2003 Le Mans winning Bentley Speed 8 and the all new 'Grand' Bentley ...

[Wouter Melissen]

Dear Ultimatecarpage.com visitor,

Last week we saw Audi being beaten at Le Mans for the first time since 2003. That year the victory was for the Bentley Speed 8. With Joest running the car, two Audi drivers behind the wheel and an Audi derived engine, the German manufacturer does deserve some credit for that win as well. The car itself was however developed completely independent from Audi and was the culmination of a three year program that already resulted in two class wins in 2001 and 2002 for the experimental EXP Speed 8. The Speed 8 continued where the Speed 6 had left seven decades earlier when it claimed Bentley's fourth and fifth Le Mans win in the classic era. Penned by Peter Elleray, the Speed 8 had highly advanced aerodynamics that influenced many of the prototype racers that have been built since. Unfortunately the striking Bentley did not get the opportunity to face any of them as the company withdrew from racing immediately after achieving their objective. All this and much more can be read in our Speed 8 article, which is illustrated by a 12-shot gallery, depicting the winning car at last year's Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Our article on the upcoming 'Grand Bentley' is not nearly as detailed. That is the result of Bentley only releasing one teaser picture and a very short description of what will become the Arnage replacement.

Enjoy the links:

2009 Bentley Grand - Images, Specifications and Information

2003 Bentley Speed 8 - Images, Specifications and Information

Regards,
Wouter Melissen

[LeonOfTheDead]

thanks for the interesting article on the EXP 8, much appreciated info.

[henk4]

Talking about confusing identities, not in the least caused by Bentley itself, at the very weekend that the featured winning car was doing the Goodwood Festival of Speed, another "original #7" was shown in the paddock of the Le Mans Classic in 2008, among several other famous historic Le Mans entries.( I have a shot of that car).
Now who has been fooled here?

[LeonOfTheDead]

I'm pretty curious about the fact 2 chassis were never raced...why?!
I could see just one a spare part in case of an accident, but two seems a bit too much. Any info on this?
Let alone how we could know which car is the "original" as they are all painted to be "the one".

[demonrunning07]

how about the Grand Bentley? I know the teaser is dark and doesn't show many of the styling cues but it looks like it's gonna be epic. You can tell it has the classic Bentley grill and hoodline which VW tried so hard to phase out but it also looks like has a lot of new, complex, and innovative lines to it as well.

[Ferrer]

how about the Grand Bentley? I know the teaser is dark and doesn't show many of the styling cues but it looks like it's gonna be epic. You can tell it has the classic Bentley grill and hoodline which VW tried so hard to phase out but it also looks like has a lot of new, complex, and innovative lines to it as well.

As long as VW doesn't **** it up it'll be fine.

Looking at all expensive branded cars they desgined though, I wouldn't be holding my breath.

I can't help wonder what would've happened if RR had been owned VAG and Bentley by BMW, maybe it'd have been much better...

[danishllama]

Thanks, Loved these Bentley models -- the LM car photographed particularly well!