Bentley walked into Tokyo’s tuner culture, and nobody saw it coming
Crewe stops playing it safe. Bentley took its new Continental GT S and Supersports to Daikoku, Shibuya and Tokyo Tower — and made a statement no one expected.
Bentley just did something nobody expected. A brand built on private salons and members-only previews walked into Tokyo at night — onto tuner parking lots, under the neon screens of Shibuya, straight into the living JDM scene. The Tokyo Takeover for the new Continental GT S and Supersports was not a corporate showcase. It was a cultural statement. Tokyo Tower was lit Bentley green with the badge projected onto the observation deck. The cars themselves were sent to the places where Skyline GT-Rs and Lamborghinis usually rule.
The most subtle move of the whole programme was the Continental GT S wrapped in a livery inspired by the Hayabusa Shinkansen, Japan’s fastest bullet train. For Bentley that is an unusual but logical gesture. Japan does not just value speed — it values disciplined form, engineering precision and respect for detail. Bentley’s philosophy is similar, only expressed not through rail culture but through coachwork, cabin and hand finishing from Crewe.
With the Supersports the brand played a very different card. The car carrying the “FULL SEND” lettering is the same “Pymkhana” Bentley that Travis Pastrana drove for the FULL SEND film. And it was that car that rolled up to the Daikoku Parking Area, a place that has long become a symbol of Japanese late-night car culture. The regulars there are Supra, RX-7, NSX, Liberty Walk builds and other extreme projects. A Bentley in that environment is almost a stranger. And that is exactly what makes the move land. An ultra-luxury coupe with green underglow is trying to slip into living car culture, not into a boutique window.
The Supersports also has something to say to even the most jaded Daikoku regulars. This is the most radical Bentley in years. Rear-wheel drive only, a 4.0-litre V8 with enlarged turbos and a titanium Akrapovič exhaust, 657 hp, weight under 2,000 kg — the lightest Bentley in 85 years. The run is limited to 500 units, and they are already gone.
Then came Shibuya. The same crossing where giant LED screens play ads from across the globe. On those screens Bentley pushed an edit of FULL SEND while the Shinkansen-liveried Continental GT S rolled past below. And in the evening Mai Ikuzawa, Bentley’s External Creative Director and daughter of legendary racing driver Tetsu Ikuzawa, hosted an open event in Shinjuku that drew supercars, classics and tuner builds from all over Tokyo.
For Bentley itself this is a shift in tone. The Continental GT was always a car for fast long-distance trips. But the new GT S and Supersports are meant to show something different — a driver’s character. It is no longer enough for clients to know that the car is expensive and hand-built. The brand has to prove that it is emotional, that it belongs next to tuner culture and that it is interesting to an audience that judges cars by presence, not by the badge.
The Japanese market is the ideal place for that experiment. Two of the strongest car cultures in the world live here in parallel: a traditional love of flawless craft and a powerful JDM scene that worships detail, individuality and a recognisable image. So Bentley did not just bring two new coupes. The brand wove them into the local context: Tokyo Tower, Daikoku, Shibuya, the Shinjuku cars and coffee — and Mai Ikuzawa’s involvement gave it all a local code.
The commercial point is brand rejuvenation. Bentley no longer wants to remain a car for a closed club of owners where status and the Mulliner configurator decide everything. In an age when luxury brands behave more and more like fashion houses, what matters is events, photography, cultural collaborations and a sense of rarity. The Tokyo Takeover is exactly that — not just showing a car but making it part of the urban scene.
The competition in this zone is a mixed bag. Rolls-Royce barely steps onto driver-culture territory. Ferrari and Lamborghini live in the supercar world. Porsche feels at home at enthusiast meets. And Toyota Century is trying to turn restrained Japanese luxury into a global brand of its own. Bentley sits in between — more sport than Rolls-Royce, more luxury than Porsche and more British tradition than any Japanese ultra-luxury project.
The Tokyo Takeover made one thing clear. Bentley no longer wants to be just flawlessly expensive. The marque is trying to talk to car culture directly — and in Japan that conversation landed especially well. Here even an ultra-luxury GT has to prove that it has not just a price tag, but a character.