The Conti has become a car whose cornering attitude can be played with on the throttle

This is the car that reinvented Bentley for the modern world, the car that made use of Phaeton underpinnings from new brand custodian Volkswagen. A highly handsome coupe with four-wheel drive, a twin-turbo W12 engine, a complete absence of Rolls-Royce genes and a price tag bordering on the real-world, the Continental GT has proved quite a sales hit. Indeed, since its 2003 launch it has, in some eyes, almost become too popular to retain exclusivity, even if we leave aside the favour it finds with those who kick balls around for money.

Thanks to the Continental in its various guises and body shapes, Bentley has built more 12-cylinder engines than any other car maker. But the car you see here isn’t quite the car of which we speak thus far. It’s a new one.
Can’t you see the difference? I’ll help you. The edges are edgier, the front grille is bolder, the tracks are wider and the wheels are bigger. Every panel, in fact, is new, although the GT’s fundamental look stays intact.

There’s more power – those six litres now generate 567bhp instead of 552 – and slightly less mass for it to haul. A remarkable 35kg of the total 65kg weight loss comes from new front seats which no longer incorporate the seat belt mountings in the frames, while further savings come from front wings and a bootlid now made from superformed aluminium.

The wider tracks have called for revised suspension geometry and new components, in aluminium of course. But the most obvious change is to the four-wheel-drive system, whose default torque split is now 40 per cent front, 60 per cent rear instead of equal all round. If there was a criticism of the old-generation GT, it was that it lacked playfulness in corners and felt stolid, inert, a bit wooden. Now, as I approach a very fast bend out in the Oman desert, where no-one much minds how fast we go, we’ll see if that has changed.

First thought: the steering is certainly precise and progressive in its response, but the build-up of cornering forces generated by 2320kg of Bentley is not felt as a change in steering weight. Put another way, I’m taking the front end’s grip on trust, having been cast into a tactile limbo, but at least my eyes and inner ear are receiving the right signals.

Second thought: this front end really is biting well, the more so as I squeeze the accelerator to release some more of the 516lb ft torque potential. Instead of pushing the nose into understeer as used to happen, the torque is exercising the rear tyres and we have the beginnings of gentle line-tightening. A glimpse of power oversteer, in fact, although it would take a major abuse of balance and decorum to goad the GT into a proper powerslide.

So the Continental has become a car whose cornering attitude can be played with on the throttle. This alone has made it feel much more wieldy than it did, to the extent that you’re only really aware of its still-hefty mass when braking hard for another bend. That’s when the optional carbon-ceramics – a snip at £10K – prove their worth.

Other options include a ‘driving specification’ pack, part of which is a set of split-rim polished wheels of 21in instead of 20in diameter. On these smooth Oman roads it’s hard to judge what damage they might do to the ride, just as it’s hard to discern a significant difference between the four settings for the air springs’ adaptive dampers. UK roads will doubtless tell a more detailed story, but it seems second-softest is a good compromise.

Engine? It’s hugely muscular, as ever, but it’s not loveable. It sends some vibrations through the steering wheel, and at times its boomy drone seems out of place in a car of such beautifully wrought luxury. Nor is the six-speed ZF auto the smoothest of shifters, although manual-mode shifts can be quick and two pulls at the paddle will let you miss out a gear on the downshift.

The W12’s particular torque-spikes preclude the use of the new eight-speeder for now, although we’ll see it matched to next year’s new, usefully more frugal 4-litre V8 engine. At which point the revitalised Continental GT will make much more sense.