SINGAPORE: Bentley's third generation Continental GT has officially landed in the Southeast Asian region and while the company in Crewe, England are touting it as a statement of true luxury, it's also packing a 626bhp 6.0-litre W12 engine under the aluminium hood.

Designed, engineered and handcrafted in Britain, the new Continental GT boasts of seamless integration of handcrafted, natural materials and cutting-edge technology - especially with its revolutionary Bentley Rotating Display and digital instrument cluster as well as LEDs for the front matrix headlights with highbeam assist, rear lights and daytime running lights,




The monocoque uses a combination of steel and aluminium, but externally, the body panels are exclusively made of aluminium panels that have been shaped using Super-Plastic Forming technology.

The metal is heated to over 500 degrees Celsius before high pressure air pumps it into a mould to help provide a lowly 0.29Cd drag-coefficient before getting covered by a choice of 17 standard paint colours or a bespoke one on request.




Only the lid of the 358 litre boot uses a composite material, which happens to hide all of the car's antennae below it, and has helped to shed 85kg - 20%-less that its predecessor, bringing its kerb weight down to 2,244kg.

With a 2,851mm wheelbase (+105mm), the front wheels have been pushed forward by 135mm from its original position and measures 4,850mm-long (+44mm), 1,954mm-wide (+10mm) and 1,405mm-tall (+1mm).




For grip, there are 21-inch wheels fitted with 265/40 (front) and 305/35 (rear) Pirelli tyres or upgrade to the optional 22-inch wheels with 275/35 (front) and 315/30 (rear) tyres from the same Italian tyremaker.

Partially obscured are the large 10 (front) and four-piston (rear) calipers that bite down on the 420mm (front) and 380mm (rear) iron disc brakes to bleed speed quickly from a top speed of 333kph.

Handling comes from aluminium double wishbone (front) and multi-link (rear), both with three-chamber air-suspension system with 48-Volt active anti-roll bars, while a standard continuous damping system enhances comfort levels.

A 90-litre fuel tank feeds the 6.0-litre (5,950cc) biturbo W12 (W-configuration 12-cylinder) TSI engine with combined port and direct injection, start-stop functionality and cylinder (6) deactivation.

Power is rated at 635PS at 6,000rpm and 900Nm from 1,350 to 4,500pm that gets the gets managed by an eight-speed ZF dual-clutch gearbox before reaching the active all-wheel drive system that transmits up to 38% of total torque to the front axle in Bentley and Comfort mode or up to 17% in Sport mode.

The GT takes just 3.7 seconds to sprint from 0 to 100kph, while mixed-fuel consumption has been rated at 12.2 litres per 100km and emissions at 278g/km.




Inside, the cabin is upholstered in leather with 15 standard hide colours for choice before getting accented with unbroken veneer (one standard, 17 other options or dual veneer options).

Other fixtures and fittings include (but not limited to) the new 12.3-inch central touchscreen system including HDD-navigation, two SD-card slots, Bluetooth with WiFi streaming, CD/DVD/radio Apple CarPlay, Sirius satellite radio, 60GB solid-state drive, 4G telephone system and Google StreetView/Earth/online POI search.


As an optional extra, the Bentley Rotating Display can be had which switched between touchscreen, three analogue gauges(compass, chronometer and outside temperature).

For audible pleasure, there are three options starting with the standard 650-watt 10-speaker system, a 1,500-watt 16-speaker Bang & Olufsen option with four DSP sound modes and Beo Sonic interface or a 2,200-watt 18-speaker (including two kinaesthetic shakers) Naim option with eight DSP sound modes and Active Bass.


Driver conveniences include keyless-entry with push-start button, 20-way power-adjustable seats with cooling/heating and massage function, electric-power assisted steering with variable ratio, a heads-up display, night vision, lane assist and traffic sign recognition among others.

Deliveries of the third generation Bentley Continental GT will begin early next year.

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