Issue link: http://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/52531
DRIVETIME China's nouveau riche for western luxury brands. Bentley's China sales are up 66 per cent this year, making China the brand's second most important market, after the United States. When you first glimpse the new car from a distance, it still lacks aggression – like the original – but as you get closer and circumnavigate the form, you realise it's been transformed from a too feminine shape into a beautifully and quite radically chiselled hunk of metal, which exudes a deep, complex, mesmerising menace. The 6.0-litre, twin-turbo W12 engine is actually two Volkswagen V6s grafted together; it was also used in the uber-limo (and uber-dud) VW Phaeton. The basic architecture of the Continental is also sourced from the Phaeton. The 2011 engine produces 423kW (up 15kW) and 700Nm of torque, an increase of 50Nm. A quicker shifting ZF six-speed auto sits behind it and, as before, drive goes to all wheels, now with a 40/60 rear bias instead of the original 50/50 split. On its way to 318km/h, the GT will hit 100km/h in 4.4 seconds, 0.2 seconds quicker than previously. That's comparable with a Porsche 911 Bentley's Continental GT is without doubt, though, the most luxurious example of the breed. GTS. Not bad for 2.32 tonnes. It will also run on E85 ethanol fuel in a nod to environmental concerns, and for those who are really committed to saving the planet, a 4.0-litre, V8-powered GT is on the way. In any other car, leaning hard on 12 cylinders and 700Nm would snap your head back, but the GT takes a moment or two to get mobile, doesn't feel as fast as the numbers claim and noise-wise is a non-event. Overtaking performance, though, is another story. Intergalactic thrust is yours for the asking from anywhere north of 80km/h. Wider tracks, recalibrated air-spring suspension with adjustable dampers and 20-inch wheels complete the 2011 chassis package. Our test car was fitted with optional 21-inch wheels, but with either size the GT is under-tyred for such a heavy, powerful beast. Add the inescapable fact that most of the enormous W12's mass dangles forward of the front axle line, and it's no surprise that when you point it with moderate enthusiasm at a tight corner, the GT rolls and flops into it with less than en pointe precision, understeering its way around a wide line. When the bends open up and flow into each other, though, it does what a Gran Turismo is supposed to do. The Sport suspension setting is necessary to keep all that weight from going in half a dozen different directions at once, but as long as you push the right travel&living 99