Bentleys were born out of a sporting spirit and when you’re holding a monstrous six-liter W12 engine at your frond end, you’re not exactly following the recipe. Sure, all the tweaking has made the
W12 suit the Continental perfectly, but we feel like it’s been secretly wanting to have an affair with a V8 all along. This is exactly what the revamp brought and so we really mustn’t underestimate the potential of the Continental V8, despite the lesser "badge".
Speaking of comparisons, some say that the Bentley Continental GTC is more elegant than the Continental GT, simply because it’s wearing a fancy hat. While we don’t disagree with this, we see the reason that justifies a cabriolet Bentley as the existence of the company itself. Just think about Bentley’s roots. When the late W.O. founded the company, all his vehicles were open-top models. There you go, a good excuse for a Bentley convertible.
Combine the noble top with the... downsized engine and you’ll end up with our test car, the 2013 Bentley Continental GTC V8. We all know that Bentley’s way of marketing the V8 as an entry-level model is an excuse for introducing a new model. The cabriolet-ization process helps us bring that to light - you’re driving a convertible, so it’s more expensive than the coupe, but because it’s got a V8 it’s a base model. Yeah, right.
Having established that the Bentley Continental GTC V8 is just another way of indulging yourself into the world of automotive pleasures, we awakened the eight cylinders and officially announced the beginning of the dinner party.