The most potent Bentley ever made...

It started as a weight loss program for the potent but porky Continental GT. But by the time Bentley unveiled its latest product at this month's Geneva Motor Show, it was much more.

The company's new Continental Supersports straddles the fence between mean and green, making big news on both fronts.

On one hand, it's the most powerful Bentley ever made. On the other, it's calibrated for flex-fuel, allowing it to run on anything from pure petrol to E85 ethanol blend.

Performance figures are what you might expect of a clubsportified variation of the already blisteringly fast Continental. Under the bonnet is a variation of parent company Volkswagen's twin-turbo 6.0-litre W12 engine.

This incarnation generates its peak 463kW at a rather frenetic 6000rpm, but its gigantic 800Nm of twist shows up as low as 1700rpm and stays around all the way up to 5600rpm. It dispatches the first 100km/h in 3.9 seconds and 160 in 8.9 seconds. Bentley claims a top speed of 329km/h.

What's more important for Bentley is the other side of the equation. This is the way of the near future for the company, which has announced its cars will be flex-fuel ready across the range by 2012.

The company claims the flex-fuel feature reduces the car's well-to-wheel CO2 emissions by up to 70 per cent ('well-to-wheel' pertains to a fuel's total contribution to the atmosphere from the beginnings of production, not just through tailpipe emissions. For the record, tailpipe CO2 emissions are a generous 388g/km).

The company has been careful to reassure buyers that those performance figures aren't dependent on PULP. A sophisticated EMS incorporating a fuel quality sensor ensures consistency of power and torque output regardless of what goes in the tank.

A number of weight saving measures -- including plentiful use of carbonfibre -- have pared 110kg off the weight of the Continental GT Speed.

The company attributes a 50kg saving to the removal of the rear seats and another 20kg to the use of carbon-ceramic brakes -- what Bentley claims are the largest and most powerful of their kind ever on a production car. Unusually, the brakes are standard, so while prices haven't been announced yet, expect a palpable premium over the $428,000 ask for the current top end Continental, the GT Speed.

Production starts in May, with first deliveries outside the UK to appear in the third quarter this year. The first Australian orders will arrive early 2010.