Wild rear-drive 2026 Bentley Continental Supersports on way

The next-generation 2026 Bentley Continental Supersports is set to be reborn as a non-hybrid, lightweight rear-wheel drive supercar, with the new extreme version of the Conti GT set for an unveil later this year.

The Bentley Continental Supersport will be reborn later this year as a hardcore Porsche 911 GT3 rival, with the big two-door GT going on an extreme diet that will include ditching the standard car’s electrification measures and adopting a largely carbon-fibre body.

According to Autocar, the new model will be radically different to the standard Continental GT in the flesh, with entirely new aerodynamics that are likely to have been inspired by Bentley’s GT3 racer.

Rebooting a nameplate not seen since 2017, the new Conti Supersport won’t be as powerful as its 522kW, twin-turbocharged W12 predecessor, but it will be significantly lighter.

That’s because instead of chasing peak power – from a 477kW twin-turbo V8 – engineers have aimed at slashing weight by between 450-500kg.

The extreme strategy has meant ditching the 140kW e-motor that lives in the standard car’s transmission as well as the corresponding hybrid battery pack and even switching the big coupe from all- to rear-wheel-drive.

That means the target weight of the new Continental GT Supersport is around 2000kg – significantly less than the 2495kg GT Speed.

Further kilo-cutting measures will see carbon-fibre body panels, lightweight carbon-fibre bucket seats and the deletion of the rear seats.

More savings will come from the use of carbon-ceramic brakes, an Akropovic titanium exhaust and a set of magnesium alloy or carbon-fibre wheels.

Keeping it tied down on track will be a bespoke suspension tune and aggressive aerodynamics that will include a huge downforce-boosting rear wing and underfloor rear diffuser.

Like before, production will be capped to a batch of cars in the low-hundreds, with pricing said to begin at north of £400,000 ($A840,000).

It’s not the first time Bentley has toyed with the idea of a hardcore take on its leather-lined luxury Continental GT, but the latest Supersport appears to go much further than the GT3-R (2014-2015) which shaved around 100kg off the standard car’s kerb weight.

The new limited-run Supersport is also yet another attempt to cash-in on the still-booming collector car market that has already seen the Volkswagen Group-owned British brand roll out its Mulliner Bacalar (2021) and more recent Mulliner Batur (2023).

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