Deep in the Northern Territory of Australia lies a stretch of asphalt called the Stuart Highway, which is one of only three places in the world that has a derestricted speed limit. The Stuart Highway covers a distance of 2,834 km from Darwin in the Northern Territory to Port Augusta, South Australia – approximately the same distance as Kuala Lumpur to Seoul as a matter of perspective.
Bentley decided (and we’d agree) that this was the perfect place to wail the latest Bentley Continental GT Speed flat out. Here’s a bunch of mind-boggling figures for you. The Bentley is powered by a 626 bhp W12 block that churns out an incredible 820 Nm of twist at just 1,700 rpm. The combination of these two propels the 2.3 tonne luxury machine to the century mark in just 4.3 seconds!
The Crewe-based company elected to have Australian racing legend, John Bowe at the helm of this little experiment who was quoted saying “This isn’t a modified race car; it’s a luxurious grand touring road car fresh off the production line. It took us a little over a minute to go from a standstill to 331 km/h. That’s extraordinary. Even when you break through the 200 mph (320 km/h) barrier, the GT Speed just keeps accelerating.”
Fans of the plucky BBC motoring show Top Gear will at this point be replaying the episode where James May drove the famed Bugatti Veyron flat out in Germany in their mind right now. At top speed, the 6.0-litre twin-turbo Grand Tourer was covering a staggering 92 metres per second! That’s equivalent to one football field per second!
At Vmax, the Bentley GT Speed is circulating 216 litres of coolant through its engine and radiator per minute while drawing over 4,700 litres of air through the radiator each second and using only 80 percent of its engine power just to overcome aerodynamic loads. Amazing!
IMAGE GALLERY
