This New Bentley Has The Engine Valve Of A Le Mans Winner In Its Dashboard

Bentley has announced a new edition of its Continental GT and convertible GTC, built to celebrate 100 years of Le Mans and 20 years since the British company’s last win at the 24-hour race.

Limited to just 48 examples, the cars are finished in Verdant green with a Moonbeam white racing stripe down their center. They feature a number ‘7’ painted onto the front grille – the race number of the Bentley Speed 8 prototype that won Le Mans in 2003.

Inside, the limited-edition cars have a dashboard facia that includes six winning wreaths to commemorate Bentley’s Le Mans victories in 1924, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930 and 2003. The dashboard also includes a bespoke digital clock with a 24-hour dial in place of the car’s usual 12-hour timepiece.

Finally, and most interestingly, the Bentley Continental Le Mans Collection showcases an engine valve from the very car that won Le Mans in 2003. Bentley took 24 of the 32 valves used by the race-winning Speed 8’s 4.0-liter, twin-turbocharged V8, then bisected and turned them into 48 “artifacts”, as the company calls them.

The half-valve sits inside the car’s rotating dashboard, flanked by an outside temperature dial and a stopwatch. As with other Bentleys, the dashboard can be rotated electronically between three faces; one shows the two dials and engine vale, one includes a touchscreen infotainment display, and the third houses a blank piece of wood veneer.

The Le Mans Collection comes from Bentley’s Mulliner division, which is also responsible for the building a run of ‘continuation’ cars intended to be exact replicas of Bentley’s supercharged race cars of the 1920s, as well as the bespoke Bacalar.

Two exterior design options are available. The Blackline specification is a nod to the black and green of the 2008 race car, while the Styling configuration makes extensive use of exposed carbon fiber with Moonshine pinstriping.

Meanwhile, beluga black paint was chosen for the lower front bumper, wing mirror caps and area below the trunk spoiler. The car also includes black 22-inch, ten-spoke wheels, behind which are carbon ceramic brakes with red calipers.

The cars are powered by the same 6.0-liter, W12 engine as the regular Continental GT and convertible GTC, which produces 659 horsepower and 664 lb-ft of torque. The cars can sprint to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds and have a top speed of 208 mph. Dynamic features include four-wheel-steering, all-wheel-drive and an electronic limited-slip differential.

Pricing has not been announced, although the Le Mans Collection will undoubtedly cost more than the circa-$280,000 Continental GT Speed.