driving through a six-speed ZF automatic specially developed for the car and adapted to work with its standard four-wheel drive.
All this technology was wrapped up in a body that was claimed to have been styled in-house in Bentley’s Crewe studios, but which was actually the work of Dirk van Braeckel, a Belgian designer who had begun his VW Group career at Audi before heading up Skoda prior to his move to Cheshire. His brief was to recapture the Bentley heritage without producing something self-consciously retro… and he duly delivered. With its short front overhang and muscled haunches, the Continental GT had overtones of the R-Type Continental of the ’50s but with a thoroughly modern clean look.
The structure of the bodyshell itself was impressive, too. One of Piëch’s goals with the Phaeton had been class-leading torsional rigidity and the Bentley followed suit. Making a car this size – especially one with pillarless side glass – rigid without being massively heavy is a big ask, but by using technology that included adhesive bonding and laser welding, VW and Bentley were able to keep kerb weight down to 2350kg. It’s a hefty beast, but not as hefty as it could be considering that it can seat four six-foot adults in comfort, yet achieve 198mph and sprint to 60mph in an impressive 4.7 seconds.
Underneath was found wishbones at each corner with anti-roll bars and an electronically controlled air suspension which allowed the car to squat by 15mm at 100mph. On the inside, the GT was a neat mixture of new world and old, with the high-tech elements neatly offset by subtle use of leather and hand finishing.
The Continental GT was announced to the press on March 3rd, 2003 at the Geneva motor show – and by March 24th, a staggering 3200 deposits had been taken for the new car. The enthusiasm was no doubt fuelled by the price, which at £110,000 was almost half that of the older, hand-built Bentleys.
After driving the older Continental, the GT is something of a culture shock. It’s obviously a much more modern car and even before you get as far as the driving seat you’ll have noticed little touches like the double-glazed side windows and the way the glass drops to clear the seal as you pull the door handle. Inside, anyone who has spent time in a modern Audi will find the controls familiar, albeit many of them with a garnish of bright metal, a machined finish or similar to suit the Bentley’s more extrovert cabin and remind you that this is no A4 diesel. This certainly isn’t a criticism; after all, if you’re going to borrow switchgear from anywhere, Audi is just about as good as it gets and there’s no argument that the GT is beautifully put together.
The mighty W12 – which is in essence a pair of VW’s VR6 engines on a common crank – springs to life either by twisting the key or jabbing the console-mounted start button, and its idle tells you just how different from the Continental R the GT’s character is. With half as many cylinders again, it seems busier at tickover, more urgent but no less refined, although a blip of the throttle reveals an exhaust note which hints very obviously at the huge power on tap.
Pressing the big Bentley logo and selecting Drive, the car is more eager from a standstill than the older Continental, noticeably more responsive to smaller throttle inputs but despite its size, no more demanding to drive than a Golf. The steering at parking speeds is fingertip-light and the good visibility makes it easy to place in a crowded car park.
Out on the road, the GT is supremely refined and the way in which the immensely rigid shell manages to shrug off most of our scarred tarmac is one of the most noticeable differences between the two cars. Of course, the W12 is quite happy pootling along in the school run traffic, but when there’s a clear stretch of road – and seriously, you’ll need a fairly long bit of road – an ample squeeze of the pedal sees it surge forwards in a way the older Bentley can’t hope to match. The huge torque makes it feel lighter than it really is, while the four-wheel drive gives it a ‘planted’ feel that makes it seem immensely secure.
On a gentle test drive near Balmoral UK’s Halesowen premises, we were barely able to scratch at the car’s huge performance, but we know from previous experience that these big coupés can really be made to hustle – as indeed anyone will know who saw the Top Gear episode in which a GT was rallied.
Ultimately, the strength of the Continental GT is in the way it manages to be so very ordinary in some ways and remain utterly outrageous in others, while conveying just as much a sense of occasion as the older car. Here is a Bentley your granny could happily drive to the supermarket, and if she sneezed at the wrong moment could easily find herself touching nearly 200mph without noticing.
Bentley Continental GT Speed vs Bentley Continental R
As we said at the beginning, these are two very different cars, which makes it both very easy and almost impossible to choose which one better deserves your £40,000 or so. The Continental GT is a car you could use every day, all year round, while the Continental R is of the age where to do that to it would be a shame. It’s a car for special occasions, to be savoured and enjoyed as a reminder of times long gone, when Bentley didn’t need to worry about sales figures or the tastes of Premier League players.
The Continental R is also likely to provide a very handy return on your investment in even the short to medium term, with values of fine examples seemingly on the up. By comparison, an excellent example of a decade-old Continental GT is still in the depreciation zone. All of which means that as a financial decision I’ll take the Continental R – but if it’s a non-stop dash to the South of France, then give me the Continental GT Speed every time.
