New Bentley Continental GT3 Pikes Peak racer packs over 750bhp

Bentley is readying by itself for a run up the Pikes Peak Worldwide Hillclimb afterwards this month, with a specifically modified edition of its Continental GT3 racer developed to run on artificial fuel, and has verified some of the technical specs for its new challenger. 

The Continental GT3 Pikes Peak for 2021 is run by a specifically tuned edition of its twin-turbocharged four.-litre V8 motor, which has a better compression ratio, a more robust carbon fibre inlet manifold, just one-off titanium exhaust manifolds and greater turbos to develop extra increase.

The final result is “more than 750bhp” and an tremendous 1,000Nm of torque – and Bentley states it designs to turn up the wick even extra for the occasion. The use of renewable artificial fuel has the opportunity to slash the car’s greenhouse gas emissions by up to 85 p.c, promises the brand name. 

The Continental GT3 Pikes Peak is centered on a seriously modified edition of the road car’s chassis. Apart from the new race livery, the most obvious improve is the aerodynamic bundle, which has been oversized to cope with the thinner air (and therefore fewer downforce) offered in the vicinity of the leading of the 14,000 ft-superior Pikes Peak study course. 

The large rear wing is complemented by a two-plane entrance splitter, a huge rear diffuser and all fashion of vents and channels developed to suck turbulent air entrance beneath the car. The rear home windows have also been ditched in favour of vents, which amazing a secondary radiator mounted in the boot.

In all, the aero tweaks have enhanced the car’s downforce by 30 p.c at sea stage, which around correlates to the 33 p.c aerodynamic reduction the GT will suffer at the leading of Pikes Peak, owing to the reduce air density.

Because of to the special mother nature of the Pikes Peak study course, Bentley has overhauled the car’s chassis, also. Contrary to the GT3 track racer, the hillclimb car has drastically fewer entrance and rear camber, while the dampers and anti-roll bars have been softened to let the chassis to cope with the rougher tarmac. The brakes are also now water-cooled.

The Continental GT3 Pikes Peak will enter the Time Assault 1 occasion on 27 June, which is a course developed for creation-centered racing equipment. Bentley aims to score a hat-trick with its new racer, hoping to get residence a new trophy to sit along with its present-day records for the speediest creation car and SUV to tackle the twelve.forty two-mile study course.

In 2018, the brand name claimed an unofficial document for the speediest creation SUV up the climb with the Bentayga. Then, the following yr, the Continental GT took the document in the Time Assault two course for creation cars – a feat the brand name marked with a Pikes Peak unique version edition of its grand tourer that experienced a creation run of just 15 models.

Bentley has dedicated to getting to be a entirely electrical brand name by 2030, as part of its Beyond100 system. But the firm will still develop combustion engined cars for the following nine a long time. 

The brand name also states that extra than eighty p.c of all Bentleys at any time created are still on the road, and the racer’s use of biofuel alerts a wider motivation by the firm to make sure its present-day and foreseeable future combustion motor purchasers can go on to enjoy their vehicles extended immediately after the brand name will make the change.

Bentley engineering boss Matthias Rabe stated: “We are delighted to be returning to Pikes Peak for a 3rd time – now run by renewable fuel, as the launch job for an additional new aspect of our Beyond100 programme. 

“Our powertrain engineers are presently studying each biofuels and e-fuels for use by our consumers along with our electrification programme – with intermediate steps of adopting renewable fuels at the manufacturing unit in Crewe and for our firm fleet.”

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