Unveiled in 2013 from a concept racer that debuted in 2012, the Continental GT3 is based on the GT V8 coupe road car and powered by a Bentley-developed 4.0-litre twin-turbocharged V8 producing approximately 600 hp in race trim, driving the rear wheels through a six-speed sequential gearbox. The car runs under SRO's FIA GT3 regulations with the full Balance of Performance package — standardised safety cell, controlled aerodynamic envelope, BOP-adjusted power output — placing it on equal footing with Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, and Mercedes-AMG customer machinery.
Two distinct generations covered the programme's life: the first-generation specification (2013–2018) and an updated second-generation car (2018–2021) featuring revised aerodynamics and updated mechanical specification. Both were built and run by M-Sport in Cockermouth, England, a partnership that gave Bentley a professional motorsport infrastructure without maintaining a full in-house racing department.
Key championship results include the 2015 Blancpain GT Sprint Series title. The programme competed extensively in the [[gt-world-challenge-europe|GT World Challenge Europe]] Endurance Cup throughout this period, with regular entries at Spa, Monza, and Silverstone.
At the [[24-hours-of-spa|2020 Bathurst 12 Hour]], Jules Gounon, Jordan Pepper, and Maxime Soulet drove the M-Sport-run Continental GT3 to overall victory — completing 314 laps and winning by over 41 seconds, delivering Bentley its most prominent endurance win of the GT3 era.
The Continental GT3 represented one of British motor racing's most visible recent programmes: a grand touring nameplate turned into a genuine endurance weapon. Where Bentley's earlier motorsport legacy centred on Le Mans prototypes in the early 2000s, the GT3 programme brought the brand into the club-racing-adjacent SRO ecosystem — a segment where gentleman drivers, customer teams, and factory support intersect.
The Bathurst 12 Hour win in 2020 was the high-water mark: a non-European circuit, an early-morning Australian broadcast, and an outright overall victory for a car whose road-going sibling costs over £150,000. For sim racers following [[gt-world-challenge-america|GT World Challenge America]] and the SRO grid, the Continental GT3 represents the intersection of luxury GT road car culture and professional endurance racing depth.
Bentley's withdrawal at the end of 2021 — driven by the brand's pivot toward electrification — ended a programme that had run for nine seasons and delivered wins across three continents. The car remains eligible in customer hands in several GT3 series.
The Bentley Continental GT3 appears in [[forza-motorsport-2023|Forza Motorsport (2023)]] as a GT3-class car. Multiple model-year variants have appeared across the Forza franchise — including the 2016 and 2018 specifications — reflecting the car's real-world longevity across two GT3 specification generations.
[[bentley-continental-gt3-2016|Bentley Continental GT3 (2016)]] — the first-generation specification Atlas entry
[[bentley-continental-gt3-2018|Bentley Continental GT3 (2018)]] — the second-generation specification Atlas entry
[[24-hours-of-spa|24 Hours of Spa]] — the Spa-Francorchamps endurance round on the SRO calendar
[[gt-world-challenge-europe|GT World Challenge Europe]] — the primary SRO European series for GT3 competition
[[gt-world-challenge-america|GT World Challenge America]] — the North American SRO GT3 series
[[forza-motorsport-2023|Forza Motorsport (2023)]] — the game where the Continental GT3 appears
[[sro-motorsports-group|SRO Motorsports Group]] — the governing body for the GT3 class the car competed in
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