After the ‘reveal yesterday of the Champion Racing Porsche 911 GT2RS Clubsport here’s one of its eye-catching competitors in the production-based Time Attack 1 category at next month’s Pikes Peak International Hillclimb.
Bentley will compete at the 2021 Pikes Peak International Hillclimb with a modified version of their Continental GT3 racer.
The Continental GT3 Pikes Peak is developed from the Time Attack GT3 car fielded across UK competition by Team Fastr, the car though has seen major modification by MSport in preparation for the 27 June event where it will be fielded by Fastr, MSport and with assistance from K-PAX Racing and driven by three-time Pikes Peak champion and former “King of the Mountain’ Rhys Millen – who also holds individual class records. It was with Millen that Bentley captured its two existing Pikes Peak records – the Production SUV record attained in 2018 with a Bentayga W12, and the outright Production Car record scored in 2019 with a Continental GT.
With the start line at 9,300 ft, the course climbs to 14,100 ft – where the air is 1/3 less dense than at sea level. This environment means that the Continental GT3 Pikes Peak features modifications both to its aerodynamics package and its engine, turning it into the most extreme iteration of a Continental GT – or indeed any Bentley road car – ever.
The biggest rear wing ever fitted to a Bentley dominates the rear of the car, sitting above a highly efficient rear diffuser that surrounds the transaxle gearbox. This rear aerodynamic package is balanced by a two-plane splitter at the front, flanked by separate dive planes.
The engine is Bentley’s proven racing power unit, developed from the 4.0-litre turbo V8 fitted to the Continental GT V8. For the Continental GT3 Pikes Peak, engine modifications together with the use of carefully selected biofuel will ensure the engine develops significant horsepower despite the rarefied conditions it will operate in.
Further modifications include cooling air scoops in place of the rear windows, and the obligatory stopwatch mounted to the roll cage next to the steering wheel, to allow Rhys Millen to keep track of his sector times up the mountain.
To break the record, the car will have to complete the nearly 5,000 ft climb, which includes 156 corners, at an average speed of more than 78 mph to cross the finish line in less than nine minutes and 36 seconds.
Despite it’s extreme appearance and design performance, the Pikes Peak car also signals a change of direction for Bentley as the brand uses the programme in the launch of a major new sustainability initiative, with a renewable fuels research and development programme. The car will be the first competition Bentley to run on renewable fuel, ahead of a goal to offer sustainable fuels to Bentley’s customers around the world.
The modified Continental GT3 racer, will run on a biofuel-based gasoline. Various blends of fuels are currently being tested and evaluated, with possible Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reductions of up to 85 per cent over standard fossil fuel. This first step marks the start of a longer programme that will investigate both biofuels and e-fuels for their potential to power the Bentleys of past and present in a sustainable way.
The programme forms a stepping stone on Bentley’s Beyond100 programme which will see the entire Bentley model range offered with Hybrid variants by 2023 ahead of Bentley being BEV-only by 2030.
Combustion-engine Bentleys will still be produced for the next nine years, and Bentley’s new project aims to make those cars and the cars built previously by the brand (more than 80% of all Bentleys ever built are still on the road) as sustainable as possible through the use of innovative fuel technologies.
The Continental GT3 Pikes Peak now enters a major test and development phase, based initially in the UK before being shipped to the USA for altitude testing.
Bentley’s Member of the Board for Engineering, Dr Matthias Rabe, comments:
“We are delighted to be returning to Pikes Peak for a third time, now powered by renewable fuel, as the launch project for another new element of our Beyond100 programme. Our powertrain engineers are already researching both biofuels and e-fuels for use by our customers alongside our electrification programme, with intermediate steps of adopting renewable fuels at the factory in Crewe and for our company fleet. In the meantime, the Continental GT3 Pikes Peak will show that renewable fuels can allow motorsport to continue in a responsible way, and hopefully it will capture the third and final record in our triple crown.”
