As previously announced the 2012 Bentley Continental GT will be offered with an all-new 4.0-liter V8 engine starting late 2011. What you may not know is how this new engine will come about. Turns out, Bentley will be developing the V8 with a little help from Audi->ke14 leaving them fully capable of utilizing this engine for a number of high performance Audi models.

The new 4.0-liter direct-injection engine will come with better fuel consumption and emissions; somewhere around 40% below that of the W12 unit in the car. "We are adapting it four our purposes so that it delivers Bentley driving characteristics ," says Brian Gush, Bentley->ke15’s director of chassis and powertrain. He would not say whether it is turbocharged, but added: "It does not have a conventional layout."

The current 6.0 liter W12 engine delivers a total of 567 HP and 700 NM of torque. It sprints the car from 0 to 60 mph in 4.4 seconds and pushes it to a top speed of 198 mph.

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