New Bentley ‘Ice Speed Record’ Supersports

You may remember we reported back in February that Juha Kankkunen had broken the ice speed record driving a modified Continental Supersports. This is how Bentley are celebrating: with 100 ridiculously fast road-going ISR (for Ice Speed Record) editions.

It’s called the Mulliner, and it’s the most powerful Bentley ever built. And, as Bentley would have it, somewhat understating the case: “it’s the most radically styled Bentley convertible ever”.

Good stuff first.

It’s got Bentley’s FlexFuel 6-litre, twin turbo W12 engine, which runs on either petrol, E85 bio-ethanol (means less emissions) or any mixture of the two. It produces 631 bhp, which gets it to 60mph in 3.8 seconds and 100mph in 9.5.  Considering it weighs 2850kg – roughly the same as a cathedral – that’s absolutely staggering performance.

Inside, it’s been plastered with diamond-quilted Alcantara on the door cards and rear passenger side panels. There’s also special carbon fibre trim with a racey red weave framing the other niceties you’d expect in a Bentley, including an eight-inch infotainment screen.

Now the bad.

Those stickers. We could live with red diamond-cut 20-inch wheels and silly accenty bits around the air intake scoops, but those graphics are irredeemably naff. The GT3 RS just about gets away with it, but a Bentley?

Still, the non-Mulliner Continental Supersports ISR, launched at the Geneva motor show back in March, is just as fast and it doesn’t have the stickers. It’s got the same colour options - Beluga, Quartzite and Arctica White – and you get all-black wheels instead of the red ones. You don’t even have to pay extra - both versions cost a paltry £189,300.

Which would you rather have?