Bentley Continental GT V8 (2012) spied undisguised

Bentley Continental GT V8 (2012) spied by Autoblog

We have a photo of an undisguised 2012 Bentley Continental GT V8 ahead of its debut at Detroit in the New Year.

This isn’t the first time we’ve had a spy photo of the 2012 Bentley Continental GT V8, although last time it was the new V8 under a drop-top Bentley GTC.

And the V8 Continental GT does look finished in the photo; ready for the motor show and showroom, we would conclude. But maybe not.

Maybe not because, as we reported a few weeks ago, the new Continental GT V8 is supposed to be skipping Frankfurt and bowing in at Detroit in the New Year. Which in some ways makes sense.

The US is a big market for Bentley, and Americans have a real penchant for V8s. So rolling a new V8 out – even when it has less power than the existing W12 – could make sense at Detroit. But Frankfurt is a much bigger stage for the new Bentley V8 to arrive. We’ll see.

But at whichever motor show Bentley debuts the Continental GT V8, it’s big news; a V8 engine in the Continental GT for the first time.

A V8 engine developed with Audi and promising some decent performance coupled with much better economy and much lower emissions. Which is probably necessary in our more economy-obsessed world (if anything about any Bentley could ever be considered ‘Economy).

But the V8 in the Conti GT is unlikely to be a sloth, even if it is being trumpeted as an ‘Entry-Level’ Continental GT. The 4.0 litre V8 will, we expect, offer everything from a 415bhp single turbo version right the way up to a 555bhp twin turbo jobbie. Which would be very close to the output of the W12 in the current GT.

That, we expected, would signal the end of the W12 in the Bentley, but according to Bentley boss Wolfgang Durheimer the W12 will continue, with Bentley as the centre for the VW group’s 12-Cylinder engines. Probably not a huge department going forward, we’d have thought.

But maybe the W12 will be reserved for the 2012 version of the GT Speed, leaving the new V8 to be used for the regular Continental GT?

We’ll find out soon enough.