Skip to main content

Bentley motorsport returns to North America with Continental GT3 racer

Today’s Bentley Continental GT is as fast as it is luxurious, but few would look at this gargantuan two door and think “race car.”

Luckily, those few happen to work for Bentley, and they launched a new racing program in Europe for the 2014 season. At the 2014 New York Auto Show, Bentley announced that its Continental GT3 is coming to North America as well.

With factory backing, Dyson will race a pair of Continental GT3s in the second half of the 2014 Pirelli World Challenge series, in preparation for a full season next year.

Dyson drivers Guy Smith and Butch Leitzinger will fly the Bentley flag in the U.S.

Both drivers have ties to Bentley’s last major motorsport program, which involved top-level Le Mans Prototypes, not converted road cars.

Smith was part of the Bentley team that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2003, and also won the 2011 American Le Mans Series championship with Dyson Racing. Leitzinger raced with Bentley at Le Mans in 2001 and 2002, and is a staple of U.S. sports car racing.

Those cars, have very little in common with the Bentleys civilians can buy. It features a 600-horsepower version of Bentley’s 4.0-liter, twin-turbocharged V8, rear-wheel drive, and a six-speed paddle-shifted transaxle.

While a racing Bentley is a novelty today, the brand once had a reputation for performance, thanks to the exploits of the “Bentley Boys,” who won multiple Le Mans victories in the 1920s.

Those days are long gone, but perhaps the Continental GT3 will restore some of that luster when it takes to North American tracks later this year.

Editors' Recommendations

Stephen Edelstein
Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…
The Apple Car was reportedly dubbed ‘the Bread Loaf’
A man checks his phone in an Apple retail store in Grand Central Terminal.

A 2020 prototype of the so-called "Apple Car" was dubbed "the Bread Loaf" for its looks, according to a Bloomberg report on Wednesday.

In a deep dive into the costly project, which Apple canceled last month, the report described the vehicle as “a white minivan with rounded sides, an all-glass roof, sliding doors, and whitewall tires [that] was designed to comfortably seat four people and inspired by the classic flower-power Volkswagen microbus.”

Read more
The Rivian R2 SUV is up for preorder for only $45,000
Rivian R2

You can now get a Rivian without spending more than $70,000. After months of rumors and leaks, Rivian has finally taken the wraps off of the Rivian R2, its newest SUV, and the first to be built on the new Rivian R2 platform. The R2 is built to be Rivian's "Model 3 moment," or its attempt to build a car that's more accessible to the general public and thus could be sold at a much higher volume than the R1S or R1T ever were.

The R2 certainly cuts some corners to achieve the lower price point, but it actually still has a lot going for it -- especially as an electric SUV in this price range. It goes up against the likes of the Tesla Model Y, Hyundai Ioniq 5, Mustang Mach-E, and Kia EV6, but it's much more of an SUV than a crossover-sized car and should appeal to those who want something larger and with Rivian's design sensibility.

Read more
The R3 is Rivian’s surprise electric crossover
Rivian R3

Rivian didn't just announce the R2 platform at its latest launch event -- in a surprise twist, it also announced the R3 crossover. The R3 is Rivian's smallest car yet, offering a size much closer to the likes of the Hyundai Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 than the SUVs that came before it.

Of course, not only is the Rivian R3 smaller, but presumably, it's also cheaper. Rivian didn't reveal actual pricing for the car, but it did say that it would be less than the R2's $45,000 price. Also, it may be some time before we start seeing the R3 on the road -- the car will follow the R2, which isn't set to be available until the first half of 2026.

Read more