Indholdsfortegnelse for November - December 2021 i Rolls-Royce & Bentley Driver

The process of replacing any automotive design that’s achieved ‘legend in its own lifetime’ status during a lengthy career is fraught with danger. When the car in question is as upmarket and prestigious as a Rolls-Royce, however, the stakes are even higher. How will fans of the long-running original react to its successor? In the case of the 2000-model Corniche, the risk was reduced by the fact that five years had passed since the previous generation had met its demise. Time is a healer, as the saying goes, and the gap between the old and new Corniche was an advantage. What made the Corniche V (as it’s now generally referred to) particularly interesting, however, was its role as the last new Rolls-Royce from the marque’s historic Crewe headquarters. That it…

Send an email to rrb.ed@kelsey.co.uk or write to: The Editor, Rolls-Royce & Bentley Driver, Kelsey Publishing Ltd, The Granary, Downs Court, Yalding Hill, Yalding, Kent, ME18 6AL AX 201 IN AUSTRALIA Having just read the article on the Silver Ghost, AX 201, in the Sept/Oct issue of Rolls-Royce & Bentley Driver, it brought back memories of when the car toured Down Under. It was in the early ‘90s, I believe, and I was living in New Zealand. While I can’t remember the reason for the car being in the country, I do remember being very keen to see it. I had my chance when it was on public display in Coutts Cars, Auckland. It was a beautiful sight and attracted quite a crowd. I took the attached photos on the…

There were several different experiments to come up with a successful four-headlamp look for the Silver Cloud III and S3. Among the concepts that appeared on scale models were a much lower wing-line framing a tall radiator, which looked quite old-fashioned, and the main headlamps left more or less in their original position with slightly smaller units occupying the spot where the high-level sidelights had been on previous models. That the final arrangement closely echoed that of the Humber Super Snipe suggests Rolls-Royce had probably taken a good look at its slightly less esteemed competitor. Aside from refreshing the looks, the paired headlamps also brought very positive benefits when driving at night. Power for the lamps was increased from 120 to 150 watts, which threw light at least an extra…

Press day of the 1991 Geneva motor show saw the Rolls-Royce Motors stand ten deep with journalists and photographers, elbowing each other for the ultimate vantage point. All they’d had was an enigmatic invitation to attend a Rolls-Royce/Bentley press conference… and that was it. Although there had been rumours of a new Bentley, the stand was decked out in the blue and silver of Rolls-Royce, with the linked Rs and Spirit of Ecstasy dominating the walls. It wasn’t until a forty-second video presentation had finished – during which time Bentley logos had replaced the Rolls-Royce graphics – that it started to dawn on the gathered media that this could indeed herald the arrival of a new Bentley, a fact confirmed by presentations from Crewe management. The car remained absent, however,…

We’re grateful to Hans Porrio, from the Netherlands, for providing his Phantom VI (chassis number PRX4853) for this feature. The superb-looking example is finished in Seychelles Blue over Shell Grey, with an all-hide red interior. Hans acquired the car in October 2017 from its second owner, Dominique de Clerck from Belgium. The first owner was Sheik Abdul Maksoud Khoujah from Saudi Arabia, who took delivery of the Phantom VI on 9th February 1977 and kept it in his collection until 2002. The car has covered a fully-documented 53,000km from new.…

Like many other car clubs, we are very much looking forward to being part of the 2021 Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show, which will take place at the NEC, Birmingham on 12-14th November. Our club stand this year will focus on promoting the fact that you don’t need deep pockets to become a Rolls-Royce or Bentley owner, our aim being to display cars that can be purchased without breaking the bank. The stand will feature vehicles costing less than £20,000, and technical experts will be on hand to offer advice to those considering buying their first club car. And remember, you don’t have to be an owner to join the RREC. In fact, it’s good to become a member before you buy, so that you can decide the best model…

110-YEAR ANNIVERSARY History repeated itself recently when a world-renowned Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost re-enacted its astonishing run in the 1911 London-Edinburgh Trial. Chassis number 1701, originally designed as an ‘Experimental Speed Car’, won that event locked in top gear for the entire 799-mile return trip between the two capitals. Given the primitive state of Britain’s Edwardian roads, its average speed of 19.59 mph was highly impressive – and its then unheard-of fuel efficiency of over 24mpg even more so. To prove that the car had not been modified in any way, it achieved 78.2mph on a half-mile speed test conducted immediately after the event. And it later became the first Rolls-Royce to exceed 100mph at Brooklands. The recent re-enactment was as faithful to the 1911 event as possible, with the Silver…

Although this is a recurring theme when writing about classic cars for a living, especially when the majority of them are British in origin, history has taught us that if the UK’s motor industry has one strength, it’s creating success from unlikely origins. Think of the MGF, Land Rover Discovery and countless others. And so it is with the pair we have here, each of which adopted an ageing design and created a car that went on to win universal praise. In the case of the Bentley, no vehicle this large and this heavy has any logical right to offer such cross-country pace, and yet the basic design underpinning the unlikely hot rod stems from the 1965 Silver Shadow. The Daimler, meanwhile, was derived from the Jaguar XJ40, which may…

The Silver Cloud and accompanying Bentley S-series were transformative cars in Rolls-Royce’s history. When they began life in 1955, they were still much in the mould of what had gone before, with traditional-looking curvaceous bodies mounted on a separate chassis. As the years passed, however, they received changes and modifications that pointed the way towards the direction that Rolls-Royce would take in the 1960s and beyond, with the Silver Shadow. The switch from a six-cylinder engine to a V8 for the Silver Cloud II and S2 was regarded as quite radical for such a conservative manufacturer, while the later appearance of quad headlamps on the Silver Cloud III and S3 no doubt caused the moustaches of a few upright old Colonel types to bristle. The reality, of course, was that…

The first updates to the Continental R were made in 1994, when the engine’s cylinder heads were redesigned to improve both torque and top-end power (to 360bhp), while wheel size was increased to 17-inch diameter. At the same time, a limited-edition model with even more power – the Continental S – was offered to existing Bentley customers, with these 37 cars providing an estimated 385bhp and shaving half a second off the 0-60mph time. The Continental’s engine received a new electronic management system and digital boost control in 1996, improving both throttle response and fuel consumption, while the air-to-air intercooler was switched for a more efficient air-to-water unit. For the first time ever, Crewe also published official power figures – with the latest Continental R now producing 385bhp as well…

Why buy a pre-war Rolls Royce? It’s a good question, for which there’s not always a rational answer. In my case, the desire first stirred in the late 1970s, when I was fifteen years old and living in West London. One of my father’s business partners, a flamboyant individual with a passion for the unexpected, owned a 1937 Rolls-Royce 25/30 with Hooper limousine bodywork, a car that he’d bought on a whim some years before for £600. He told us tales of adventures, journeys to France and Spain, telling us that it never broke down. Except for when it did, but those stories were even better. That car caught my imagination. The quality of the construction; the steering wheel controls; the way you lifted the floor-boards out to access the…

END OF THE ARNAGE We’re going back just thirteen years with these two photographs from Bentley Motors, but they’re still of historical significance. These were some of the images issued to mark the announcement of the Arnage Final Series for the 2009 model year, a special-edition model that commemorated the end of the highly successful Arnage saloon after a decade in production, as well as half a century of the L-series V8 engine and ninety years of Bentley Motors itself. The original Arnage was launched just prior to Volkswagen’s takeover of the marque in 1998, with the German firm investing heavily in a series of steady upgrades and enhancements throughout the car’s career. It could so easily have discontinued the Arnage that it inherited, focusing instead on next-generation models like…

As with the finest penthouse or multi-million-dollar yacht, the ultimate luxury of a convertible isn’t in the practical but something rather less tangible. That the Silver Shadow-based drophead-coupé – later relaunched as the Corniche – ran from 1967 to 1995 with remarkably few major updates shows how impervious to material change it could be. Its appeal lay far deeper than any need to remain on trend or to bring aesthetic updates purely for the sake of them. The eventual loss of the Corniche IV in 1995, however, meant the only soft-top emanating from Crewe in the second half of the decade was the Bentley Azure, a model developed from the Continental R coupé. And this left the Rolls-Royce marque without a convertible for the first time in several decades, the…

TRAVEL WALLET This high-quality zipped Bentley travel wallet is a thoughtfully-designed item, offering separate compartments for cards, banknotes and receipts, while the interior design is said to be inspired by the shape of a modern-day Bentley dashboard. Made from soft grained calf leather (sourced responsibly by a Spanish tannery) with a silky leather lining, it features a palladium metal Bentley logo on the outside. The wallet measures just over 20cm in length. Quote code BL2139 when ordering. Price: £475 From: IntroCar Web: introcar.com Tel: +44 (0)208 546 2027 IN-CAR STORAGE This stylish leather travel tray – an official Bentley Motors item – is perfect for storing small items in your car whilst on the move. Its popper-fastened corners make it quick and easy to assemble, and there’s even a choice…

The L-series V8, as introduced in the Silver Cloud II and S2 of 1959, would go on to have an astonishingly long life of 61 years, establishing itself as one of Britain’s best-loved engines along the way. It was only in 2020 that the last model to use it, the ten-year-old Bentley Mulsanne, ceased manufacture. The final Rolls-Royce to employ it was the 2000-2002 Corniche. And infamously, at the end of the 1990s, when BMW and Volkswagen were battling for ownership of Rolls-Royce and Bentley, VW reintroduced the old V8 engine in place of the modern BMW V8 powering the new Bentley Arnage, citing customer demand – although the reality was that VW didn’t want to have to rely on a BMW engine at a time when the two marques…

As we cruise through open countryside, the road bathed in summer sunshine, I nestle even more comfortably into the sumptuous seat. A walnut-clad chauffeur’s division is in front of me, two leg lengths away, together with a pair of folding occasional seats, beautiful fold-out tables, a TV, and a well-stocked drinks cabinet containing no fewer than four bottles and four crystal glasses. I press my feet against a footrest covered in the finest quality carpet, and I open the electrically-operated glass sliding roof allowing the balmy air outside to ruffle my hair. I’m on my way to nowhere, enjoying everywhere. This is how heads of state and royalty were transported in the 1970s, cocooned from the outside world and revelling in the ultimate regal transport. I’m a passenger in a…

Two summers ago, we took GDX41 on a ‘Rolls-Royce Small HP’ tour around Vermont, starting out in Bennington in the south-west corner of the state, hitting Route 100 and then heading north, rolling through the Green Mountains. It was a hot day, with temperatures in the high-80s Fahrenheit and with significant humidity. But with the windows down and the sunroof open, the breeze provided just enough cooling. We skirted Rutland and headed for Killington Mountain, the road becoming steadily steeper as we climbed up over the pass. I found a natural rhythm in the 20/25. The engine is very torquey and emits a satisfying rasping noise when working, with a cruising speed of 45-55mph being a natural pace. When we hit a steep hill, I dropped down from fourth to…

2001 BENTLEY ARNAGE LWB OWNERS: ANDY HAMES & JON MOWER, CAMBRIDGE More than two years on from the launch of the Bentley Arnage came the LWB version, a bespoke model that made its motor show debut in Paris in September 2000. It was officially added to the Bentley range at the Detroit show on 8th January 2001. Production ran from late 2000 (just one example was built that year) through to the end of 2002, after which it was renamed the RL. A total of 95 examples of the Arnage LWB were built. The LWB model was 250mm longer than the standard saloon, with 200mm added to the rear doors and 50mm to the fronts in order to maintain pleasing aesthetic proportions. In the official Bentley communique, the LWB was…