If you want to weather the apocalypse in luxury, check out eBay. Someone with a twisted sense of humor turned a Bentley Continental GT into an off-road capable “rally edition,” and it’s for sale.
With four days left to go in the auction, the Bentley has started a bidding war. It has attracted 70 bids so far, and the price in the U.K.-based auction currently sits at 34,100 pounds (about $44,000). That makes this car a bargain, as new Continental GTs start at close to $200,000 (used versions for less, admittedly) and the seller claims to have put $32,300 worth of work into it.
The “rally edition” started out as a standard Continental GT, with the 6.0-liter, twin-turbocharged W12 engine, six-speed automatic transmission, and all-wheel drive. It was originally painted silver, but got a militaristic green vinyl wrap as part of its transformation. Other modifications include beefed-up suspension, fender flares to accommodate chunkier tires, and an external roll cage.
The Continental GT is one of the most rarefied luxury cars around, but it’s also been on sale since 2003.
Amusingly, this rugged beast still maintains many of the stock Continental GT’s luxury features, including a leather-upholstered interior, navigation, automatic folding exterior mirrors, rain-sensing wipers, parking sensors, and heated front seats with memory system. The seller also promises a full service history and claims the car is fully road legal, in the United Kingdom at least.
Bentley likes to pride itself on being able to personalize cars to meet any customer’s needs, but that personalization usually takes the form of stretched limousine bodies and custom interiors, not roll cages and fender flares. This is something the factory would never attempt, even with the Bentley Bentayga SUV rolling off its assembly line.
The ability of an individual owner to turn a Continental GT into a rally raider illustrates an interesting quirk of Bentley’s sporty coupe. The Continental GT is one of the most rarefied luxury cars around, but it’s also been on sale since 2003. That apparently means there enough used examples kicking around to keep values down, enough that one wouldn’t think twice about buying one and then spending $32,300 to turn it into an apocalypse-ready machine.
A brand-new Continental GT is set to debut at the 2017 Frankfurt Motor Show. It’s sleeker and more high-tech than its predecessor, but after seeing this modified Continental, we can’t help picturing the new model in army green.
