A century after the first Super Sports became Bentley’s inaugural 100mph machine, the name has returned in its most radical form yet. The new Supersports is a rear-wheel-drive, non-hybrid Continental that has shed around 500kg and, for the first time in the model’s road-going history, dipped below two tonnes.
That diet is no marketing flourish. Removing the plug-in hybrid hardware, front driveshafts and rear seats accounts for most of the saving; carbon bodywork, a carbon roof, Manthey-forged 22-inch wheels and an Akrapovic titanium exhaust finish the job. The result is a claimed 1,999kg kerb weight — the lightest Bentley in 85 years — and a power-to-weight ratio that beats the heavier, hybrid-assisted GT Speed despite a drop to 657bhp and 590lb ft from the reworked 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8.
It is still a grand tourer, not a GT3 racer with number plates. The cabin remains richly appointed, the seats electrically adjusted, the ride composed. But the brief has changed. An electronic limited-slip differential, a 16mm wider rear track, recalibrated dampers and rear-wheel steering exist to make the car rotate, not merely to soothe motorway miles. Extra aero — splitter, sills, diffuser and a fixed wing — adds some 300kg of downforce. Just 500 numbered cars will be built.
So can it feel at home at Laguna Seca? Early track impressions suggest yes, within limits. Half a tonne less mass is immediately obvious: the nose turns in with less inertia, the carbon-ceramics bite harder than the remaining weight requires, and the V8’s mid-range shove arrives without the hybrid’s instant fill-in. It is not a scalpel. Nearly two tonnes still have to be placed through the Corkscrew. Stability systems remain polite unless you switch them off, and the car’s size never quite disappears. What it does offer is unexpected agility and a sense that Bentley has finally let the Continental’s chassis speak without four driven wheels and a battery pack interrupting.
The original Super Sports was rarer, lighter and faster than its siblings. A hundred years on, the formula is unchanged — only the circuit is different.
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