Cars

With which sports car would Ferris Bueller enjoy a day off school in the summer of 2014?

Slotting into the Continental family as its “rarest and most dynamic member”, the GT3-R is claimed to push Bentley’s cornerstone principles of luxury and performance to new heights. Power will come from the familiar 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 (albeit tuned to 572bhp and incorporating a torque vectoring system in the 4WD powertain), while the absence of rear seats and the use of lightweight materials help shed 100kg from the weight of the standard V8 S.

The sun is shining on the Le Mans circuit. Only the ladies and gentlemen in their fireproof suits resent the growing warmth as, almost one and a half hours before the end of the toughest endurance race in the world, the second Porsche retires with gearbox problems. It joins the #20 Porsche in the pits, a car which had been vying for the lead against Audi just a few hours before on Sunday morning. At this moment, with both Porsche 919 Hybrids out of the race, the ‘Return to Le Mans 2014’ mission seems to have failed. But has it really? Far from it!

In the mid-70s, at the height of the oil crisis, the idea of a crossover between cars and art was almost unthinkable. Yet French racing driver and auctioneer Hervé Poulain saw fit to bring these two worlds together, commissioning American artist Alexander Calder to paint a 3.0 CSL (which incidentally had a 3.5-litre engine) for its campaign at the 1975 24 Hours of Le Mans. The eye-catching car was an instant hit, and the following year saw Poulain line up at La Sarthe in a ‘graph paper’ CSL designed by Frank Stella.

It’s the subject of intense debate in the Classic Driver office today: is this 1960, Zagato-bodied Bristol a classic, unconventional and charming design typical of the famed design house whose name it bears, or just a slightly awkward, Anglo-Italian collaboration boasting some warped dimensions and a confused character?

Sister of the winner

A cheeky taunt or two only serves to heighten the prospect of the enticing battle between the pair at Le Mans this weekend – and the ‘display’ in this video conducted by the Audi R18 e-tron Quattro outside Porsche’s Stuttgart HQ is far from subtle. But some aficionados will also have noticed the more discreet gibe shown on the trip there, when the Audi blazes past a Porsche tractor with ease. Roll on Saturday...

Video: Audi

In addition to the evocative livery (available on either white or black bodywork), the car receives the front and rear aero parts from the Cup package, illuminated ‘Martini Racing Edition’ lettering on the stainless-steel door sills, and a body-coloured dash with special badges to indicate its significance.