As the 3rd year of Bentley's LMGTP program coincided with the withdrawal of Mother Company Audi's works R8 support, many dubbed the 03 Bentley an "Audi with a roof", but in fact they couldn't have been more wrong.

Learning the hard(top) way
Although Bentley followed the same closed coupe route as the ill-born Audi R8C, the only lessons carried over to the EXP Speed8 were "what not to do". In an era that seemed to favour open topped cars, this meant that the first 2 years were spent learning it the hard way.

Generation Gap
For Bentley's 3rd generation LMGTP Chief designer Peter Elleray decided to start with a clean sheet of paper, driven largely by the knowledge that only a win was going to be acceptable. If you know that your going to be in serious trouble if you finish 2nd then it probably encourages you to take a few chances…

Work on the 03 car started as early as April 02, with wind tunnel testing of a less pitch sensitive Aero package. There was hardly any mechanical carry over from ’02 to ’03, all key performance related parameters , Weight distribution, aero concept (and aero map), suspension geometry's, were significantly changed and all at the same time, which is usually a recipe for disaster.

When the Bell tolls
Fortunately it all came together, Bentley dominated the 2003 LM 24hrs in a way previously reserved for the likes of Audi and Porsche. Immediately after the race it became clean that Bentley had been serious about its 3 year program. The green coupes had raced for the last time and would not return.
And thus ended an other chapter in Sportscar history.

Bentley LMGTP (LM 2003):
Length: 4645 mm, Width: 1995 mm, Height: n/a, Wheelbase: 2735 mm, Tyres:Michelin 29/65 - 18 & 31/71 - 18, Wheels OZ 18'