Bentley Continental Supersports (2009) first ride review

At the 2009 Goodwood Festival of Speed, CAR was granted a passenger ride up the hill in the new light(er) weight Bentley Continental Supersports. It’s the new biofuel Bentley – the most powerful road car ever to roll out of Crewe’s gates is also the cleanest. And the driver of our E85 eco saintly sports car? One Derek Bell Esq.

We meet Bentley at the Conti’s bay in the rammed supercar paddock and hop onboard at the allotted time. I’m driven down to the start line by a Bentley PR in a supercar convoy worth millions of pounds and I’m struck by how much queuing around there is at Goodwood. We wait for a good quarter of an hour, helpless incumbents in a mirage-like supercar sauna, before being ushered forwards by a FoS marshal. It gives me ample time to soak up the Supersports’ interior and the rump of the Aston V12 Vantage in front.

Inside the new Bentley Continental Supersports

The Conti Supersports is based on the regular Continental GT, but given a two-stage eco work-out. Most obvious is inside, where the rear bench is removed to save weight. Instead, a very smart helmet cover lies in the cargo bay monogrammed with Derek Bell’s surname in a retro fashion and a Virgin Upper Class sticker. Instant respect.

It’s a focused interior for a Bentley – sort of Ranulph Fiennes meets Formula One. The front seats are carbon clamshells that grip hard but still offer the support a Bentley owner would expect (they also save 45kg over the standard armchairs). Composites and Alcantara trim swathe most visible surfaces, broken up by flashes of brightwork. The vibe is modern, edgy, purposeful – and yet there’s the usual Conti comfort and build quality. I like.

The preamble: waiting to go up Goodwood's hill

As we crawl down to the start line, I’m impressed by the tractability of the W12, tuned to a new biofuel diet. The lump’s internals have been upgraded with new electronics to reset the ignition depending on its diet and a tenth more air is rammed into the turbochargers: it’ll run on everything from full E85 to full unleaded, with everything in between. Net result? When running on full biofuel mode, Bentley claims its CO2 emissions are 70% lower well-to-wheel. Look past the woeful provision of biofuels in the UK, and that’s no mean achievement. I sense though that Bentley will have a few dissenters to deal with – people who’ll point out that a 2240kg, 17mpg, 388g/km of CO2 sports coupe will never be that green.

I’m now about to find out how it feels like when the taps are turned on. That’ll be 621bhp and 590lb ft of twist sent to Lord March’s driveway. Not sure what the police will think if they catch you maxing out at 204mph with nothing more than distillery smells emanating from the exhaust...

>> Click ‘Next’ to read how the new Bentley Continental Supersports drives on the road