The Bentley Continental GT Speed Hybrid 2025 Review: Prices, Specs, Availability, Part II: The Fourth-Generation Powertrain
High-net-worth individuals with multi-car garages tend to be less in love with high-end cars than the average person. The BEV is going to be the one that finally moves the needle.
But the real juice here is in how Bentley has amplified the technology story. Out goes the stentorian old combustion W12, in comes an all-new powertrain—an “Ultra Performance Hybrid” in Bentley parlance.
It combines a 4.0-liter twin turbo V8 that’s good for 584 bhp with an electric motor that adds a further 187 bhp. A peak system output of 771 bhp and 738 lbs.ft of Torque is needed to reach a top speed of over 300 km per hour and a time of 3.1 seconds. These are heady numbers for a car that was always heavy, but now weighs an athletic human under 2.5 tonnes. Sheesh.
It was actually 1952’s R-Type Continental that provided the design inspiration, and this fourth-generation car maintains the strident grille, elongated bonnet, and the flamboyant sweep of the rear fenders. A strong sense of opulence is underpinned by a steely commitment to high performance.
Some details have changed and the proportions remain the same. The headlights now feature a questionable horizontal “eyebrow”, with a dazzling crystal cut diamond effect on the top, and matrix lamps that incorporate 120 separate LED elements. It’s not a mean feat to have crystal and diamond in one set of headlights.
Source: Bentley Continental GT Speed Hybrid 2025 Review: Prices, Specs, Availability
The Grand Tour of F1: A Long Road to the Future, and Why We’ve Come to F2 (Formula E)
There is an idea of a grand tour. It may lie in the 17th and 18th century campaigns for self- improvement, but we know it best as a two-letter abbreviation on the back of an elegant car. As a result of the name, the early efforts of the great rival were referred to as fast lorries, but synonymous with a lavish and borderline hedonistic attitude to life.
In 2014 Formula E cars were 100 mph slower than those in IndyCar and Formula One, and their batteries lasted only half a race. “You had this crazy kind of triathlon transition, where the drivers jumped out halfway and got into another racing car,” says Jeff Dodds, Formula E’s CEO.
But a lot can happen in 10 seasons. Today the cars are faster, lighter, and more powerful, hitting top speeds of 200 mph and doing 0 to 60 in under 2 seconds. They can complete a race on a single charge. Most importantly, they and their drivers offer up good racing, and the fans keep coming back. “Ten years ago, there wasn’t a single fan of Formula E, because we didn’t exist—so we’ve come a long way to just under 400 million,” says Dodds.
The internal combustion engine is 130 years old, while the EV technology has only been available at market level for the last 15 years. For me, this means over the next 10 years the cars will get materially faster, more efficient.
It’s really the battery technology I get most excited about. We have these accumulator batteries, but in the next few years there will be a shift to solid-state batteries which will mean that we can generate the same power in a smaller battery unit. It is a shift in how a racing car behaves that will be created by that. So we’re going to have more powerful, lighter cars.
The Gen 3 EV car is going to be faster than Formula One, in terms of comparables. A current Formula One car will get to 60 miles an hour in about 2.6 seconds; we’ll get to it in about 1.8 seconds.
In other areas of performance we have constraints by parameters of the series. We choose to race mostly in urban environments. In cities, you can’t build a 5-mile, 50-meter-wide circuit and race like Formula One. We have to have cars that can perform in a street-circuit environment.
