Meet the 2012 Bentley Continental GT. What do you mean, "Where is it?" It's orange -- how can you miss it? Yes, really, that's the new one.The craftsmen from Crewe, England, seem to believe wholeheartedly in the mantra of leaving well enough alone. There was little about the old Continental GT worth nitpicking, so rather than risk ruining a good thing, Bentley instead made small, careful changes calculated to improve where possible. The result, as you can plainly see, is a car that appears little different than the one it replaces. To stop there, though, would be to undersell it.
While the Continental GT remains roughly the same shape, a number of small cues will help you distinguish old from new the next time you roll through Beverly Hills. The front turn signals are smaller on the new car, while the grille is slightly larger. The pair of razor-sharp character lines that started outboard of the headlights and near the tops of the front wheels and ran up the sides of the car have been smoothed out. The trunk is pulled up, squared off, and flanked by wraparound taillights finished in LEDs. Naturally, there are new wheels and exhaust tips on the bill, plus chrome accents just above the running boards. In all, the new Continental appears as though it's been melted by the forces of extreme speed, and it's a sleeker, more modern shape for it.Extreme speed is something the Continental GT has always done well, so it's no surprise that its straight-line performance hasn't been dampened. Though Bentley found another 15 ponies and 37 pound-feet hiding amongst the twin-turbos and 12 cylinders, top speed remains at 198 mph. In fact, objective performance hasn't changed at all. The 2012 Continental hits 60 mph from a standstill in 4.4 seconds and eclipses the quarter-mile in 12.8 seconds at 111.2 mph, nearly identical to a 2005 Continental GT we tested. To its credit, the new car was slightly quicker and stickier on our skidpad and figure-eight exercises. Although the numbers don't bear it out, the delivery certainly feels more enthusiastic, which is an impressive thing to say considering that the old car pulled like a freight train already.
