Category Archives: NEW CARS

NEW CARS

New Bentley Continental Supersport: A Sledgehammer Wrapped in a Silk Glove

Spy shots don’t lie. Somewhere deep in the Midlands, Bentley’s engineers have been unleashing their latest monster on public roads – and it’s hard to miss. A comically large rear wing, quad exhausts the size of drainpipes and bodywork that still looks suspiciously polite for something this serious. But beneath the camouflage lies Crewe’s answer to a question nobody asked: what happens when a luxury grand tourer decides it wants to pick fights with supercars?

The answer? The return of the Continental Supersports nameplate – and it’s shaping up to be the wildest Bentley of the modern era.

Goodbye W12, Hello Leaner, Meaner V8

Last time we saw a Supersports, back in 2017, it was lugging around a twin-turbo W12 with 700 horses and all the subtlety of a sledgehammer in a Savile Row suit. But the W12 is now in retirement, sipping cocktails on a beach somewhere while regulators sharpen their knives.

In its place, Bentley is doubling down on its 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8, massaged to around 640bhp. That’s less than the plug-in hybrid GT Speed, which boasts a faintly ridiculous 771bhp, but the Supersports isn’t here to play the numbers game. It’s here to deliver something Bentley hasn’t dared offer in decades: purity. No hybrid boost, no electric motor, just petrol, turbos, and rear-wheel drive.

Yes, rear-wheel drive. A Bentley that wants to drift. Let that sink in.

Weight Watchers, Crewe Edition

Here’s the kicker: the Supersports could be the lightest Bentley in living memory. Where the GT Speed tips the scales at a chubby 2459kg, the Supersports is targeting closer to 2000kg. That’s still “two Minis and a labrador,” but in Bentley terms, it’s practically anorexic.

How? By ditching the plug-in gubbins, binning the rear seats, bolting in carbon fibre everything (including the roof), fitting skeletal bucket seats, and whispering sweet nothings to Akrapovic for a titanium exhaust. Oh, and carbon-ceramic brakes, lightweight wheels… you get the picture. It’s a crash diet that might just pay off, because insiders say it’ll still do 0–60mph in 3.1 seconds.

Aerodynamics with Attitude

The Supersports isn’t about being understated. This isn’t the sort of Bentley you quietly valet at a country club. This is a Bentley that wants everyone in the postcode to know it’s arrived.

That rear wing seen in the spy shots? Staying. Aggressive air intakes, ground-hugging skirts, and extended aero trickery? All coming to production. The effect is more “Le Mans pit lane” than “Knightsbridge boulevard.”

Luxury, But Turned Up to Eleven

Of course, this is still a Bentley. Which means you’ll still be able to trim the cabin in ostrich leather, order bodywork in a one-off Mulliner paint scheme that takes six weeks to apply, and have your initials embroidered into the seats. The difference here is that you’ll be doing all that while sitting in a 200mph, rear-driven, carbon-clad brute.

And it’ll cost you. Starting price? £400,000. For reference, that’s nearly double the GT Speed. But don’t bother checking your savings account – the first batch of cars shown to hand-picked customers has already resulted in signed cheques.

So, what is the new Continental Supersports? Think of it as Bentley’s reminder that while others bang on about electrification and sustainability, Crewe still knows how to build a proper hooligan. It’s a halo car. A statement. A two-tonne, £400k fire-breathing love letter to excess.

Bentley wants this car to prove that its DNA isn’t just about luxury, but about speed, drama, and performance. Judging by what we’ve seen so far, the Supersports might just pull it off. And if nothing else, it’ll be the most fun you can have in a Bentley with your rear seats missing.

Source: Autocar

NEW CARS

Bentley EXP 15: The Blue Train Rides Again

There are concept cars, and then there are Bentley concept cars—rolling cathedrals to excess that make you want to cancel your mortgage and pledge allegiance to Crewe. The newest of the breed, the Bentley EXP 15, has just broken cover at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, and let’s just say, it’s less “design vision” and more “gilded thunderbolt”.

Now, don’t get too excited: Bentley insists this isn’t a production car. But don’t believe a word of it. Concepts like this are the smoke signals of future Bentleys, and this one shouts two things loud and clear: the brand’s styling future is bold, and its first fully electric car is going to be devastatingly handsome.

At first glance, the EXP 15 looks like it was dreamt up by a designer with one eye on the future and the other firmly on a glass of brandy in 1930. The upright grille, the impossibly long “endless” bonnet, and the rearward cabin scream heritage, specifically a tip of the trilby to the legendary Blue Train Bentley Speed Six Gurney Nutting coupé. That car once outran a locomotive across France. This one, we suspect, could outrun Wi-Fi.

But Bentley being Bentley, it doesn’t stop at nostalgia. Slide your gaze along the EXP 15 and you’ll see the five pillars of Bentley’s new design language taking shape. There’s “Upright Elegance” (a fender line so aristocratic it practically demands a title), the “Iconic Grille” reimagined for the battery age, the “Endless Bonnet Line” (longer than your Amazon wishlist), “Resting Beast” stance (think jaguar about to pounce, not the car, the animal), and the “Prestigious Shield” at the rear, framing a redesigned winged-B badge with all the subtlety of a jewel-encrusted signet ring.

Inside, it’s Bentley theatre at its most audacious. Three seats, just like the Blue Train coupé of 95 years ago, but updated with clever storage for luggage, and yes, even your dog. Imagine telling your cocker spaniel he gets bespoke Bentley accommodation—try not to let the butler hear you.

Robin Page, Bentley’s design director, described Pebble Beach as the “perfect audience” to debut the car. He’s not wrong. Monterey Car Week is crawling with billionaires, collectors, and enthusiasts so discerning they’d send a bottle of Dom Pérignon back if the bubbles looked lethargic. And they loved it.

To sweeten the nostalgia hit, Bentley reunited the EXP 15 with the original 1930 Blue Train Speed Six, both having made the pilgrimage from Crewe. The two cars posed together along California’s 17-Mile Drive, soaking in the Pacific sunshine like a pair of aristocrats comparing yacht sizes.

Of course, now the EXP 15 heads back home to Crewe, to Bentley’s new three-storey Design Studio, where it will continue to influence the cars that you and I will actually be able to buy (or dream about buying). If this is a taste of Bentley’s electric future, it’s looking less like the end of an era and more like a rebirth in velvet slippers.

One thing’s for sure: if the Blue Train had to race today, it wouldn’t stand a chance.

Source: Bentley

NEW CARS

The Nichols N1A ICON 88: A Senna Fever Dream on Wheels

The world doesn’t need another supercar. Honestly, the roads are already clogged with gaudy, winged lumps of horsepower chasing Nürburgring lap times like it’s a religion. But then, Steve Nichols walks into Monterey Car Week, casually drops the cover off something called the Nichols N1A ICON 88, and suddenly—every Aventador, Chiron, and LaFerrari looks like an overpriced cappuccino frother.

This is not just a car. This is a rolling shrine to Ayrton Senna and 1980s Formula 1 dominance. And it’s been built by the bloke who gave the world the McLaren MP4/4—the most ruthlessly efficient Formula 1 car in history, the machine that Senna and Prost used to bludgeon the entire grid in 1988.

Nichols’ pitch is gloriously simple: forget driver aids, forget touchscreen nonsense, forget 2.3 tonnes of batteries and regenerative braking. Instead, here’s a road-legal racing barchetta weighing just 900kg—that’s Lotus Elise territory—with a 7.0-litre naturally aspirated V8 howling behind your head. No turbos, no hybrids, no excuses. Just 650 horsepower, a six-speed manual, and the sort of mechanical purity modern supercars would sooner bury under an infotainment update.

And because Nichols isn’t interested in building a death trap, the N1A isn’t some crude kit car on wheels. The body is carbon fibre reinforced with graphene (yes, the wonder material your science teacher wouldn’t shut up about). Aerodynamics? Refined at the legendary MIRA wind tunnel. Suspension? Double wishbones straight from a race paddock. Brakes? Multi-piston motorsport calipers. Tyres? Michelin Cup 2s, as if anyone driving this needs encouragement to go faster.

The numbers make Ferrari engineers choke on their espressos: 900kg and 650bhp. That’s almost McLaren F1 levels of power-to-weight, only angrier and far less polite.

Inside, there’s no quilted leather Instagram nonsense. Instead, you’re practically lying down like Senna in the MP4/4. One seat. One gearstick. A set of analogue gauges that look like they’ve been lifted out of Mission Control. It’s less “luxury GT” and more “surgical tool for your adrenal glands.” Even ABS and power steering are optional. Optional!

Oh, and the first 15 cars? Each one is dedicated to one of the 15 victories McLaren racked up in 1988. If you don’t get goosebumps at that, you’re probably dead inside.

The N1A is the debut act for Nichols Cars, and it’s a bold, possibly unhinged way to introduce yourself to the world. But in an industry obsessed with touchscreens, AI driving modes, and exhausts that play fake soundtracks through speakers, Nichols has dared to build something that Senna himself might have daily-driven—if he’d ever needed a number plate.

The ICON 88 isn’t just another supercar. It’s a time machine to when racing was pure, cars were violent, and drivers were gods. And in today’s sanitized motoring world, that feels like a revolution.

Source: Nichols Cars