Bentley has confirmed the four-door saloon is running the new turbocharged V8 engine in place of its normal 6.0-litre W12 unit, but stopped short of saying the model would make production.
“As part of our approach to engineering testing, it is normal practice to evaluate engine options,” a Bentley official confirmed. “Whether this will see the light of day in production is something we wouldn’t comment on.”
The new V8 engine was co-developed with Audi, and can be found in the German brand’s new S6, S7 and S8 models. It is logical that Bentley would want to roll it out across further models given the development costs involved, and the impact it can make in reducing its fleet CO2 emissions without impacting on performance.
The four-door version of the Continental GT was launched in 2005 and hasn’t received a major overhaul in that time. Although this test mule featured the existing Flying Spur’s bodywork with no disguise, it is likely the V8 engine could be introduced to the Flying Spur as part of a wider overhaul similar to those received by the Continental GT and GTC over the past two years.
Thanks to: Autocar
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