Bentley announces Le Mans trio

The trio, who will also race together in the Daytona 24 Hours with Rob Dyson's Riley & Scott-equipped team, have 26 Le Mans starts between them and won the Daytona event together in 1997. Wallace also won Le Mans with Jaguar in 1988 and will try to do likewise for another great British marque this year, although Bentley hasn't contested the French endurance classic for over seven decades.

Weaver has already tested the EXP Speed 8 - which features the same 3.6-litre, twin-turbo V8 engine as last year's winning Audi - at Snetterton and the Le Mans Bugatti circuit.

"Testing and development of the project is going very well," said Bentley's chief executive Tony Gott. "The driver line up and the strong technical support the team will have throughout the test programme will ensure that we will uphold the honour of the Bentley marque at Le Mans. We are now confident that we have an excellent foundation for the cars to be competitive."

The cars have been built at Racing Technology Norfolk and will be run by Richard Lloyd's Apex Motorsport team, with John Wickham taking the role of team manager.

"The focus has to be on getting both cars to the finish," said Lloyd. "At this stage of the programme, that would be a tremendous result. Of course I want to win, but you have to be realistic."

The other three drivers have yet to be announced, but the names of Ralf Kelleners, former CART racer Mark Blundell and Johnny Mowlem have been linked to the seats.