Bentley Continental GT (1st Gen)

Just 11 cars in this 600 car catalogue combine a twin turbocharged W12 with all wheel drive, and this is the least expensive of them. That combination is rare enough to shape the entire conversation before performance or styling enter it. Out of every car here, only 12 use a W12 at all, and only one offers the lowest entry point into that unusually small group. For a collector, that changes the Continental GT from a familiar sight into a very specific proposition.

Its place elsewhere in the catalogue reinforces that impression. The W12 sits at 6.0 litres, producing 550 bhp and 650 Nm, figures that rank 277th for power across all 600 cars. Straight line pace is brisk rather than dominant, with 0 to 100 km/h in 4.8 seconds placing it 442nd, while a top speed of 318 km/h climbs much higher to 187th. Those numbers point towards sustained capability rather than chasing a single headline statistic. All wheel drive supports that character, pairing with the twin turbocharged W12 in a configuration shared by only a dozen cars here.

Rarity sits in an interesting middle ground. Production reached 2,003 cars, making it rarer than 47 of the 177 catalogued cars where production figures are available, but not among the catalogue's scarcest machines. Within Bentley's own presence, it stands as one of 22 cars representing a manufacturer founded in 1919, and one of 160 British cars spread across the wider collection. The significance comes less from absolute scarcity than from the unusual engineering recipe it preserves.

Only in the final third of the argument does the used market become impossible to ignore. At around £32,000, it ranks as the 514th most expensive used car in the catalogue, with only 86 costing more. That works out to roughly £58 per bhp, but the stronger point is contextual rather than mathematical. It is the least expensive route into W12 ownership anywhere in this collection, not because it compromises the specification, but because it occupies a uniquely accessible position within a remarkably small technical niche.

A dream garage built from 600 possibilities rarely gains anything by repeating itself. This Bentley introduces a configuration that almost nothing else can match, without demanding the highest spend in the catalogue. It changes the conversation.