Innehållsförteckning för May - June 2021 från Rolls-Royce & Bentley Driver

As I sit at my desk, the sun streaming in through my window, it really does feel like spring is finally here – along with a fresh sense of optimism, something that’s been in rather short supply over the last twelve months. I’m not in any way diminishing the seriousness of the Covid-19 situation we still face; but with widespread vaccinations and the gradual easing of restrictions, there’s an anticipation of some kind of normality this summer. Or at least, something closer to normality than we’ve been used to lately. That’s certainly the case in the car club world, as you’ll read in this issue’s Clubhouse pages from the RREC and Bentley Drivers Club, starting on page 40. Some early events have been postponed or cancelled, but it’s expected that…

Today, the sight and sound of a vintage racing Bentley thundering past conjures up the same quintessential feeling of British pride as a low-flying Spitfire or Hurricane. Similar to those Battle of Britain warriors, these iconic motor cars were piloted by a unique group of fearless men, colloquially known as the Bentley Boys. They were, of course, quite unlike the professional drivers of today; Sammy Davis, Dr Dudley Benjafield, Woolf ‘Babe’ Barnato, Glen Kidston, Bernard Rubin and Sir Henry ‘Tim’ Birkin were part of a racing and social elite. When not racing, they would be partying or downing cocktails at Barnato’s or one of the other three flats that they inhabited at Grosvenor Square, Mayfair. Sometimes, there were so many Bentleys scattered around the south corner of the square, London…

Nigel stripped his car to a bare shell and found the bodywork needed no major repairs The subframe was given the same attention to detail to ensure the perfect finish One rear door was replaced, and new front wing bottom sections were skilfully fitted Nigel’s chosen body shop spent more than 300 hours working on his Rolls-Royce The bare rolling bodyshell was given several coats of primer after final panel alignment At long last, the partly reassembled car was ready for its final Athenian Blue paint job The engine was removed by Nigel and stripped to ascertain its true condition Refitting everything into the fully-stripped engine bay was a painstaking procedure The V8 was fully rebuilt by Nigel, who also detailed it prior to it being reinstated Nigel won his…

Well, there is light at the end of the tunnel. After a year of curtailed events due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the BDC and its members are looking forward to getting back out on the road and meeting up once more in the remaining months of this year. While planned 2021 events – such as the club’s Summer Concours & Party and the 100 Years of Bentley Racing Success celebrations at Brooklands – have already been shelved due to the pandemic, BDC Silverstone on 7th August is expected to take place, hopefully with spectators in attendance. And the pre-Silverstone Touring Assembly should also make a welcome return. In his annual report, club chairman Richard Parkinson acknowledged that “2020 was a challenging year for us all and unprecedented in peacetime, with…

It’s not exactly a common occurrence in Australia to stumble across a fleet of fourteen Rolls-Royce and Bentley classics under one roof – and it’s even more unusual to discover that one of the cars was formerly used on a farm to help feed a thousand head of sheep. But that’s what I found at Triple R Luxury Car Hire, based in Melbourne, a company that currently boasts nine Rolls-Royces and five Bentleys among its collection, as well as various models from Jaguar, Daimler and Mercedes-Benz. This is very much a family concern, Triple R being owned and operated by the father, mother, son and sister-inlaw team of Micky, Manuela, Alex and Pia Jovanovic. Micky’s father, Louis Jovanovic, a photographer with the Yugoslav State airline, YAT, brought the family to…

If you read the last issue of Rolls-Royce & Bentley Driver, you’ll know the stroke of good fortune I had when IntroCar requested use of my Bentley as a test mule for newly manufactured prototype polyurethane bushes specific to the Arnage T. This welcome enquiry came at exactly the time I was wondering what to do about the tired bushes and ball joints at the front end of the car, which I was sure would register an MoT failure when inspected in advance of the twin-turbocharged saloon’s return to the road after a long period of lockdown. IntroCar appointed Isleworth-based marque specialist Nigel Sandell to take care of the labour. There was only one problem: with its expired MoT taken into consideration, how would I get the car to the…

As this issue of Rolls-Royce & Bentley Driver went to print, Bentley was just days away from revealing its new Continental GT Speed, with company bosses promising that this range-topping version of its grand tourer will be its “most capable performance-focused” model yet. To build excitement prior to the GT Speed’s launch, Bentley issued this teaser photo, announcing that the official launch would take place as an online event on 23rd March. The current-generation Continental GT has been on sale since 2018, though the new GT Speed version is said to feature even more “highly advanced chassis technology” as well as bespoke styling touches to ensure it stands out from the existing range. The GT Speed will almost certainly retain Bentley’s 6.0-litre W12 engine, which produces 626bhp in the standard…

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 CHILDHOOD MEMORIES I’ve come across some write-ups from The Autocar and The Motor of the early 1960s that I collected in a scrapbook as a young boy, plus cuttings from the Daily Express Motor Show Review. I was ten years old when I saw my first Rolls-Royce at the Harrogate Show in 1957. It was a Silver Cloud and I was immediately smitten, so much so that I wrote to Rolls-Royce and asked if they could send me some pictures, mentioning that one day I hoped to own one of their cars. I received a lovely reply, plus a colour brochure and a…

Even by Rolls-Royce standards, the SZ range of models that debuted via the Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit and Bentley Mulsanne of 1980 was impressively long-lived. The final derivatives rolled out of Crewe almost eighteen years later, having enjoyed healthy sales throughout that time. And, of course, the SZ was responsible for rejuvenating the Bentley marque, with the top-selling Turbo R transforming it into a high-performance brand once more. Inevitably though, creating a whole new range of Rolls-Royce and Bentley models was a process packed with difficult decisions, not to mention a plethora of design challenges to consider. Graham Hull, who joined Rolls-Royce in 1971 and went on to become the company’s chief stylist, played an important role in the eventual aesthetics of the Silver Shadow’s long-awaited successor. In his 2014 book,…

As its name suggests, vehicle shake is a low-frequency vibration that can be triggered by imperfections in the road. For a Rolls Royce, the typical shake frequency was around 10Hz (Hertz, or cycles per second). We had a favourite local road and speed that would tend to excite a continuous shake if the car was that way inclined. This meant we could record it with accelerometers and a tape recorder, measuring at front passenger position (on RHD vehicles) and recorded at both foot (floor) position and occupant seat position using a glassfibre mould that the occupant sat in on top of the seat. School physics dictates that the resonant frequency can be calculated if the mass and the stiffness are known. That’s easy to calculate for a known weight on…

As brilliant as Sir William Lyons – the founder of Jaguar Cars – clearly was, the world still judged him hopelessly optimistic when he went straight from MkV to MkVII with his latest saloon of 1950, choosing not to market a car badged as MkVI purely on the grounds that Bentley was already selling one. It may be just a little quirk of automotive history, but that one nugget of information tells you all about the direction Rolls-Royce was taking its Bentley subsidiary in the immediate post-war period. Lyons may have had ideas above his station if he thought buyers might confuse his Coventry-built products with the prestigious Crewe range, but it was obvious to Rolls-Royce management that the times were rapidly changing and that a new direction was needed.…

Buying your first Rolls-Royce at just thirty years of age is inevitably seen as something of an achievement. That was certainly the case for Nigel Sandell, who acquired the car featured here as long ago as 1993. In reality, it wasn’t an unexpected event thanks to Nigel already being involved in the Rolls-Royce and Bentley scene, having joined the Royce Service & Engineering (RS&E) team three years earlier, as well as previously working for a Rolls-Royce dealership. Nevertheless, it marked a major moment in his life and the fulfilment of a long-term ambition. “We’re going back to September 1993,” explains Nigel, as we meet at the London base of his N. Sandell company, the independent specialist in Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars that he founded seven years after buying his Silver…

Like so many classic motoring enthusiasts, we are looking forward to Covid-19 restrictions being relaxed and getting behind the wheel of our magnificent motors again. At the time of writing, many events are being planned across the Sections of the RREC ready for a hopefully liberated second half of the year. The club’s June annual pilgrimage to Burghley House, in its Covid-compliant format, is already sold out. Keep an eye open for the RREC’s greatly anticipated 2021 Grand Tour – England at its Finest – as it winds its way around the country during September. A convoy of Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars representing all eras of production will follow a picturesque route along rural roads, pausing at ancient castles and grand manor houses along the way. This fabulous 13-day motoring…

Launched to great acclaim in 1952, the Continental fastback by H.J. Mulliner was hailed as a groundbreaking model, not just for its astonishing performance but also its sensationally svelte styling. Employing the R-Type chassis, the newcomer had obvious overtones of the original MkVI-based Lightweight fastback, originally unveiled at the Earl’s Court Motor Show of 1949. And yet the Continental was a clean-sheet design, one that succeeded in generating headlines worldwide thanks to its stunning aesthetics. Inevitably, however, only the fortunate few would ever get to enjoy this hand-built marvel, thanks to it being the most expensive four-seater car on sale at the time. For three years, the R-Type Continental was available to order by well-heeled individuals who wanted the ultimate in automotive style and exclusivity. But when the Standard Steel…

Once I had completed my graduate apprenticeship, I was appointed development engineer working on NVH (noise, vibration and harshness), one of my tasks being to reduce the level of road noise – sometimes described as ‘road rumble’. At that time, road noise was typified by driving at around 40mph on a smooth surface covered in tar and chippings; as other sources of noise (engine, wind and so on) were quite low at this speed, road noise was very dominant, especially in the rear. We used a specific road, speed and location for our tests to ensure repeatability, and employed interior microphones, noise meters, a tape recorder and frequency analyser to obtain noise frequency plots. We knew that the Silver Shadow of the period was ‘less quiet’ than the Jaguar XJ12,…

Ray, it was back in 1985 that you and business partner Tony Hill founded Hillier Hill. Tell us a bit about your Rolls-Royce experience prior to then and the challenges of setting up a new business in the ’80s. I had originally been an apprentice with Aston Martin in Newport Pagnell. Unfortunately, they went bust in 1973 and I found myself out of a job. Rolls-Royce decided to recruit some of the skilled workforce of panel beaters, metal workers, coachtrimmers, finishers and painters and take them down to London. They were also compelled to take on any apprentices that wanted to go, and so I eventually found myself walking into the Rolls-Royce service centre at Hythe Road. My apprenticeship was a bit of a baptism of fire as I hadn’t…