2018 Bentley Continental GT3 - Pikes Peak Special

Our vendor is a long-term Bentley enthusiast and his Derbyshire-based business, FastR, is involved in the preparation of cars for the British Drift Championship and the Time Attack Championship. In late 2018, he acquired this Continental GT3-R to run in Time Attack during 2019 with support from Roger Clark Motorsport and M-Sport and running the car unrestricted, putting out around 750bhp, they won at a number of circuits, setting many new lap records along the way and winning the 2019 Time Attack Championship.

At the end of the year, the team were considering ways to further develop the car when, during an end of season review with Bentley, it was explained that Bentley had been keeping an eye on their performances and that, as it was such an unconventional approach, they might like to consider a collaboration on a special project, that being Pikes Peak.

The Broadmoor Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC), also known as 'The Race to the Clouds', is an invitational automobile hill climb to the summit of Pikes Peak – America’s Mountain in Colorado - and is held on the last Sunday in June. From the start at 9,400ft, the 12.42 mile course has 156 bends and finishes at 14,115ft, a climb of over 4,700ft, not far short of a mile vertically. If you were in an unpressurised aeroplane at that height, you would have been wearing an oxygen mask for some time, so setting up an internal combustion engine to run on reduced oxygen levels can be complex.

In common with most manufacturers, Bentley felt that the days of the gasoline-fuelled internal combustion engine were numbered and their 'Beyond100' sustainability strategy included work on renewable fuel, initiating a research and development programme that aimed to offer renewable fuels to Bentley customers in parallel with Bentley's electrification programme. This two-strand strategy was set to maximise the pace of Bentley’s progress towards outright carbon neutrality. However, Bentley had traditionally been associated with motorsport and sporting motoring and someone at Bentley thought it would be great if the company could set a few records with their internal combustion-engined production cars that were unlikely to be broken as fewer and fewer manufacturers were going to be building powerful, large capacity ICE cars.

Having already successfully run their Bentayga up the Pikes Peak Mountain in 2018 to set a new SUV record, they followed that up with another successful run in the Continental GT in 2019, just one year later for a production car record. So, whilst considering how they could achieve the 'Triple Crown' with an attempt on the 'Time Attack 1' record (closed cockpit, unlimited power output, production-based machines), our vendor’s 2019 Time Attack-winning Continental GT3 appeared on the radar.

At the end of the late 2019 meeting, it was agreed that Bentley would prepare and run (in conjunction with FastR and Roger Clark Motorsport) our vendor’s car in an attempt on Pikes Peak in 2020 and hopefully return with the third piece of silverware to sit in the Boardroom Trophy Cabinet forever. Having piloted the Bentayga and Continental GT to wins, Kiwi veteran, twice 'King of the Mountain', Rhys Millen agreed to drive again.

The agreement was that Bentley would cover the majority of the development, testing and running costs associated with the event with our vendor making a proportional contribution.

The arrival of COVID meant that the 2020 event was run a year later in 2021. The car was 18 seconds ahead of the other class entries during testing in the week prior, so everybody knew it had potential to do exceptionally well. Sadly, on race day, despite months of back-to-back testing, it did not go our vendor's way!

Ice at the top of the hill meant that the event was truncated, shortened and then just a few miles short of the, now lowered, finish line a simple failure, a backfire meaning a loss of pressure, meant that Rhys was only able to complete the run using lower gears for the last few miles. The car still won the 'Development Fuel' Class, but having set record times in all three stages of testing in the days prior, who knows, it would almost certainly have broken all records but alas, it was not to be and it finished just five seconds short of a Porsche GT2 RS.

The car now would be perfect to go back to Pikes Peak, should the purchaser request an invitation, and we are told that Pikes Peak legend, Rhys Millen, would love to drive it again and is, without doubt, the best man for the job.

In terms of what else it can do, the Goodwood FOS is an obvious one and Guy Smith, ex-Bentley factory driver and Le Mans-winner, would be our vendor’s suggestion as a 'Lovely man and has driven the car in standard GT3 form and Pikes Peak form'. With around 1,000bhp at the rear wheels, it is incredibly capable and in the right hands could still be very effective in Time Attack, particularly with the revised Class structure, and is undoubtedly capable of Outright Lap Records at most UK circuits.

Bentley were thought to be planning to build two copy cars and sell them to customers, however, that never happened, meaning this is the only one and consequently is the very last conventionally-powered race car that Bentley ever developed and ran in an official factory program. It was also the first car they ever ran on a synthetic fuel and one of the most extreme cars they have ever built. With build costs alone in excess of £1,000,000, what price to take this sensational car back to 'The Race to The Clouds' and with luck, the chance to give Bentley the outcome that they surely deserve?