2025 Bentley Continental GT Speed at Lightning Lap 2025
From the March/April 2025 issue of Car and Driver.
Class: LL5 | Base: $324,070 | As Tested: $391,175 Power and Weight: 771 hp • 5443 lb • 7.1 lb/hpTires: Pirelli P Zero PZ4 Elect; F: 275/35ZR-22 (104Y) PNCS BH, R: 315/30ZR-22 (107Y) PNCS BH
"How much quicker will it be?" is the question usually bouncing around in our helmets when we belt into a redesigned model at Lightning Lap. That was the case with Bentley's new Continental GT Speed, which trades a 12-cylinder powertrain for a plug-in-hybrid V-8 setup that makes 121 more horsepower. The surprising answer came right away, in Turn 1.
In that first corner, the best we could muster was a mere 0.89 g, way down from the 0.96 g of the last GT Speed. The new car wears Bentley-spec Pirelli P Zero PZ4 summer tires just like its predecessor did and in precisely the same sizes, but they're very different donuts: The new ones get "Elect" branding on their sidewalls, indicating that low rolling resistance is a priority.
The new GT's hybrid system also results in a 393-pound weight gain. Added mass and less grip mean the new car is slower than the old one in every sector. The biggest deficit comes in the tight Infield section, where it falls 1.7 seconds behind. The hybrid system suffered a few hiccups and bobbles during our lapping, but when it's working properly, as it was on our quickest lap, you can feel the instant squirt of electric assist on corner exit. And despite a 4.2-mph-lower exit speed onto the Front Straight, the new Bentley pulled to 156.6 mph, 3.0 mph higher than before. So, the additional power is clearly trying to help the cause.
It's possible to induce a tail-out slide when you're driving aggressively, and the Conti's brakes never gave up, but this big, cushy coupe with a luxuriously muted V-8 roar is frankly the least suited to the track of any of this year's field. "Power is nothing without control" is a slogan Pirelli has used for decades. That explains precisely why the new GT Speed is 4.5 seconds behind its predecessor.
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