All-new Bentley for 2003 assault

The car will be designed from scratch by Racing Technology Norfolk, incorporating the lessons learnt from the previous version which first ran in late-2000 and has competed at the La Circuit de la Sarthe for the past two years.

The redesign has been prompted by the relatively poor performance of the car at this year's 24 Hours, where it was in the region of five seconds per lap slower than the all-conquering Audi's on its way to fourth place overall.

The car will be penned by RTN chief designer Peter Elleray along with head of mechanical design Gene Variner, and is expected to resemble closely the current challenger, albeit with a modified nose section and a sleeker rear-end.

The new car is expected to run for the first time in mid-January 2003, prior to an anticipated two-car assault on the Sebring 12 Hours as a precursor to its Le Mans bid.