Taking one final 12-cylinder journey with Bentley's $384,000 Continental GTC Pace

The V-12 engine is ineffective. Lengthy keep the V-12.

Within the approaching years, supercar firms like Lamborghini, Bentley and Rolls-Royce have all launched phase-outs of their V-12 engines as they roll into the age of hybrid and electrical cars. Within the meantime, they’re launching 12-cylinder masterpieces as odes to the final phrase in petrol power – and wealthy prospects are snapping them up at a doc clip.

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In several phrases, on the very excessive of the automotive market, the 12-cylinder is dying, and demand has certainly not been stronger.

With the king of combustion hitting the highest of its avenue, Bentley has launched the Continental GTC Pace. It’s a “W-12” avenue burner, throughout which the place three banks of 4 cylinders are organized in a type of “W” configuration. Its raw power is matched solely by its refined inside.

Regardless of a price tag approaching $400,000, the GTC Pace is quickly selling out. Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmar, acknowledged there are “only a few out there” sooner than Bentley rolls the ultimate of its 12-cylinder engines off the street in April 2024.

“These fashions are already virtually bought out,” Hallmark instructed CNBC. “It’s the top of an ideal period.”

So with the Continental GTC Pace, Bentley has decided to event desire it’s 1999.

The model I drove carried a price tag of $384,000. Its shade referred to as “Kingfisher,” a luminescent, shimmering blue that, desire it’s namesake fowl, was born to fly. It was loaded with a couple of of Bentley’s hottest selections, along with 22″ black-painted “Pace Wheels,” a touring package deal deal for added comfort and generous helpings of carbon fiber.

Inside, the GTC Pace was dripping with luxurious add-ons, from the distinction stitching on the seats (with “Kingfisher” and “Beluga” coloured threads) to the Bang and Olufsen sound system, precision diamond quilting and the deep-pile overmats for added foot consolation.

My favourite choices, additionally one of the in style, is the “rotating present,” the place a bit of the carbon-fiber dashboard flips over when the automotive begins to disclose its digital show, sort of just like the supercar model of the key wall in a mansion library. It prices an additional $6,600 — however hey, if you’re spending $380,000 for a automotive, what’s an additional six grand? (About 70% of Bentley homeowners are together with it.)

Essentially the most lovely a part of the Continental GTC Pace is the drive. As befits a automotive with a number of personalities, The GTC Pace has three driving modes: consolation, customized, Bentley and enhanced sport. Driving in consolation mode is like floating on a cloud, even on pot-hole ridden streets of New York and New Jersey. Bentley mode affords a stability between consolation and sport.

You can simply think about consolation mode ferrying its well-heeled driver to the nation golf equipment in Southern California and Southern Florida, two of Bentley’s greatest markets. All-wheel steering helps for these uncommon events when it’s important to park the automotive your self as a substitute of getting a valet do it.

Change to sport mode, nevertheless, and the W-12 roars like a dragon roused from sleep. The suspension tightens right into a crouch and the GTC goes to 0-60 in 3.6 seconds. It could actually hit a high velocity of 208 mph.

Even with an unladen weight of over 5,300 kilos, the Continental GTC Pace takes corners, stops and accelerations like a a lot nimbler supercar. Its particular windscreen and aerodynamics permit top-down driving even at excessive speeds with no hair misplaced.

Certain, there are higher pure sports activities vehicles and higher luxurious consolation rides. However arguably no automotive places the 2 collectively – with the screaming swan track of a W-12 – fairly just like the Continental GTC Pace.