Greatest Racecar? Guy Smith’s Bentley Speed-8

My obvious choice for my greatest racecar has to be the Bentley Speed-8 which I won with at Le Mans in 2003. I was teamed up with Rinaldo “Dindo” Capello and the great Tom Kristensen who has gone on to become such a Le Mans legend with his nine wins—six of them being consecutive —such a great achievement. The car still amazes me today. I feel it a great honor to be asked to get in and drive it at meetings like the Goodwood Festival of Speed and similar events, how the same feelings of awe and wonder I had when I first drove it come flooding back. It still gets my adrenaline pumping, even for demonstration runs. Strangely, I feel part of the car. Although over 10 years old, it still doesn’t look out of place next to modern up-to-date machinery—it was, and still is, a complete package of looks, speed and reliability.

I remember my emotions standing on that winner’s podium, it was the culmination of three very hard years of total working and planning to achieve the ultimate goal. To succeed was almost unimaginable, but with the testing, qualifying, stresses and strains we all put in surely we should come out with something? You never allow yourself to think you’re going to win it—so to do it brings a sense and feeling of pure relief and jubilation. Very mixed emotions, but all positive.