"Bentley Boy" Brabham to race at Goodwood
Aussie legend David Brabham to thrash GT3 racecar for Bentley as GT3-R road car makes public debutBentley's tyre-frying Continental GT3-R sports car will make its public debut at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in the UK, while Australian motor racing legend David Brabham, a Le Mans 24 Hours champion, puts his reputation on the line in the entertaining hillclimb event.
Bentley will be part of a massive showing at this year's running of the Festival of Speed, one of Europe's most popular automotive carnivals. The new twin-turbo GT3-R will debut there along with several other posh-but-fast Brits, including the Jaguar F-TYPE Project 7.
Paying homage to the GT3 race car Brabham will drive, the GT3-R will be limited to just 300 units globally, and it's as rare as it is fast, the twin-turbo 4.0-litre V8 engine thumping out a very handy 426kW/700Nm, enabling the luxurious all-wheel-drive missile to accelerate from 0-100km/h in 3.8 seconds.
Top speed is 273km/h.
If that wasn't enough to dispel traditionally stale and stuffy views of Bentley, the Continental GT3 racecar blatting its way up the always-exciting Goodwood hillclimb with Brabham at the wheel is certain to blow away the cobwebs. The youngest son of the late Sir Jack Brabham, David drove a Bentley Speed 8 to second place at Le Mans in 2003, as part of the company's famous 1-2 finish.
Although Bentley is now owned by a German company, the Volkswagen Group, it is still based in Crewe, England, and is a quintessentially British car-maker that can trace its roots back to 1919. As such, the brand will also display a number of historic vehicles, three in total, all of which will also compete in the Goodwood hillclimb.
The Speed Six Bentley, aka 'Old Number 1', that was victorious at Le Mans in 1929 and 1930 will be reunited with 'Old Number 2' and 'Old Number 3', all of which will be on display and driven up the hillclimb in what should be quite a sight for aficionados.
The 2014 Goodwood Festival of Speed begins tonight Australia time, Thursday June 26 and runs across the weekend until Sunday June 29. Check out this piece from 2011 on the Goodwood FoS or go to the official Goodwood website for more.
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