What Is The Fastest Car Bentley Has Ever Made?

For as long as the brand has existed, Bentley has been associated with speed. Having first formed in 1919, it didn't take Bentley long to hit the track, with the iconic 3 Litre model winning countless races throughout the 1920s. Fast forward a century, and it's easy to see that the legendary British automaker is still just as dedicated to performance as it always was, and nowhere else is this more evident than with the new Continental GT Speed.

Thanks to a top speed of 208 mph, this sleek and stylish coupe takes the title of Bentley's fastest ever production car. Bentley were able to show off the prowess of its new Speed model by by setting an underwater speed record. Simply, Bentley found a long underground tunnel, the nine-mile Ryfylke tunnel in Norway, and set about going as fast as possible through it. 

It's not the first Speed model to have launched, with both Continental and Flying Spur models preceding it in the series, but thanks to a tweaked and twin-turbocharged V8 engine under the hood, it's the fastest of its kind to date. We recently got behind the wheel of both the Continental GT and Flying Spur Speed models, and neither disappointed us.

Total output sits at 771 horsepower and 738 lb-ft of torque. Acceleration hasn't been overlooked in the pursuit of speed either, as evidenced by this Continental's 3.1-second 0 to 60 mph time, which is no doubt aided by the all-wheel drive system. 

In order to find Bentley's fastest ever car, though, we need to turn away from the showroom floors, and instead look into Bentley's illustrious racing past. Bentley enjoyed huge success when competing in the very earliest of Le Mans endurance races, claiming five victories across seven years during the 1920s. 

Despite winning these races a century ago now, Bentley is still among the automakers with the most Le Mans victories of all time. However, as impressive as these victories are, it was Bentley's return in 2001 which saw the automakers fastest ever car debut.

The racer in question is the EXP Speed 8, designed specifically with one goal in mind — to claim a sixth Le Mans victory for the British automaker. The Speed 8 would achieve this in 2003, claiming first and second overall. 

Powered by a twin-turbocharged 3.6-liter Audi-derived V8 engine, the Speed 8 could crack speeds in the region of 215 mph while powering down the Mulsanne straight — a speed which is yet to be matched by any other model sporting the winged badge.