2003 Bentley Arnage R Sedan 4-door 6.7l on 2040-cars

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Bentley GT3-R is the most hardcore road-going Continental yet

A factory-entered Bentley hadn't won a top tier race in the UK for 84 years when the Continental GT3 recently took victory in the second round of the Blancpain Endurance Series at Silverstone. It was an early success for a racer that only hit the track competitively for the first time late last year at the Gulf 12 Hours in Abu Dhabi. To capitalize on the potent platform, Bentley is bringing it to the street with the limited-edition Continental GT3-R.
Limited to just 300 units worldwide, this bruiser starts as any other Continental GT on the assembly line in Crewe, England, but then Bentley Motorsport get ahold of it to painstakingly improve its performance. Like the racer, GT3-R uses the 4.0-liter, twin-turbo V8, and here, power is cranked up to 572 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque, 51 hp and 14 lb-ft better than the GT V8 S. The muscle is routed through an eight-speed automatic gearbox from ZF with shortened gearing and a rear-biased all-wheel-drive system with torque vectoring for the rear wheels. The weight also comes down over 200 pounds from the V8 S to 4,839 pounds. Bentley claims all the tweaks are enough to hustle the GT3-R to 60 miles per hour in 3.6 seconds, on to an estimated top speed of 170 mph.
To handle all that power, an air suspension holds up all four corners, and the brakes use carbon silicon carbide discs for plentiful stopping power. A titanium exhaust saves an additional 15 pounds of weight, and Bentley promises that it gives the car a baritone growl.

Bentley officially returns to racing at Gulf 12hr

For a company with a tendency to name its cars after parts of the Circuit de la Sarthe like Arnage and Mulsanne, Bentley sure has been gone from endurance sportscar racing for a long time. It famously won the 24 Hours of Le Mans five times in the 1920s, but didn't come back until 68 years later to win again in 2003. That was the last time Bentley competed on the world stage... until now.
Bentley first revealed its rekindled racing ambitions with the Continental GT3 at the 2012 Paris Motor Show. The car would be developed for privateer racers, and that's all led up to this point. Team M-Sport, which you may know better for having run Ford's World Rally Championship team, was charged with developing the car, and it entered the new racecar this past weekend in the Gulf 12 Hours in Abu Dhabi. There, on the Yas Marina Circuit in the United Arab Emirates, the Continental GT3 diced it with GT3 versions of the likes of the Ferrari 458, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and McLaren 12C.
So how did it fare on its first time out? Well the race is split into two six-hour sessions, and the Conti finished third in the first heat (behind the AF Corse Ferrari and Black Falcon Benz) and fourth in the second (just edged out by another 458 entered by Kessel Racing). Not a bad outcome for Bentley's first race in a decade. And the Abu Dhabi race was essentially a dress rehearsal for next season when the Continental GT3 will be entered in the full 2014 Blancpain Endurance Series.

2012 Pebble Beach Concept Car Lawn offers a tutorial in cars to come

The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance is a showcase for some of the world's most exquisite vintage vehicles, but if newer metal is more your speed, the Concept Car Lawn is the place to be.
This year saw models from Bugatti, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, McLaren and Bentley as well as SRT, Hennessey, Infiniti and Lexus among others. The ultimate sampler platter of exotic and concept vehicles saw the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse mingle with the Lamborghini Urus Concept and the mighty Hennessey Venom GT, though we found ourselves particularly smitten with the BMW Zagato Roadster and the Aston Martin Vanquish.
Not that we could go wrong anywhere we looked. The 2013 Bentley Continental GT Speed seemed perfectly content parked on the manicured putting green, as did the McLaren MP4-12C Spider. Get cozy with the full gallery below to see the smattering of metal on the lawn.