THE CAR WORLD'S MOST DIFFICULT FACELIFT

The website www.autoexpress.co.uk has an extensive portfolio of shots of Bentley's next Continental GT coupe and convertible during testing at the Nurburgring.

(Photo: Auto Express)

I remember  the owner and publisher of AUTOMOTIVE NEWS, Keith Crain, telling me, as he took delivery of his GT coupe in Detroit back in 2006, that; "this is gonna be a damn hard car to facelift, it's just beautiful the way it is."

The original design team; Design Director Dirk van Braekel, Raul Pires and Robin Page got it right back in 2002, when the final concept was unveiled in front of me and 13 of my fellow Bentley Motors executives in Wolfsburg.

As the covers came off the final clay, 14 suits all had a sharp intake of breath simultaneously. If this was what we had to sell from 2003, we were on a winner! And we were.

According to Auto Express, the next Continental GT will take many design cues from the Bentley EXP 10 Speed 6 concept car, making it more muscular, but still not a million miles from the original car. So, Keith Crain was right, a 'damn hard car to facelift'.