These are exciting times at Bentley. Following news that it will build 5000 Bentayga SUVs in 2016 (the business case was for just 3600), Mr Wolfgang Durheimer, CEO of both Bentley and Bugatti, is already coming up with some pretty interesting ways to spend that extra revenue.



Chief of which is a potential £1m-plus hypercar, a prospect that we’ve reported on before. It now seems the project will be used to fund a return to prototype racing, and potentially see Bentley back at Le Mans for the first time since it won in 2003. “We won’t do anything until we’re racing prototypes again. Then that’s the time for a street-legal derivative,” Durheimer told us at the launch of the Bentayga.



Whether Bentley will compete against its Audi and Porsche brethren in the LMP1 class isn’t yet clear, but seems unlikely. That leaves the more cost-efficient LMP2 class, with cars based around a small selection of off-the-shelf chassis. This road-car-funding-a-race-project is something Durheimer has already tried and tested: selling 300 GT3-R road cars meant the highly-successful Continental GT3 program pays for itself.