2005 Bentley Continental Gt Coupe 2-door 6.0l on 2040-cars

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2019 Bentley Continental GT gets stunning new looks but keeps its W12 engine

The Continental GT is an incredibly important model for Bentley, having kicked off the British luxury brand's current resurgence. To wit, in 2003, the year the Continental GT was introduced, Bentley sold around a thousand vehicles. Just a decade later, Bentley was selling 10 times that many cars. You can be sure that the automaker doesn't want that explosive growth to slow down, and the new 2019 Continental GT you see here looks certain to keep customers flowing into Bentley dealerships for the foreseeable future. If you were expecting lots of technology in this new Continental, you'll find it front and center in the cockpit. There's a fully digital dash that mimics conventional gauges on either side of a configurable screen, but the real showstopper is the 12.3-inch Rotating Display. When the car is turned off, the infotainment screen spins to hide behind a wooden veneer – just a small part of the 107 square feet of wood inside – but that's not its only trick. In addition to the LCD screen, there's a third mode festooned with a temperature gauge, compass, and chronometer. The rest of the cabin is suitably opulent. There's diamond-stitched leather, a watch-like machined finish called Cotes de Geneve, diamond knurling, and bronze inserts in between the primary controls. 20-way power adjustable seats are heated, cooled, and massaging, and in-seat Active Bass Transducers are optional. A 6.0-liter W12 engine sends 626 horsepower and 664 pound-feet of torque to all four wheels through an eight-speed automatic transmission. The run to 60 takes just 3.6 seconds, and the top speed is listed at 207 miles per hour. If you were expecting some sort of electrification, you'll have to look elsewhere. A 48-volt electronics system with actuators to help keep the big coupe planted during corners is borrowed from corporate cousins Audi, as do LED Matrix headlights. We'll see the 2019 Continental GT in person at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Pricing has yet to be announced, but we'd expect it to be slightly higher than the $200,000 asking price of the current model. Featured Gallery 2019 Bentley Continental GT View 28 Photos Frankfurt Motor Show Bentley Coupe Luxury Performance

VW adding particulate filters to gas engines

Volkswagen is working hard to overcome the PR disaster that is its diesel emissions scandal, and part of its efforts is focusing, weirdly, on petrol engines. Starting in June 2017, the embattled German automaker will add particulate filters to the gas-powered Volkswagen Tiguan and Audi A5. The change will eventually impact nearly every direct-injected gas engine the VW Group makes. Audi? Particulate filter. Seat? Particulate filter. Even Bentley is going to get the tech, all in a bid to reduce soot emissions by 90 percent. In fact, by 2022 VAG expects 7 million of its vehicles to boast the emissions-cleaning tech, which has long been a fixture on diesel engines. "Following increases in efficiency and lower CO2 output, we are now bringing about a sustained reduction in the emission levels of our modern petrol engines by fitting particulate filters as standard," Volkswagen Group research and design boss Dr. Ulrich Eichhorn said in a statement. "In the future, all models will be equipped with the latest and most efficient SCR catalytic converter technology." VW's initial rollout focuses on the 1.4-liter, turbocharged Tiguan and the 2.0-liter, turbocharged A5. Considering the popularity of the 2.0-liter across the VW range, we'd expect it's only a matter of time before VW expands its particulate filters tech to additional gas-powered vehicles. Related Video:

Bentley Bentayga may spawn sportier fastback version

In the past few years, Bentley has shown us two different conceptions about what its future might look like in: the SUV that started life as the EXP 9 F concept and has now entered production as the Bentayga, and the EXP 10 Speed 6 concept that previews a future sports coupe from the stoic British marque. The next step is an SUV that combines a little of each of them. According to Automotive News, engineers and designers in Crewe are currently laying the groundwork for a crossover that would blend the tall form of the Bentayga with the roofline of the Speed 6. The result would be similar in form, we'd imagine, to the likes of the BMW X6 and Mercedes GLE Coupe, only even further upscale. We wouldn't be surprised to see more changes than the roofline and tail section, either, with a sportier front end and more avant-garde headlights (like those we saw on the Speed 6 concept) giving it a sportier, less stodgy appearance all around – and maybe, just maybe, a different nameplate. CEO Wolfgang Durheimer wants to get the fastbacked Bentayga variant ready by 2018 or 2019 – right around the time that Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Maserati, and Lamborghini will be rolling out their debut crossovers. By that time, Bentley will have already have had the Bentayga on the market for two or three years, and wants to be ready to fight off the onslaught with something fresh. "Imagine the EXP 10 as an SUV. It doesn't look 'old Bentley, Durheimer told AN. "The Bentayga doesn't stop us from dreaming and looking down the road. The more success we have with it, the more we can take the best of it and run with it." Proceeding with the project will require Durheimer to get approval from the Volkswagen Group head office in Wolfsburg, but the business case seems like a slam dunk. The model would help Bentley (and VW) further capitalize on the $1 billion it already spent developing the Bentayga, following a successful business model laid out by rival BMW and which Germany's other automakers are quickly learning to emulate. This wouldn't be the first time he'd be seeking approval from Matthias Muller on such a project, either. Durheimer successfully ushered the Cayenne into production when he was head of R&D at Porsche and Muller was the brand's CEO.