Last year, Bentley lifted the wraps off the new Continental GT. While it’s currently only available as a coupe, the luxury grand-tourer will soon be dropping its top. We last saw a Bentley Continental GTC prototype undergoing some winter testing, but now our spies have spotted it being put through its paces at the Nurburgring. Once again, there's only a thin layer of camo covering the prototype. But since the coupe is already out in the wild, covering the topless variant with copious amounts of camouflage would be completely pointless.
Instead, Bentley has applied a thin wrap to disguise the details, but it clearly looks nearly identical to its coupe counterpart – at least until you reach the roof. Naturally, the most obvious change is the addition of a soft top, but Bentley has had to adapt the shape of the car accordingly. Unfortunately, adding a soft top makes it impossible to replicate the coupe’s sloping roof, resulting in a much flatter rear deck. This changes the look of the car significantly, creating a boxier, less appealing shape. Like its coupe sibling, the GTC is based on a new platform co-developed with Porsche, which also underpins the Panamera.
It will also share the same engine options as the GT coupe, so expect a 6.0-liter twin-turbo W12 sending 635 horsepower to all four wheels through an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic. This setup allows the coupe to sprint to 62 mph in 3.7 seconds, but the convertible’s extra weight will probably add a few more tenths to that time. A V8-powered variant and a plug-in hybrid is also expected to join the lineup. The Bentley Continental GTC was expected to debut at the Geneva Motor Show back in March, but failed to make an appearance. Hopefully we’ll see it break cover later this year at the Paris Auto Show in October.
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