Bentley recently headed Down Under with its brand new 2016 Continental GT Speed to take the model to its top speed on one of only three de-restricted roads in the world; Australia’s Stuart Highway,
A thin, two lane road, the Stuart Highway is 2834 km in length and has a 200 km stretch without speed limits between Alice Springs and Barrow Creek. With the help of the local government, Bentley closed down the road briefly to conduct its vmax run on a 9.4 km stretch of tarmac.
Behind the wheel of the Continental GT Speed was Australian racing driver John Bowe. Thanks to the car’s twin-turbocharged W12 engine pumping out 626 hp and 607 lb-ft of torque, it managed to reach a top speed of 331 km/h without breaking a sweat in the hot desert air.
Discussing the feat, Bowe said “This isn’t a modified racecar; it’s a luxurious grand touring road car fresh off the production line. It took us a little over a minute to go from a standstill to 206 mph. That’s extraordinary. Even when you break through the 200 mph barrier, the GT Speed just keeps accelerating.”
Earlier in the year, Porsche took a 918 Spyder Weissach to the Stuart Highway and reached 350 km/h.
