Continental GT v Speed v Supersports

[UpTheIron]

Hi all, hoping for a little advice as a prospective CGT buyer.

It would be my "daily" driver - meaning it would usually live on outside, get used for a mix of short and longer trips but would often go several days or more without moving.

I dislike depreciation and unreliability (temper that with the fact that I've got 18 years of TVR ownership under my belt), and I'm not a huge fan of repeated, unexpectedly large service/maintenance bills with the seemingly regular replacement of components that should last a lot longer and not be consumables (again, see TVR!)

In an ideal world I'd be looking to part ex my Tuscan without getting my pants absolutely pulled down, simply to make it one easy transaction rather than having to offload the Tuscan first.

Budget wise everything up to the lower end of the Supersports market (say £55-60k) is within consideration. Part of me thinks that the base model will be 99% of the experience for 50% of the price, however part of me thinks "it will never be a Supersports".

Does the Supersports have significantly higher running costs compared to the base model?
Has anybody owned all 3 - standard / Speed / SS? How do they compare?

[dunebuggy]

I've owned a standard and a Speed.
To be perfectly honest I couldn't tell the difference. I tend to drive them on Torque rather than power though and very rarely explore the higher end of the rev range. I've never driven a supersports but have been a passenger. It felt a little bit faster but it was being "thrashed" at the time so it's hard to know.

[Lockhouse]

I've got a Speed and the only reason I didn't go for the Supersports was that I wanted a traditional Bentley interior.

Don't underestimate even the normal GT performance. Bank on an absolute minimum of 2k per year maintenance if nothing goes wrong. There's no appreciable difference in servicing costs between the three models.

Edited by Lockhouse on Thursday 15th February 13:33

[UpTheIron]

Thanks guys. I'd want the Mulliner interior if I didn't get a Supersports, although the Supersports interior is nice. I agree that even the standard GT has adequate performance for 99.9% of the time.

The £2k... if nothing goes wrong what is that spent on?

[goddo]

UpTheIron said:

Thanks guys. I'd want the Mulliner interior if I didn't get a Supersports, although the Supersports interior is nice. I agree that even the standard GT has adequate performance for 99.9% of the time.

The £2k... if nothing goes wrong what is that spent on?

Servicing and the normal consumables will take a tidy percentage of that £2K

[Lockhouse]

UpTheIron said:

Thanks guys. I'd want the Mulliner interior if I didn't get a Supersports, although the Supersports interior is nice. I agree that even the standard GT has adequate performance for 99.9% of the time.

The £2k... if nothing goes wrong what is that spent on?

The Speed comes with the Mulliner interior as standard.

I just spent £1000 on top of my normal £1300 service without anything major at all - just tidying up jobs that needed doing that were outside the warranty (naturally!). I'm an ex-TVR owner myself but the running costs for a Bentley can be eye-watering. Be prepared.

[Speculatore]

Just collected my 2010 GT Speed from Bentley Hampshire after the 7 year service £695. Will need 2 new front tyres in a few thousand miles or so.

[gary71]

For that kind of money I’d recommend a well specified 2nd generation car (2011 on). The 1st gen Supersports is a lovely thing with plenty of character, but the new model is a better all round car and not far off the performance even in non speed form.

[NickyB666]

Hi

I have owned an 04 GT, 05 Mulliner x 2 and now I have a 10 Super sports, the 2 seater version (Veyron carbon buckets) in black with black interior piped red which I absolutely love. To be honest, for daily driving, which I use mine for, (when in the UK) I think any of them are hard to beat. As an earlier poster said, they are all plenty quick enough, 552 bhp in CGT and 600 in Speed format is a lot, despite their weght, although the Super sports does feel that much more special, (my opinion only) especially in 2 seater format with the carbon brace strut behind the seats. Also I took mine to DMS and it now has 763BHP and although it was never short of power, it now keeps up with all but the most special cars…..all in comfort. I also put a switchable straight pipe system with valves, so it can run whisper quiet through the standard system, on run through straight pipes out of the middle of the system when I want to be a bit more of a hooligan……..not very "bentley' like I know, but sure is fun! I have owned 7 Lambos, 11 Ferraris, and all kind of other 'exotics' in my time but the Super sports does it with a lot less fuss, and at my advancing years, 52, it does not require me to crawl out in some sort of 'origami' pose outside the pub…….

When it comes to maintenance, maybe I am not typical as I only spend 3 months of the year in the UK, but I never had any mechanical issues except for having to replace the high rear brake light on my 04 car, about £750 from HR Owen, although I am sure it could have been cheaper at a specialist…..I normally use Frank Dale for servicing in Brentford, less than £1K a year………so the real money I spend is fuel, and if you care about the cost of that, then you are in the wrong car. However on a run, with the remap on my Super sports I now get about 23/4 mpg…….was about 18mpg before the map….so apart from the power, it certainly helped the economy…..

I don't know where you are based, but I will be back in the UK early march, and live in Chelsea. If you are local, you are welcome to come see it and have a spin, always happy to talk all things cars……

Best

Nick

[Fiammetta]

NickyB666 said:

Hi

I have owned an 04 GT, 05 Mulliner x 2 and now I have a 10 Super sports, the 2 seater version (Veyron carbon buckets) in black with black interior piped red which I absolutely love. To be honest, for daily driving, which I use mine for, (when in the UK) I think any of them are hard to beat. As an earlier poster said, they are all plenty quick enough, 552 bhp in CGT and 600 in Speed format is a lot, despite their weght, although the Super sports does feel that much more special, (my opinion only) especially in 2 seater format with the carbon brace strut behind the seats. Also I took mine to DMS and it now has 763BHP and although it was never short of power, it now keeps up with all but the most special cars…..all in comfort. I also put a switchable straight pipe system with valves, so it can run whisper quiet through the standard system, on run through straight pipes out of the middle of the system when I want to be a bit more of a hooligan……..not very "bentley' like I know, but sure is fun! I have owned 7 Lambos, 11 Ferraris, and all kind of other 'exotics' in my time but the Super sports does it with a lot less fuss, and at my advancing years, 52, it does not require me to crawl out in some sort of 'origami' pose outside the pub…….

When it comes to maintenance, maybe I am not typical as I only spend 3 months of the year in the UK, but I never had any mechanical issues except for having to replace the high rear brake light on my 04 car, about £750 from HR Owen, although I am sure it could have been cheaper at a specialist…..I normally use Frank Dale for servicing in Brentford, less than £1K a year………so the real money I spend is fuel, and if you care about the cost of that, then you are in the wrong car. However on a run, with the remap on my Super sports I now get about 23/4 mpg…….was about 18mpg before the map….so apart from the power, it certainly helped the economy…..

I don't know where you are based, but I will be back in the UK early march, and live in Chelsea. If you are local, you are welcome to come see it and have a spin, always happy to talk all things cars……

Best

Nick

Excellent post , my wife says yup to the “ origami “ comment - she never like the Ferraris or Porches btw I made her endure .
Now I,am 55
We spend a significant amount of time abroad too .
Ours is a boggo CGT older launch modal 03 - fully debugged by now - moon beam , we put winter tyres on too for Switzerland.
Just soaks up miles , and for me has all the performance I need .
I did recently have a tussle with a German plated Porker charging up the St Bernard pass ,

He was behind me and he had cut his way through the normal cars from about 7 places back to my arse .
So the red mist decended .
I thought stuff the tyre wear ( we were on summers - Oct and dry road )
Into “ sport “
Despite the heavey nose , the Pirelli s hung on and I could get on the power earlier then him .
Traction out of bends I think the F1 commentator s call it .
Mines a classic 50/50 split -front n rear no fancy e diff and black boxes working out where to split it .
By the time he exsited a bend I was 1/2 along the straight to the next hairpin .
Ok he out braked me in the approach’s ,the entry he would close up ,but mid bend I was on the gas earlier and opening up ,
This went on for 20 mins ,20 odd uphill hairpins .
At the summit we pulled into the car park .
He pulled up oppersite got out in a Germanic way put his heels together and took a bow at us in a complementary kinda way I image a BF 109 pilot would do in The Battle of Britain after a tussle with a Spitfire.

I like the quiet ness the Bentley has the most as well .

[spyker138]

I had a Speed for five years and loved it. I wanted the Super Sports as it is a better drive (did both back to back on a track day with Bentley). The SS diverts more torque to the rear so has better feel and handling - more sporty, feels less heavy on the front, less understeer). It also sounds great and feels sportier.

But unfortunately the SS carbon seats are NOT height adjustable which was a show stopper for my wife who likes to be able to see out. Later on they allowed you to have comfort seats in the SS which are adjustable, but then you have to have the rear seats and lose all the weight saving.

Later GTs all have the rear bias on the torque.