Bentley Supersports: from gentleman’s express to tyre-smoking menace

Hitherto a byword for gentleman’s club good taste (with a little bit of Dubai property mogul/Premiership footballer around the fringes), Bentley is embracing its inner hoonigan with an amped-up version of its languid Continental GT: the Supersports. With a limited run of 500 (all sold), the idea is to reconnect the British brand with its motorsport heritage and offer an alternative to the usual Ferrari and Lamborghini crowd.

A dynamic promo video, loaded with easter eggs, saw motorsport legend Travis Pastrana thrash it across the Crewe campus, leaving tyre marks everywhere for bemused CEO, Frank Walliser, to sweep up. The message is clear: Bentley is not the stuffed shirt, but the cheeky rebel throwing paper planes behind the teacher’s back.

Indeed, the inspiration comes from the era of Bertie Wooster and round-the-world races, namely Mildred Mary Petre Bruce, an endurance racer, pilot and all-round trailblazer. Mildred became the key to unlocking Bentley’s history.

Central to the mission was a mixture of lightweighting, raw ICE power and the removal of anything that might form a barrier, both literal and figurative, between car and driver. Now a strict two-seater, the Supersports tips the scales at under two tonnes — a veritable twinkle-toes by modern standards — is rear-wheel drive and is thrust along by a growling non-hybrid V8 whose engine note borders on hostility. “It is a pure ICE car,” says Bentley design director Robin Page. CDN can testify to this: Page fired up a Burnt Orange beauty pictured below and the studio walls shook. 

At the outset, the design team were presented with a prototype that was an engineering marvel and a visual snoozefest. “It was a bit boring,” says Page. Counterproposals came in various forms before an idea from Ilya Razumov, a designer in the advanced team, was selected. “Ilya had this idea of blades on the front running through the car that generated a ‘B’ in the front grille.”

Whereas the Continental GT promised country-crossing comfort to the type who summers on the Riviera, the Supersports is about visceral thrills. With one eye on the racetrack, a desire brought to life by the technical expertise within the marque, anything decorative or indulgent was jettisoned. “We really did strip the weight out of this one — everything on this car is functional; there are no cosmetics,” says Bentley’s head of exterior, Domen Rucigaj. “We wanted ultimate dynamic engagement. The rear end is a little twitchy, and that’s the point.”

In Nightfall livery, the Supersports would be a worthy chariot for some unholy demon summoned to devour EV

To that end, the Supersports relies on static aero measures — a carbon-fibre spoiler plants that twitchy rear to the road under insane levels of power. Ditto the front splitter and aero blades on the flanks that guide the air around the car. The rear bumper is pure carbon fibre, another weight-saving measure, and so is the roof. The wheels, by Manthey Racing, are elegant, with razor-thin spokes that speak to the lightweighting goals.

In accounting for these measures, it is no surprise the Supersports necessitated a close relationship with engineering. Both the design and aero teams were using Blender for the simulations, so feedback on data was immediate. Indeed, the process was predominantly digital, with a one-third-scale model crafted to ensure buy-in from management.

That said, the team were reskinning an existing product, so the task fell to the CMF team to underscore a memorable and unique visual identity. Thankfully, they proved up to the task, conjuring a dynamic series of five liveries with bold hand-painted diagonal stripes angled towards the rear and an italicised logo that stretches brand conventions to just the right degree. The grille is embossed with a giant Bentley “B”. To see Car Design News’ own effort, go here.

These liveries can be further configured in terms of colour and materials on the interior to achieve the perfect bespoke feel. “The team did an incredible job, playing with the colours and making combinations which haven't existed before, while also inspiring customers in a new way,” says Bentley CMF & Bespoke chief Andrea Jensen. “We developed nine matte colours for the programme, which are hand-painted. There is a lot of craftsmanship going into the project.”

The seats were lowered and designed to grip tighter than Cleve Dean

Jensen singles out the “Nightfall” and “Daybreak” themes as worthy of special mention. It is hard to disagree. Nightfall is delightfully sinister: in this guise, the Supersports would be a worthy chariot for some unholy demon summoned to devour EVs. Too much? Well, it is worth mentioning the output is a devilish 666PS. Daybreak has a sunnier disposition, as it should, with the sky-blue paint job neatly highlighting the carbon-fibre elements.

The interior design blended digital work with physical mock-ups. For example, the team deployed digital tools for trim development, interrogating the leather wraps and joins before testing and adjusting the leather and carbon fibre with physical models. Similarly, VR played a key role in design reviews but, wisely, the designers deferred to clay for final validation of lines and shadows.

The question facing head of interior Darren Day and his team was how to create a completely new feeling inside when dealing with an existing architecture, complete with hard points and safety systems already set in stone.

“Bringing in colour and the graphical layout of the interior helped a lot,” he says. “We forced a lower horizontal line through the cabin to create a cockpit feel.” As with the exterior, much of the focus was on reducing weight, which led to a hands-on approach that saw solutions crafted on the fly. Take the seats, which were lowered and designed to grip tighter than Cleve Dean.

The design team has taken Bentley out of its comfort zone without sacrificing authenticity

“We did everything digitally and then proved it out with a physical mock-up. So we would work with a trim shop across the road, hand-skive foams and test out the sections, then trim up a seat. I remember thinking a seat needed the bolster 10mm wider at the top, so we took off the leather and skived back the foam, which is essentially how you do it in racing.”

The reductionist approach extended to creature comforts like the centre armrest — removed to save 4kg — and the vaunted rotating display. “You can still specify it,” Day says. The rear of the car is notable for its lack of seats — in their place is a sculpted carbon-fibre bench for stowing crash helmets.

“Not only is it cool to have stowage in the back of the car, but it also gives us an easy way of connecting the carbon surface onto the body-in-white, and that stops reverberation in the car.”

It is clear from speaking to the team that the Supersports was a tremendously fun project to work on. And that shows in the work. The design team has taken Bentley out of its comfort zone without sacrificing authenticity. If you are going to tell a story, make sure it is a) believable and b) one people want to hear. All 500 cars have been sold, which tells you the customers are listening.