Bentley Shows Off Its Awesome Pikes Peak Racer

Bentley has given technical details on its Continental GT3 Pikes Peak racecar. The vehicle makes more than 750 bhp and 1000 Nm torque from a thoroughly revised 4.0-liter V-8 engine. The car also has lots of aerodynamic details allowing it to produce 30 percent more downforce than the standard Continental GT3 racing car.The car will take on the infamous Pikes Peak Hill Climb on June 27 and runs entirely on renewable fuel. The Pikes Peak Hill Climb is a grueling event that starts at an altitude of 9,300 feet and climbs to an altitude of 14,100 feet. The air pressure is a third less dense at the summit than at sea level, meaning cars make less power and people tend to get dizzy.

The engine under the car's hood is based on the race-proven Bentley 4.0-liter twin-turbo V-8 road car engine. The engine has new pistons and connecting rods to allow it to run higher boost pressures of over 2.2 bar. Turbo and supercharging is particularly efficient at high altitudes where the air is thinner.

The car features a custom one-of-a-kind Inconel exhaust manifold that was 3D printed using laser sintering. The pair of larger turbochargers have external wastegates and vent into short exhausts with dedicated screamer pipes exiting behind the front wheels. The fuel powering the racing car is 98RON Renewable Racing Fuel.

That renewable racing fuel is a dedicated blend of advanced biofuels specifically designed for motorsports. While still allowing the engine to produce massive amounts of power, the fuel offers a greenhouse gas reduction of up to 85 percent. Another interesting tidbit about the racing car is that it has liquid-cooled brakes. Brakes are used heavily on the mountain course due to high-speed sections broken up by hairpin corners that tax the brake system. When people drive normal cars up Pikes Peak, there is a station about midway where rangers check brake temperatures because missing a turn could mean a plummet of hundreds of feet off the side of a mountain.