First ever RWD Bentley GT Supersports on the way

His super-special Continental GT, on the other hand, is so blatantly contemporary that it might as well be called the Bentley Home Run. Or the Bentley patch. But it’s not, it’s called the Supersports, which, before we even get to the car, has the added value of a 100-year heritage. More importantly, there is a recent and very memorable precedent: the 2009 Supersports capped at 630 hp; its short-lived successor crashed through with 710 horsepower and enough aerodynamic additions to set it apart from any other Continental GT.

The full reveal of the latest variant (one that obviously won’t have a twelve-cylinder engine) is scheduled for next week in New York – a clue as to where Bentley hopes to make hay – but we’ve already learned enough to know it’ll be a chip off the old block. Firstly, because the company has released a second teaser photo confirming the presence of some sort of air-expanding bodywork, and secondly, because of what it has told us about the limited-edition model.

“The new Bentley Supersports will be the lightest, most driver-focused and first rear-wheel drive Continental GT ever,” the manufacturer confirmed in a short statement. The prospect of a rear-wheel drive flagship, the configuration specifically chosen ‘for maximum driver involvement’, is clearly the key feature of a car that has been exclusively all-wheel drive for more than two decades. What better way to cement the idea that there’s more to Bentley than strolling around and staring out the window? Or to help it compete with, say, the new Aston Martin Vanquish?

So you’d assume the emphasis was on being the lightest, and the GT was known to struggle to keep its weight in the two-ton range. The move to RWD clearly reduces complexity, although the amount of weight loss required to become lighter than the 2,195kg claimed for the old GT3-R almost certainly means the Supersports have ditched the hybrid powertrain that has been a feature of the Continental GT on the MSB platform since last year.

That would certainly relate to the fact that no claim is made for power or outright speed; With the V8 driving only the rear axle, the Supersports is unlikely to surpass the 782bhp available from the current GT Speed, nor the 3.2 seconds it takes to reach 62mph. Nevertheless, a lighter variant with only combustion engines, which Bentley insists will be ‘rare’, is likely to prove catnip to a core audience that has only grudgingly accepted the idea that the GT must be a hybrid. Don’t be surprised if a bustling line forms almost immediately in NYC.