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When the V-8-powered Bentley Continental GT rolled out earlier this year, critics pointed out that the V-8's smooth brutishness rendered the W-12 sort of superfluous. The secret sauce is the transmission, since the 500-horsepower V-8 uses the new ZF eight-speed while the 567-horsepower W-12 is bolted to an older six-speed. Nonetheless, rationality is apparently not a huge factor in dream-car purchase decisions, since so far this year 70 percent of Continental GT buyers have gone for the W-12. Even allowing for a head start (the V-8 wasn't immediately available earlier in the year), it appears the V-8 might be seen as too close a relative to proletarian machinery like the Audi S8. I guess when you're spending Bentley GT money, you want the price to include that signature off-kilter W-12 thrum that seems to emanate from grinding tectonic plates on some distant fault line.