Bentley is one of the most prestigious brands in the world, but it has dabbled in the world of motorsport including a run of five wins at Le Mans between 1924 and 1930, though its latest program was its most popular.
The famous Bentley Boys won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1924, then greeted the flag four-times in a row from 1927 until 1930 when one of its drivers included Australian Bernard Ruben.
Fast forward 70-years and Bentley won Le Mans again in 2003, then 10 years later joined the burgeoning GT3 class with its Continental courtesy of M-Sport.
Soon to become one of the most popular GT3 models of the era, the Bentley proved a successful package despite its big size.
M-Sport continue to be custodians of Ford’s World Rally Championship program having started as partners in 1997, but was in 2012 enlisted to turn the Bentley into a race winner.
Unveiled at Goodwood in 2013, the Continental GT3 featured a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8, an Xtrac six-speed sequential gearbox, Brembo disc brakes, ABS, traction control and many more features.
Bentley joined the likes of Mercedes-AMG, Nissan, Audi, Ferrari, BMW, Lamborghini, Porsche, McLaren, Aston Martin and more.
It didn’t take long for the Continental GT3 to take a victory as it achieved it on home turf at Silverstone and nearly won the title in 2015.
As the Bathurst 12 Hour began to gain momentum in the mid-2010s, Bentley sent M-Sport down under and the popularity skyrocketed.
The Continental GT3 received an update in 2017 and finally won the Bathurst 12 Hour in 2020 right when the program was coming to an end the next year due to Bentley’s future commitment to electric variants.