Gently, Bentley it's a legend

Coming or going the new Bentley Continental GT is instantly recognisable. Photo / Supplied

The Bentley design team worked on a long-held styling standard for the second-generation Continental GT - when there's nothing more to take away, the look of the car is complete. In other words, less is more.

Owners said the existing two-door GT was fine and dandy - a styling icon. Don't change the new model too much, they told Bentley. A tweak here and there, a bit more room in the back seat, more storage space, the latest technology ... that'll do nicely.

Bentley listened to what the owners had to say. There were 23,000 of them worldwide - an influential sounding board.

How influential? The all-wheel-drive Continental GT was introduced in 2003. Since than sales have averaged more than 3000 cars a year.

Check the Bentley timeline: Between 1919 and 2003 it sold 16,000 cars - an average of 190 cars a year worldwide. In other words, Bentley sold more of one model in seven years than it sold of its entire range in 84 years.

There's more: In 2007, for example, Bentley sold about 10,000 cars - 2270 Continental Flying Spurs, 357 Arnages, 350 Azures, 8 Brooklands - and just short of 7000 Continental GTs.

Last year Bentley sold 5117 vehicles, of which 2578 were GTs.

The Continental GT occupies a rare place in the world of Bentley. The design is so set in stone that senior designer Robin Page admits the stylists set out to treat the look of the new two-door with kid gloves.

"The new GT is very much influenced by the design of the original GT," he says. "But we wanted to include more defined styling cues, subtle lines from Bentley heritage models like the 1952 R-Type Continental."

Back then, Bentley craftsmen made panels by hand, handbeating creases and curves that defined elegance. Such handiwork was later lost. But modern technology and its ultra-fine tolerances has enabled Bentley to recreate the old-time fine lines.

Stylists identified three heritage cues they wanted to stand out in the new GT: lines over the front wheel arch, near the hinged front door, and over the car's rear haunches.

"We wanted strong graphic lines to tighten the body, give the new GT more of a ripped, taut look, one that was lacking in the first GT," says Page.

The new car's waistline is 20mm higher, another cue for a sportier look.

The front end, with its wire lower vents and grille, is more upright, again a heritage design cue. Same with the headlights, side by side.

The rear brake lights glow oval, to match the shape of each of the two exhausts.

"You can be way behind the GT in traffic at night and identify it just from its brakelights," says Page.

Inside, Bentley has shifted the seatbelts from the front seats to the door pillar, a move that saves 20kg in weight. All up, the new GT is 60kg lighter than the old.

Page is at home inside the car - he's Bentley's interior design chief. One feature he particularly likes is the 3mm blanket of foam under the car's leather interior - seats, dash, door panels, the lot.

It makes the soft-touch leather even softer.

"It's under all surfaces," he says. "We didn't do it on the original GT. It's expensive and time-consuming - but it was worth it."

The Breitling clock matches the instrument dials, something that the watchmaker and Bentley boss insisted on. But the clock was one of the most troublesome components to fit. It has to synch with the car's main computer and power source and can't be isolated. Could it tick away while the GT was parked up for two weeks and flatten the battery? The engineers are keeping an eye on the clock.

The rest of the car is a GT with the heart of hustler, its twin-turbo 6-litre W12 engine delivering 423kW and 700Nm and driving all four wheels through a six-speed transmission.

The twin-turbo can bite hard under the throttle, sending the 2.3-tonne car hurtling forward at a speed that belies its bulk.

Some buyers might perhaps prefer a more linear supply of power, where throttle response is swift but more gradual.

The all-wheel-drive system splits torque 60:40 towards the rear to minimise understeer. The previous GT had a 50:50 bias.

Bentley has made a concession to fuel use and the environment. The GT can run on standard unleaded petrol and sustainable bioethanol or any mix of the two.

A new, cleaner engine is due later in the year. It's said to be a 4-litre V8 giving a 40 per cent reduction over the W12 in carbon dioxide emissions.