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What has nearly 700 horsepower, weighs a little more than two tons, and makes beautiful V8 noises? I can think of two answers. One of them is the Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing. The other? You’re looking at it: the 2027 Bentley Supersports.
Bentley has been down this well before, so a muscular yet agile coupe from Crewe shouldn’t come as a surprise. The “Supersports” nameplate dates back to the 1920s—and you also need to go back nearly that far just to find a Bentley grand tourer that weighs less than two tons. For as long as I’ve been reading (or involved in) performance car tests, weight has always been a glaring issue with Bentley’s speedier machines. Remember, this is the company that gave us the W12, and for more than a century, it embraced a level of maximalism rivaled only by Maybach and Rolls-Royce.
And that has always left me with one nagging question: How much fun can you really have in a coupe that weighs as much as a Chevy Suburban? We’ve seen them try to answer that with the Mulliner and GT Speed models, which have pushed the limits of power output while offering casual nods toward weight reduction. Sure, there are big, heavy trucks that do big, silly things, but we’re talking about luxury touring cars here, not a TRX knock-off.
So, when Bentley’s head of comms, Mike Sayer, sat down across from me in Monterey and said, “This is the car that the GT3-R should have been,” needless to say, he got my attention.
What does that mean, exactly? Like the Supersports, the GT3-R was a limited-production nod to Bentley’s motorsports history, but unlike this latest take on the formula, the 2015 Continental GT3-R still leaned heavily toward the road car. It still had standard all-wheel drive, and, despite its engineers’ best efforts, still weighed nearly 5,000 pounds—a figure that makes even a Hellcat appear svelte.
Bentley’s more-is-more approach to speed certainly produced some wicked fast cars, but they were only good for a few laps around a race track before everything—brakes especially—needed a little nap. With Supersports, Bentley has finally flipped that script. In what Sayer described as a true “skunkworks” effort, the Continental’s engineers ripped all of the heavy bits out of the coupe and gave the 4.0-liter V8 some massaging. It now delivers 657 horsepower and 590 lb-ft of torque exclusively to the rear wheels.
With the hybrid system and front drive line yanked out, Bentley then went after every body part it could realistically replace. All said and done, the Supersports is over 1,000 pounds lighter than the Continental GT Speed. It also inherited virtually all of that car’s party tricks, plus a few more. The meaty brakes bite 17.3-inch carbon-ceramic rotors up front and 16.1-inch rotors out back. Bentley says it’s the largest brake setup in the business. You also get the GT Speed’s rear-axle steering setup and electronic anti-roll system. Sway bars—who needs ’em?
The Supersports may not be the most luxurious Continental, but it is still a Bentley. The company quotes the Supersport’s maximum lateral acceleration at 1.3G on the optional Pirelli Trofeo RS tires, but buyers can also opt for the more garden-variety Pirelli P-Zero tires. That’s still a summer tire, but it’ll wear (and ride) better than the Trofeo.
Put that all together, Bentley says, and you get the company’s first truly track-ready car. And to prove it, it invited me to Laguna Seca so I could turn a few laps and find out.
When engineers get the opportunity to go this nuts with a platform, the result is a bit unhinged—that’s often the result when the inmates are given responsibility for running the asylum. Given how dramatically this car differs from the standard Continental, Bentley would have been forgiven for handing us the keys to something with a few physical and metaphorical screws loose. But in keeping with Bentley’s philosophy of “effortless progression,” the Supersports is almost apologetically composed even when you start exploring its limits.
What hits you first is just how uneventfully the Supersports gains speed. Mat the accelerator and you’ll feel your organs jockey for position near the back of your ribcage as the V8’s torque swells, but there’s no manic wail from the twin-turbo V8. It blats out a sharp, warm baritone that retreats into an upshift just when things are starting to sound nasty. It’s both novel and a bit deceptive, because it only takes a couple of those interruptions before you’re in triple-digit territory.
SERFOSS
Laguna is a big, wide, fast racetrack. Cresting the blind kink in Turn 1, the Supersports feels planted, imparting confidence. The big brakes are welcome in the downhill approach to Turn 2, and the same weight that trivialized the front “straight” forces you to be a bit more patient here. You want it pointed the right direction before you unleash all that torque through the rear wheels.
The electronic limited-slip diff does a good job keeping the big Bentley’s rear end in check through the flatter portions of the track, but sitting side-seat, Sayer eggs me on to push even harder, insisting that the Trofeos will hold on—and they do. The rear-axle steering really comes alive when you start to speed up the cornering transitions; get all the weight on the Bentley’s nose, and it’ll rotate gracefully as you trail off the throttle. That’ll help keep Turn 11 exciting even when you’re not going wheel-to-wheel.
I’d be curious to further explore this Bentley’s duality of character off the racetrack, but sadly that wasn’t on the agenda. While our peers got their turn at the wheel on Laguna, we busied ourselves cruising CA’s picturesque Route 1 in a pair of Continental GT Cs instead.
Contemplating my time behind the wheel of the Supersports, I can’t help but contrast it with the Aston Martin Valhalla. They couldn’t really be more different in character. The Bentley is a remainder—it’s what you have leftover when you strip a luxury grand tourer of the things you don’t need to go fast around a race track. The Valhalla, meanwhile, is a race car freed from the draconian restrictions of a sanctioning body. Aston’s approach was additive where Bentley’s was subtractive. Despite not having any real-world seat time in the Bentley, I suspect it would take far longer to tire of the big, Continental-based coupe than Aston’s admittedly sublime supercar.
It seems unfair to compare the Supersports to the Valhalla at face value, but in the real world, these cars are for very similar people. Both are being produced in extremely limited numbers, and even if you’re among the first to read this review, you’re still months late to actually reserve an example of either car. Yes, the Bentley’s MSRP (just under $490,000) is half that of the Valhalla’s, but with cars like these, what the manufacturer recommends to retailers is simply an irrelevant abstraction. The price is whatever number gets you to the front of the line with a dealer who manages to wrangle one of the 500 global allocations Bentley made available—emphasis on made. It’s sold out worldwide.
It’s a shame that Bentley’s first compelling foray into the track-day space will be constrained to such a small production run, but the Supersports proves two things conclusively. First, Bentley can build a performance coupe that weighs less than your three-row family SUV, and second, there’s support within Bentley for pursuing such frivolities.
They have my support too.
Bentley provided The Drive with travel, accommodations, and access to the vehicle for the purpose of writing this review.
2027 Bentley Continental Supersports Specs
Base Price $490,150Powertrain4.0-liter turbocharged V8 | 8-speed dual-clutch automatic | rear-wheel driveHorsepower657Torque490 lb-ftSeating Capacity2Curb Weight4,400 lbs est.0-62 mph3.7 secondsTop Speed192 mphEPA Fuel EconomyTBAScore9/10
Quick Take
At last, a proper track-day Bentley. But good luck finding one.
Byron is an editor at The Drive with a keen eye for infrastructure, sales and regulatory stories.
