Test Drive Tuesday: Bentley Speed 8

A small post for now (still exam season): I had taken some time off for a new car in the Test Drive Tuesday list - last week was a repeat of one I already did, and the week before was a variant of one I already done as well! So today was the 2003 Bentley Speed 8, a 24hrs of Le Mans prototype car. It's a beautiful car and really fun to drive. It has great stability and can brake almost as hard as a Formula 1 car. Its also good in straight line acceleration, but can be quite squirrelly accelerating out of corners. Other than that, I had no major problems with the car it was fun to drive and I didn't kill myself all too often!

There is some video footage, but I wont get time to sort all that out until after Christmas. So for now here's how the car stacked up:

• At Daytona and Bristol Motor Speedways, the Speed 8 weighed in 7th (of 17) overall and 3rd in class (of 4, Class: GTX - Prototype and Supercars)
• At Martinsville Motor Speedway, Watkins Glen and Laguna Seca the Speed 8 took 3rd place overall (of 17) and was 1st in class - beaten only by McLaren Formula 1 cars of 2013 and 1988!
• At Longstone pass the Speed 8 managed to pass the 1988 McLaren to take 2nd overall!
• Looking at combined times; for the 3 oval tracks, the Speed 8 is 7th overall, but falls to last in class (4th). But for the road tracks it triumphantly takes first in class by over 10 seconds and takes 3rd overall!
• Again in the combined times, for speed tested tracks, its 5th overall and takes 2nd in class, behind the Zonda R. For stability tested tracks, it takes 3rd overall (again, behind the F1 cars) and 1st in class. Finally, in braking tested tracks, the Speed 8 takes 2nd overall and 1st in class.
• All tracks combined, the Bentley Speed 8 is the 3rd fastest car I've tested in the Test Drive Tuesday series - beaten only (again) by the McLaren MP4-28 and the MP4/4.