Back in 1998 Nigel Mansell got done for speeding in a Bentley Continental turbo, he was clocked at 92 on the A303 in Somerset. From memory the F1 world champion was pulled by the local plod in a Volvo t5, the copper driving it was aged about 14 and probably hit 120 or 130 to catch our Nigel up. One of the papers at the time gave the spec of the moustachioed gentleman's chariot of choice, something that somehow stayed with me. They mentioned that despite weighing 2 1/2 tonnes the 6.75 litre turbo charged charger could do 0-60 in 6.5 seconds and storm on to a top speed of over 140. That sort of thing has always impressed me in much the same way I was impressed when my half Brother first came home in a Jag 4.2, when I was more accustomed to the performance of my parent's 1300 Cortina. I like big numbers, especially when they relate to issues of petroleum.
A couple of years later another report came to my attention that mentioned a Turbo R model had broken the 1 hour endurance record at Milbrook testing ground, the previous record being held by a Lamborghini Countach. The test was to drive round and round as fast as possible for a 1 hour period and see what distance could be covered, the Bentley beat the Countach by 8 miles. It may have beaten it by more had they not been concerned about the tyres and maybe even more had a pheasant not decided to commit suicide by flying in to the windscreen close to the end of the hour. It is reported that the driver - Derek Roland - was pretty badly shaken up, they don't mention whether he soiled himself or not. I know I would definitely have done so had it been me driving.
Anyway, look, the point here is that a 5 seater luxury motor with a/c, 4 cow's worth of leather and half a tree's worth of wooden trim beat a Countach. An executive barge beat a sodding sports car and not just any sports car, the car that smoked the police car in the opening sequence to the Cannonball Run. That's madness, that is.
In today's money such a beast would be way beyond my means, they reckon a similar spec barge today would cost between 250 and 300k, hand built luxury does not come cheap. You simply can't buy anything comparable now though, sure you can still buy various Bentley models but having been in VW ownership for a good few years now and being subject to EU approvals etc they are not the car they used to be. I'm not saying they are bad but they are very sanitized, very electronic, very unreliable and very expensive to fix. The 6.0 w12 engine is a thing to marvel but far too many service operations require it to be removed as you can't get at many bits with it in situ. Pre 2006 cars suffer with breaking coolant pipes, for example and yes, the engine has to come out to get at them. Bugger that for a game of skittles. Old ones are cheap but they are cheap for a reason - ruinous running costs and a market flooded with bad examples that have fallen out of their maintenance regime. Many of them are now on their 5th or more owners, 3 of which could not afford the multi thousand pound service bills demanded by these behemoths. No, for me the older models were the real Bentleys, the end of the line of the Hand built, British crafted, class defining luxury motors.
It's probably worth saying at this time that Bentley and Rolls Royce cars at the time shared the same chassis, known as the SZ platform. The Silver Spirit looked very similar but was aimed at a different customer. It is often said that the Rolls was for customers with chauffeurs, the Bentley was for those that wanted to drive themselves. The Rolls was a soft old beast, a favourite duvet sprung on angel's heart strings, the Bentley was much stiffer and despite sharing the same 6.75 litre v8, power was upped by over 100 BHP by the addition of a Garrett T04 turbo charger usually found on trucks. I can respect that.
Now I am retired and have downsized to a much smaller property I have spare cash and the urge to spend it. I have been told by my doctor that being diabetic I should expect my lifespan to be reduced by up to 14 years. I have no kids, it's time to spend the money I have spent over 40 years making and saving.
So, to cut a long story slightly shorter, I am looking for a Bentley Turbo R of about 1993-1995 vintage. Old Bentleys are like wine, there are good and bad years, they developed as time went by, not all changes were for the good and some years had problems, although most of those will have been well sorted long ago. The early versions had a 3 speed box, the later used the bomb proof GM 4L80E 4 speed auto box with switchable sport mode to sharpen things up a bit. The very earliest cars were carb fed, the later ones fuel injected by a Bosch Jetronic system, the later box brought with it a change to the gear shift, which was column mounted in the early cars, now it was center console mounted. After about 1995 they switched to a Zytek system, each change brought more power, better economy and more driveability, I rather like the Bosch system - there's loads of information available and loads of parts. It's also incredibly reliable and don't tell my Mrs, quite tuneable. I like the console shift and hate the column shift - far too American for my British tastes. The R stands for roadholding, it's much, much stiffer than the earlier Mulsanne and provides unreal handling for such a large and heavy car.
I have looked at many on line but supply is pretty short - there are only about 400 left on the DVLA database, about half are on SORN, the other half road registered. We have just come home from holiday and in just under 700 miles of driving I only saw one SZ based vehicle and that was a Rolls, not a Bentley. At any time there will be no more than half a dozen on sale in the UK, most of those will be basket cases. Typically they are low miles but that's not always a good thing, these cars have a very complicated hydraulic system and seals dry out if the cars are not used, mileage records are important here, any gaps in usage should cause added caution when purchasing. The one I am going to look at has done 88,000 miles and the MOT history suggests both regular albeit low mileage use and regular maintenance. It has only failed 2 tests, both on minor things, advisories appear to have been dealt with as well as the more major things. It has the flying b on the bonnet, the lambswool over mats and the original tool kit. Sadly it's missing the owner's manual and it doesn't have the picnic tables in the front seats, but then most of the Bentley's didn't - they were an option. It looks great, I have exchanged many messages with the owner, I won't really know for sure until I see it. If it's right, I will definitely be buying it. Watch this space.
Add comment
Comments