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Conti Blows Its Top

The Bentley Boys are back again - and they've been busy! Just weeks after the Crewe-based manufacturer unveiled its new four-door Flying Spur saloon at the Geneva Motor Show, Auto Express magazine can reveal the next instalment in the Bentley renaissance - the Continental GT convertible.

By Ben Whitworth

22nd March 2005

Likely to adopt the Azure name after the Pininfarina-styled 1995 model, the opulent four-seater is set to cost around ΂£135,000 when it goes on sale next summer. It will build on the huge sales success of the GT coup΃© - last year, an incredible 1,841 GTs found new homes, with the Flying Spur expected to push the firm's total sales over the 6,000 mark.

Part of Bentley's revival under parent company Volkswagen, the convertible was pencilled into the model line-up from the start, sharing components with its GT and Flying Spur stablemates to reduce costs and development time.

The car will be built in-house on a bespoke production line at the Cheshire plant. It sits on the standard GT platform, rather than the longer wheelbase of the Flying Spur, and is more compact 2+2 than spacious sun-lounger.

To make up for the loss of torsional rigidity, the chassis benefits from underbody cross-bracing, plus a reinforced windscreen surround and side sills.

The convertible's fully electric fabric hood, complete with glass rear window, is likely to fold back and stow behind the rear seats in less than 20 seconds. It can be operated at speeds of up to 20mph.

Once retracted, a rigid cover will sit atop the recessed roof, maintaining the clean and uninterrupted waistline from A-pillar to bootlid. Rather than moving the reinforced rear bulkhead forward and hampering legroom in the back, Bentley has sacrificed boot space to house the folding mechanism - although the car can still swallow two sets of golf clubs.

The top itself is made of an advanced four-layer composite material that's said to offer similar levels of insulation to a metal lid - even at speeds in excess of 170mph. Particular attention has been paid to the seals around the header rail and windows, and the roof's surface is acoustically tuned to eliminate vibration.

Chopping off the top has affected the weight distribution - although the retraction system sits over the rear axle, the convertible was still deemed to be too nose-heavy. To counter this, the car's bonnet is expected to be made from carbon fibre, while lightweight alloys are used in the front end's construction. This, along with smart side airbags, chairs with integrated seatbelts and a pop-up rollover bar, should give the convertible similar crash protection to the coup΃©.

The engine's black box is also likely to be remapped to offer smoother gearchanges and a less aggressive throttle action, in keeping with the car's laid-back character. But it will be no slouch.

Even though it's expected to weigh at least 150kg more than the coup΃©, at 2,535kg, the car will deliver immense pace from its 6.0-litre W12 engine. The five-second 0-60mph sprint time and 190mph top speed should comfortably make the drop-top Bentley the fastest four-seater convertible in the world.

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