Bentley GT3 - Abu Dhabi 12hr & British GT 2014

[Wee Man]

Some of you may know that I do a bit of racing (used to race Aston Martin GT4's in the European GT4 Championship etc), well for 2014 I am lucky enough to be racing in the British GT championship in the brand new Bentley Continental GT3 race car. Our family team have bought the car and will be running it. We have chassis number 3, which is the first customer car to be sold. Chassis's 1 & 2 are test cars, ours number 3, 4 & 5 will be the Works Bentley cars which are doing the Blancpain Endurance Championship.

Here's a link to the Autosport Story: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/111804

As the Bentley was doing its first race (more as a test) in Abu Dhabi this weekend just passed with the works team, my Dad and I went out to watch. Here are some photo's I took:

Car showed good pace, qualifying P4 and finishing P4, was running P3 for majority of the race but dropped back in the final stint after a slow pit stop. We receive our car at the end of January and start testing in early Feb.

The money spent on the track/facilities and surrounding area is unbelievable..

This was outside our hotel all weekend:

All in all a pretty decent weekend away, definitely a place worth visiting if you ever get the chance!

 

[MaLicE]

Stayed on yas at the crown plaza and yas hotel (one over track) going back in march to stay again, wicked place to stay, did you go on formula rossa? I did it 4 times want to go to the new waterpark too

 

[Nick172Cup]

That Bentley looks so wrong, but so right at the same time!

Epic lifestyle also, what I'd do to have half of that.

 

[DanFreemanPhoto]

Hard to imagine a bentley race car, not exactly the lightest or nimblest cars that come to mind.

Good luck!

And that purple lamb is proof that money can't buy taste in that part of the world.

 

[Sam@NP]

Superb, how competitive do you think you'll be in the first season?

Car looks the dogs. V.jealous

 

[Poopensharten]

What does the Bentley weigh in its stripped out form? They cant be a kick in the balls off 2t in the road going version?

 

[MG cup]

The Bentley has just been homologated by the MSA and there is an article in this months news. Being a GT car they are all power/weight/aero restricted to even the playing field but iirc its somewhere around 1400kg.

As wee man has said it finished 4th in its first race which was planned as a shakedown but ended up a lot more, its an m-sport built car and pretty cool IMO.

page 8

http://www.msauk.org/uploadedfiles/newsletter/MSA_News_44_1213.pdf

 

[Steven103]

Would you mind clarifying the entries please? Are M-Sport directly running any cars in the BES (I noticed they've been hiring Race Engineers specifically for BES) or are 3, 4 & 5 doing BES as whichever customer they are, under the Bentley name?


It's the C of G height that really hurts cars like the Bentley, it's going to be tens of centimetres higher than the 458/MP12c/SLS etc.

They're all performance balanced at the start of the season via ride height, boost & inlet restrictors etc. anyway so in theory have identical ultimate pace to the rest of the field.



EDIT: Beaten to it on the "Balance of Performance" front.

 

[McGherkin]

Awesome. Just awesome.

 

[Cookie]

Bentley looks awesome. Good luck with the racing.

 

[Wee Man]

Would you mind clarifying the entries please? Are M-Sport directly running any cars in the BES (I noticed they've been hiring Race Engineers specifically for BES) or are 3, 4 & 5 doing BES as whichever customer they are, under the Bentley name?

Yea M-Sport will be running two cars in BES (chassis no's 4 & 5). We are racing ours under the team name of Generation Bentley Racing banner in British GT. But then also looking to sell seats to people who want to race it in other things such as BES or VLN etc. tbh anything that doesn't clash or effect the British GT rounds, we will look at doing.

 

[Ian_182]

This is hyper baller.Gorgeous race car and setting.How much does a season cost to race at this level ?

Englebert will spaff in his Calvins when he see's this.

 

[Wee Man]

This is hyper baller.Gorgeous race car and setting.How much does a season cost to race at this level ?

Englebert will spaff in his Calvins when he see's this.

For a British GT season, it's about £350k to run the car, that obviously doesn't include purchasing it in the first place, which was scary enough :-(

So yea if any of you work somewhere that wants to sponsor the team and in return there is a whole list of benefits then please feel free to hook me up. I need to find about 150K sponsorship, which can be broken down into smaller amounts etc etc.

10% finders fee in it for you ;-)

 

[Wee Man]

The Bentley has just been homologated by the MSA and there is an article in this months news. Being a GT car they are all power/weight/aero restricted to even the playing field but iirc its somewhere around 1400kg.

As wee man has said it finished 4th in its first race which was planned as a shakedown but ended up a lot more, its an m-sport built car and pretty cool IMO.

page 8

http://www.msauk.org/uploadedfiles/newsletter/MSA_News_44_1213.pdf

Yea they have got the car down to 1300kg, but we will see what happens at the Balance of Performance, they may ask weight to be put in or allow more weight to come out. Either way the car has be designed brilliantly by M-Sport, they have literally got everything as low as possible as you would expect from a company of their calibre.

 

[Cookie]

For a British GT season, it's about £350k to run the car, that obviously doesn't include purchasing it in the first place, which was scary enough :-(

So yea if any of you work somewhere that wants to sponsor the team and in return there is a whole list of benefits then please feel free to hook me up. I need to find about 150K sponsorship, which can be broken down into smaller amounts etc etc.

10% finders fee in it for you ;-)

Give you a tenner!

Unfortunately I think the company I work for has their motorsport commitment sorted for the timebeing

http://lotusf1team.com/-emc-.html

 

[SharkyUK]

Amazeballs and awesome sauce. Best of luck!

 

[Naith]

amazing!!! Followed the car closely from the start. If you need a motorsport photographer Riad says hi!

 

[Riad]

Awesome as above i was hoping to get there this year but things have changed hopefully see you trackside in 2014!

 

[JamesBryan]

Is this one of the ones that was on show at Autosport International back in January?

 

[Tunst]

M-Sport as is the M-Sport Rally Team down the road from me?

 

[Wee Man]

M-Sport as is the M-Sport Rally Team down the road from me?

Yes, the the M-Sport team based at Dovenby Hall!

 

[.GAZ.]

Prefer Fenn's NSX.

 

[Tony Hunter]

Big, but nice.

 

[Wee Man]

Short video that Bentley posted from this the Abu Dhabi Race:



Our car arrives in less than a month now…EXCITED.COM!!

 

[McGherkin]

Sounds f**king brutal, like a proper British GT Bruiser. Bet you can't f**king wait!

 

[Bluebeard]

The amount of jealousy I have for you and your father is not even measurable.

 

[jayxx83]

This is fantastic. Was at a GT3 race at brands hatch this year courtesy of a colleague who sponsored Rik Parfitt. These machines are unreal!

When you buy the car does the factory supply the support or do you need to fund that separately as well? Must be around £1m minimum to enter, purchase car and run these things for a season no?

 

[Clart]

That looks and sounds the absolute b****cks. Maybe one day i'll get a chance to do something like that.

 

[Pacman.]

@Wee Man you racing this season ?

 

[Cliotoby]

Green with envy!!! Bet that's a proper treat to drive.

 

[Ian_182]

Its been a while since we had an update.

 

[Wee Man]

Hey Guys

No we sold our car after racing it in British GT last. It's gone to a team out in china. Focussing on the business at the moment but still doing race tuition, some of which is with a manufacturer in their new hypercar, will post pics of that as and when I can

 

[Tony Hunter]

Interesting Wee Man.