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With a car like the Bentley Continental GT, it's not difficult to predict the evolution of the species. White hot expensive coupe starts proliferating in Beverly Hills until seemingly everyone in town has one. Naturally a convertible comes next (GTC), and then go fast versions of each body style (GT Speed, GTC Speed). Finally, there's the super duper exclusive variant (Supersports), with the latest in evolutionary line being the 2011 Bentley Continental Supersports Convertible seen here.

This is the first modern Bentley I've ever been excited about. Part of the appeal of the Supersports we're testing lies in the fact that virtually everything on the car is black, that the seats feature manual adjustments, and that the materials covering every inch of the interior are as soft and luxurious as it gets. The rest of the Supersports' appeal is apparent as soon as you put even the smallest amount of pressure on the accelerator pedal.inline_mediumwraptextright26065190/reviews/editors_notebook/0911_2010_bentley_continental_supersports0911_08_z+2010_bentley_continental_supersports+rear_three_quarter_view.jpgTrue

With conspicuous consumption suddenly out of vogue, 10,000 sales a year is no longer a realistic goal for Bentley - today, anything beyond 6000 units is considered optimistic. The only way out of this dilemma is down - down in size, down in price, and down in ostentatiousness. For a brand like Bentley, down means the $110,000-to-$130,000 bracket, a curb weight of less than 5000 pounds, and no more than eight cylinders under the hood.inline_mediumwraptextright30991782/features/news/0912_new_compact_bentley_continental0912_01_z+bentley_continental+new_compact_bentley.jpgTrue

As soon as the narrow English country road opens up, Ulrich Eichhorn releases the little Michael Schumacher inside him. Although the pavement is still slippery from the morning rain, Bentley's R&D chief lets the mighty, camouflage-gray coupe fly as if this were his final qualifying lap for the pole position at Monaco. All the while, he delivers a real-time monologue: "Turn-in is much crisper now, see? A lot crisper, in fact. Can you feel the car hug the road? Can you feel the extra grip? The wider rear track does make a difference. And so do the new twenty-inch Pirelli UHP tires. Now watch the tail. It'll slide just a bit through the next left-hander. Just a bit - there! But catching it is the easiest trick in the book. Even when I switch off stability control . . . " Sure enough, he does, just in time for a traffic circle. The car dives deep, then Eichhorn lifts, and as the rear end swings around, the nicely balanced all-wheel-drive system waltzes the Supersports - all 4940 pounds of it - gracefully toward the third exit.inline_mediumwraptextright30986271/reviews/driven/0912_2010_bentley_continental_supersports0912_01_z+2010_bentley_continental_supersports+front_three_quarter_view.jpgTrue