First we had the Bentley Continental GT W12 taking up snow sports and more specifically ski joring by lugging around world champion Franco Moro, and now, the British premium carmaker has pulled off another stunt, this time far more impressive.

Bentley celebrated the arrival of the new 4.0-liter V8-powered Continental GT Coupe in Germany in a dramatic way by suspending the car under a helicopter and taking it for a ride or rather a flight above downtown Munich.

Bentley is giving a new twist to ski joring, which is a winter sport that usually involves a skier being pulled by a horse or dog(s), to promote the capabilities of its all-wheel drive Continental model series.

The British automaker took the 564bhp Continental GT to Switzerland’s Alpine passes at the Saanenland region and paired it up with 16-times ski joring world champion Franco Moro.

Watch how the odd pairing turned out in the video clip that follows after the jump.

The V8 versions of the Bentley Continental GT coupe and GTC convertible were unveiled almost a month before its Detroit Motor Show debut. Even though for decades Bentleys sported a turbocharged V8 under their hood, the Continental does not employ the 6.75-liter unit that powers the current Mulsanne, but a brand-new 4.0-liter unit.

Despite slotting below the W12 version, the V8’s 500HP and 660Nm (487 lb-ft) ensure that it does service to the red badge that denotes the sportier Bentleys delivering a 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) time of under 5.0 seconds and a top speed exceeding 290 km/h (180 mph).

Who knows what kind of animosity the owner of this Continental GT Coupe in Russia had with the vandal who decided to seek some sort of revenge by decorating the Bentley with a bottle of spray-paint, but one thing's for sure: he or she ain't going to be happy upon viewing the British luxury model's new painjob…

The folks over at CarLifeblog tell us that the vandal wrote the words "New Happiness" on the windshield and the hood and "Scumbag" at the rear window of the Bentley. You can find a couple more photos after the break.

Bentley today unveiled its new Continental V8 range powered by the VW Group's new 4.0-liter twin-turbocharged V8 engine. The new powerplant will power both the Continental GT coupe and its GTC convertible sibling, which will receive their world debut at the Detroit Motor Show on January 9.

This is the first time Bentley has put a V8 engine under the hood of the Continental: since 2003, when the first generation of the grand touring coupe entered production, the sole engine choice was the twin turbocharged 6.0-liter W12, which remains the flagship of the Continental engine range.

It's been known for over a year now that Bentley is planning to supplement the range of its Continental series with a brand new twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V8 engine sourced, of course, from the Volkswagen Group's vast parts bin.

While Bentley remains tight lipped on the details, today, the British carmaker released the first teaser video of a Continental GT coupe fitted with the base V8 powerplant that is currently shared with the Audi S6, S7 and S8 models.

As it turns out, despite their advanced all-wheel drive system, Bentley's luxury limousines and coupes aren't very good when it comes to off-road activities. Who would have known!

We saw it last year when a blissfully unaware owner of a Continental GT Coupe got bogged down in tons of mud in Russia (see the epic video clip here), and we're seeing it now with this Saudi Arabian owner of a Continental Flying Spur sedan who had some troubles conquering the desert sands. Wonder why...

For some amusing footage, follow the break to watch the videos for yourself.

Many people that are into premium cars are also into expensive watches, which is only natural since the finest examples of both serve more than just a utilitarian role.

A Bentley and a Lada can both take you from point A to point B. In much the same way, a 10 dollar watch can tell you the time in exactly the same way as a Rolex or a Breitling.

So if you’re looking just for transportation and knowing what time it is, pass on the Bentley and the Breitling and save yourself enough money to buy a house.

As Bentley is on track for a new annual record of 7,000 sales, the U.S. continues to be the number one market for its open top models, accounting for almost half of Bentley convertible worldwide sales.

And in the whole of the U.S., California and more specifically its southern part, is the place to go if you want to see a convertible Bentley. Therefore it makes perfect sense to choose the LA Auto Show for the new Continental GTC's North American debut.

Headquartered in the historic city of Edinburgh in Scotland, Imperium Automotive is a high-end design house that focuses on the Bentley and Bugatti brands.

Their latest offering is a new limited-edition styling package for the recently updated Bentley Continental GT Coupe named ‘Audentia’, which is said to be a direct Latin translation for ‘boldness and courage’.

China is quickly becoming the ideal place to launch bespoke (…and higher-priced) special edition versions for luxury carmakers. The latest example is Bentley, which will sell just 10 Continental Flying Spurs created in cooperation with British design company Linley.

The Linley limited edition will only be available in what is now Bentley’s biggest market in the world. According to the British carmaker, it “incorporates signature Linley elements that will appeal to customers who value pedigree, lineage, handcrafted quality and peerless design”.

The convertible version of the updated Continental GT luxury coupe was Bentley’s main attraction at the 64th Frankfurt Motor Show. The heavily refreshed Continental GTC is naturally based on its fixed-roof sibling, with its lines being more sculpted than the outgoing model and the front featuring a new grille and headlights. Read more »

An array of one-off items created by artisans from the tooling, woodshop and styling teams at Bentley Motors are heading to the auction block to raise money for The Prince’s Trust, which is a youth charity that provides practical and financial support to 14 to 30-year-olds.

The graduates from Bentley Motors have handcrafted a variety of collector's items ranging from display objects such as a chess-set with pieces tooled from aluminium set on a veneered board, to an impressive table created from a polished V8 engine from the Mulsanne and a cutlery-set engraved with the Bentley emblem commissioned by Robert Welch.

We've been following the development of the 2012 Bentley Continental GTC for some time now, but today, the British company released the first official photos of the redesigned convertible that will debut at next month’s International Automobile Exhibition (IAA) in Frankfurt.

The exterior and interior styling changes won't come to as a surprise to anyone that has seen the Continental GT coupe, launched about a year ago. On the outside, the GTC gains a new face inspired by the larger Mulsanne with a different grille and gemstone headlights, as well as crispier lines throughout.

The first official photos and details of the revamped Bentley Continental GTC convertible are out in the open, courtesy of Autoblog.com, which apparently received a little love from the German-owned-and-controlled British automaker with the early distribution of the press material.

While the website hastily removed the premature post, someone forgot to pull down the photos, which you can check out in all their glory by clicking here (we don't know for how long).

The world’s oldest surviving Bentley, the 1921 "chassis number 3", found a new owner at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elecance Gooding & Co. auction for $962,500 – or $960,606 more than what the car's first owner, Noel Van Raalte, paid for it 90 years ago (£ 1,150, or $1,984 in today’s exchange rate). Read more »

Development on the next addition to the redesigned Bentley Continental range, the GT Speed, is reaching its end, and our spy photographers have just caught the coupe model wearing its new front end.

The changes over the standard Continental GT include the new front bumper that boasts larger openings, the 21-inch alloy wheels with a different design wrapped around chunkier 275/35 ZR21 Pirelli P-Zero rubber, and the bespoke tail pipes.