Sydney show: Bentley goes ballistic with Speed GT

BENTLEY again underlined the importance of the Australian market to the born-again Volkswagen-owned British brand by giving its most powerful production model ever its Australian debut at today’s Sydney motor show opening. Pricing for the GT Speed, which will go on sale here in the first quarter of 2008, was announced at $407,500 plus on-road costs – $32,500 more than the $375,000 Continental GT coupe upon which it is based. Positioned within $100,000 of the flagship Arnage sedan range, which opens at $500,000, the high-performance GT Speed is also more expensive than both the Continental Flying Spur sedan ($358,000) and even the GTC convertible ($399,500). For the price of a discounted Holden Commodore, however, the GT Speed adds considerably more performance than the two-tonne-plus, all-wheel drive Conti GT, which was itself billed as the world’s fastest four-seater production car when it was launched in Australia late in 2003. The GT Speed is claimed to sprint to 100km/h in 4.5 seconds and on to a top speed of 326km/h, making it Bentley’s first 200mp/h-plus production car. It does so thanks to a heavily massaged version of the VW-sourced twin-turbocharged 6.0-litre 48-valve W12 engine, which now develops nine per cent more power and 15 per cent more torque – for maximum outputs of 449kW (600bhp) and 750Nm.

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First look: More Speed for ballistic Bentley