Innehållsförteckning för Issue 37 - July/Aug 2023 från Rolls-Royce & Bentley Driver

It's a little ironic that the first owner of our cover car, Sir Freddie Laker, invented the concept of no-frills air travel. Skytrain was a single-class offering; no turning left for champagne and caviar. Sir Freddie, though a personable man of the people, enjoyed the good things his courage and hard work had bought him, including first-class travel whenever he was on the ground, in the form of this Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. That agreeable feeling of holding a first-class ticket is common to many of the cars we cover in RR&BD, and this issue's selection is no different. Well, except perhaps for the 1926 Bentley 3-litre on page 48, re-engineered to accelerate much quicker and hold a higher cruising speed than any standard 3-litre ever managed. More akin to riding…

It’s quite a place to be. There’s more room in here than in the superficially similar but older Continental R, with heaps of seat adjustment both in height and reach so anyone can get comfortable. The front seats are splendid, a fine mix of sumptuousness and support, being slightly more bolstered than those in the car’s Arnage saloon relatives. There is a button on the dash that drops all the side windows with one touch; hard to resist once you’ve discovered it. Yet despite the size, the impression for the driver is of looking out through a somewhat ‘pillarbox’ view. It has a low roofline, a steeply raked windscreen and a rising hump over the main instruments in the dash. With the seat adjusted for a comfortable view out, I…

How did you get started? 'My father was originally apprenticed to Rolls-Royce and went on to work for them for several years more, before joining an independent Silver Ghost specialist, working for them for a number of years. In 1997 he decided to go it alone and started the company A J Glew with the help of my mother, Susan, with myself coming into the family business over 10 years ago.' Then the business made a name in Silver Ghost circles? 'Yes, that’s what we became known for; with 90% of our work being Ghosts and Phantoms, we’re somewhat of a specialist! We cover every aspect from full restorations to events preparation, service and repair. We have a Silver Ghost and a 20/25 of our own, and while we know…

If you're a Rolls-Royce or Bentley enthusiast, then you won't want to miss the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts' Club Annual Rally & Concours d'Elegance. This event is widely considered the largest gathering of Rolls-Royce and Bentley motor cars in the world and takes place each summer. This year's event is taking place at Burghley House from the 23rd of June until the 25th of June. The event is open to members and non-members of the club and typically attracts a large number of attendees from around the world. In addition to the impressive display of Rolls-Royce and Bentley motor cars, there will also be trade and other stands, automobilia for sale, as well as class judging and a parade of prize-winning cars. Burghley House, the returning venue for this year's event, is…

After many years of development, research and craftsmanship, the first road-going Bentley Blizzard has been completed. As we go to press, the final trimming tasks have been finished and plans are being made for the car's first public appearances. The Blizzard has been created by a partnership of Padgetts Motor Engineers, the well-known Bentley R-type Continental experts, and engine specialists Chesman Motorsport. The car is a realisation of an idea from 1950 by Ivan Evernden, then Chief Projects Engineer at Rolls-Royce. He and John Blatchley are thought to have guided designer and painter Cecily Jenner, who created the only surviving sketches of a two-seat open roadster, based on a Bentley Mk VI chassis and mechanical components. These sketches inspired father-and-son team Stephen and Chris Pearson of Chesman Motorsport to work…

COVER STORY ROLLS-ROYCE SILVER SHADOW As we waft around the leafy streets of this Manchester suburb, it’s not difficult to put yourself in the mindset of a 1970s millionaire. The houses are large and gracious, the pavements wide, the sky often crossed by an airliner clambering out of Manchester Airport and away to warmer climes. We’re riding in a 1975 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow bought new by Freddie Laker (not Sir Freddie until a few years afterwards), a man who managed to combine business ambition with a sense of fun that made his employees, and later his public, adore him. When asked by a schoolmaster what he wanted to be when he grew up, young Freddie said ‘a millionaire’, and was scolded for his cheek. But he meant it. There was…

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 BERNARD L KING'S CARS SOLD WHILE BOOKS LIVE ON After the loss of the much-respected Rolls-Royce and Bentley author and publisher Bernard L King in November 2022, I thought readers would like to know that Bernard’s cars found new owners at H&H Auctions’ Pavilion Gardens sale on Wednesday 26th April. His Bentley Continental R was sold for £32,625 and his Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow went for £23,625, both prices including buyers’ premiums. I would also like readers to know that Complete Classics, Bernard’s publishing business, will continue to produce and sell books. Bernard and I knew each other for more than 17 years and…

FEATURE CARS ROLLS-ROYCE PHANTOM COUPÉ & CONVERTIBLE It is a natural question for the casual motoring observer who hasn't had the privilege of owning a Rolls-Royce: just how good are the cars built under new ownership at the Goodwood factory in Sussex? The short answer is heaped with positives if the opinion of two Goodwood car owners in Australia is anything to go by. Ray Delaney and Ralph Plarre have, between them, owned no less than 14 Rolls-Royce and Bentleys and still own both pre-Goodwood and current models. These two Phantoms are both 2009 production; Ray's is the Coupé and Ralph's the Convertible. We will endeavour to assess just how good they are - do they live up to a standard that allows the traditionalists to get over Britain's greatest…

STAFF CAPS SILVER SHADOW PROJECT We finished the end of the last update in a state of mild frustration - all the efforts with the gearbox actuator had merely improved things a bit rather than curing it, allowing it to select Park perhaps once in three or four attempts. Then we'd discovered a front brake caliper seizing on. It all felt like baby steps, but baby steps in the wrong direction. Findlay, my partner in this restoration, suggested cleaning the carpets with a special detergent-sucking vacuum cleaner he'd borrowed, and as a way to make us feel better about our progress, it was a useful idea. Within minutes of attacking each footwell, the cleaner's waste-water tank resembled a jug of Guinness, such was the concentration of grime it picked up.…

To remember Freddie Laker and his great adventures in the airline business you need to have been around in the 1970s and early 1980s, and ideally in the UK. For a while, he was one of the most familiar and celebrated figures in the country, a salesman with a flair for publicity and an iron will to do things his own way. He’s chiefly known these days for two things: the creation of Skytrain, the first of many low-cost carriers that would come to redefine the industry, and Skytrain’s spectacular collapse in 1982 with debts of more than £250m ($380m), then called the largest corporate failure in Britain. Dig a little deeper into his story and you find a man whose only strategic error was expanding his business too fast,…

I thought RR&BD would like to know of a landmark result for historic motorsport, and one that could show the way forward for many owners of vintage Bentleys and indeed other older cars. On Monday 1st May, 21 vintage Bentleys lined up at the Castle Combe Circuit to fight for the spoils over two 20-minute races. Both race victories were taken by William Medcalf, founder of Vintage Bentley, in a 3/4 ½-litre consignment car. After setting the fastest time of the day in qualifying, Medcalf crossed the line powered by 100% synthetic fuel, closely followed by three of our clients in their respective WOs to take the win. We’ve completed a series of tests with our chosen partner, P1 Performance Fuel, and the comparison proved successful across the board; test…

FEATURE CAR ROLLS-ROYCE SILVER WRAITH The Silver Wraith was the first large-chassis RollsRoyce produced after the second World War. The market for expensive, hand-crafted luxury automobiles was somewhat limited in the post-war era, with most people having more urgent needs. The economy was in recovery and automobile production was severely curtailed by shortages of raw materials. Additionally, highly priced luxury automobiles had become subject to a prohibitive purchase tax. Adding to these difficulties, petrol was rationed and only available with coupons. Times were tough, however the company needed a new model to remain current and move forward to ensure its success in the post-war era. It was with great care and sensitivity to the current economic situation and public opinion, that the executives of Rolls-Royce launched the production of the…

In the 104 years since Bentley was established, it has been responsible for some extraordinary cars. There were the original 3-litres of the 1920s that helped cement the marque’s sporting reputation with Le Mans wins and the added bonus of annoying Ettore Bugatti so much that he was prompted to dub them ‘the fastest lorries in the world’. Then there were the potent and domineering supercharged 4½ litre ‘Blowers’ of a few years later which may have upset founder W O Bentley but are still regarded as among the most evocative of all vintage cars. What might W O – or Bugatti, for that matter – have thought of the turbocharged machines of the 1980s that hauled the marque out from the shadow of Rolls-Royce and made it a force…

PERSONAL CHOICE JOHN CROWLEY-CLOUGH People have said my two Bentleys are as close to unicorns as you will see in the world of old cars. The first one (which I've owned for around 20 years) is a 1966 T-series James Young two-door, chassis CBH 1342. James Young made 15 Bentleys and 35 Rolls-Royces to this design and we believe my car may have been the first one to be constructed. It's in Graham Robson's book on the Shadow, Corniche and Camargue on pages 68 and 69 and shown with the UK registration 2 HAA. The car was made for a gentleman called Harry Archer and we know that the photos in the book are of this car because that was Mr Archer's personal registration number. The car had been imported…