Innehållsförteckning för Issue 39 - Nov/Dec 2023 från Rolls-Royce & Bentley Driver

The need for longer, roomier versions of standard saloons arose for two reasons: the slow phasing out of the always-coachbuilt Silver Wraith and its huge 133-inch wheelbase by 1958, and the size of the standard Silver Cloud and S-series. Despite being 20 inches (half a metre) longer than the R-type saloon, and wider too, it was no roomier inside. So from 1957 you could order a version with four more inches in the rear compartment, taking it up from 123 inches between the wheel centres to 127 inches. This seemed more important for Rolls-Royce than for Bentley, yet both marques kept this option across all three S-series and Silver Cloud generations, finding small but steady sales. Around 120 of each marque were built, some with special bodies. That means roughly…

FEATURE CAR BENTLEY BLIZZARD It's not often a road test article needs to begin by explaining to readers what the subject car is, but in the case of the Bentley Blizzard, the origin story is everything. We announced the completion of the first road-going, fully functional Blizzard in our July/August issue this year. In case you missed that, allow us to fill you in. The car is a realisation of an idea from 1950 by Ivan Evernden, then Chief Projects Engineer at RollsRoyce. 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-andson team Stephen and Chris Pearson of Chesman Motorsport…

FEATURE CAR ROLLS-ROYCE PHANTOM | BARKER PULLMAN LIMOUSINE Considering his initial reaction to this car it's amazing Chris Spaett bought it at all. ‘I didn't like the colour, the bumpers or the whitewall tyres,’ says the Herefordshire based classic motorcycle dealer. But two years later he's racked up nearly 5000 miles in the 1929 Barker Pullman Sports Limousine, which is more than many of us manage in far more modern machinery. It's also nearly 5000 miles more than the car covered in the previous 30 years, but more on that later. The long-anticipated successor to the Silver Ghost, the New Phantom arrived in 1925. Retrospectively known as the Phantom I, it featured an entirely new overhead-valve, 7668cc, straightsix engine, a unit considerably more powerful than that of its Edwardian predecessor.…

I know many people prefer the pretakeover models, but for me, the Bentley Mulsanne now stands as the final line in the evolution of a sporting Bentley saloon from the SZ days. This model was made from 2010 to 2020 and is famous as the last car to use the L-series V8, which had lasted an incredible 60 years by the time the production run came to an end – albeit in heavily revised form. These cars are only getting older, so I wanted to take the chance to try something slightly more modern than other Bentleys I'd owned, but still timeless. I bought this 2011 example earlier this year for my birthday, having swapped it for a 2018 Range Rover Vogue. The Range Rover is a great all-rounder and…

This edition's Auction tracker covers the 12-month period from 1 September 2022 to the end of August 2023, with the trend assessed on a 12-month rolling basis as described in previous editions. BUYERS’ MARKET The number of Rolls-Royces and Bentleys sold has again increased to 814, which would be good news except that the number offered for sale has increased by more! This situation concisely defines a buyers’ market, and is confirmed by the overall and average values decreasing as supply grows faster than demand: Although these results might be disappointing, it is worth noting that very nearly as much was spent overall in this period – down by just 1.4%. Sales at physical auctions are in decline, whilst online continues to power ahead in volumes and is closing the…

The Alvis TA21 followed much the same pattern as the Bentley Mk VI: it was a conservatively styled, well-engineered saloon with some sporting credibility from the marque's reputation and a powerful straight-six engine. It was a bracket down from the Bentley in price and image, but nonetheless comparable. In 1950, when the TA21 was introduced, it was sold alongside another new three-litre Alvis, the TB21. This was a twoseat convertible sports version based on the same chassis and mechanical parts. It had a traditional upright grille and little rear-hinged doors, with an overall look that is undeniably Blizzard-like. Did Evernden see it at the 1950 Motor Show and think ‘Bentley should do that’? Pure conjecture. But if the Alvis's sales are anything to go by, Bentley made the right choice…

In 1926, Captain AC Bowles, a decorated army officer, was duped into becoming a frontman by the fraudster John Factor, brother of cosmetics entrepreneur Max. The pair launched various schemes including a magazine purporting to offer investment advice on stocks and shares, with Bowles and Factor buying shares cheaply, falsely inflating their value and selling them for a vast profit. Their takings were valued at around £600,000 when the case was discussed in The Times in 1931, which equates to around £9.5m today. The paper reported Bowles made perhaps £100,000 but gambled it away, and when the scandal broke Factor seemingly fled with the remainder, leaving Bowles holding the baby. He was cast in damages for the clients and declared bankrupt, owing £124,252 with assets of just £100. The surviving…

Ben Eastick claimed a Times Challenge Trophy hattrick when he convincingly won the Bentley scratch race at the 75th BDC Silverstone on Saturday August 12th. The Club's Competitions Captain scored his third successive victory in the annual blue-riband encounter at the wheel of his T Type single-seater – exactly 50 years after father Barry also won the coveted trophy. In an almost straight repeat of last year, pole sitter Ben beat second placed Oliver Llewellyn, in a 3/8-litre Special, by just over half a minute (on the road) or just three seconds after class time penalties had been applied. The 10-lap race, which incorporated the Pre-War Challenge for other marques, drew an impressive field of 37 cars. Taking into account the time handicaps, Clive Morley (3/4½-litre) was classified in third…

EXTRA LENGTH, EXTRA SPECIAL Maybe it's our lead feature on the two longer versions of the SY and SZ generations (see p. 12) but Rolls-Royces with the extended wheelbase option have been catching our eye recently. The Goodwood-built Phantom VII EWB was arguably the most impressive of the lot, a least since the opulent days of the Phantom IV, V and VI, which existed as super-sized models above and beyond the scope of the other saloons. The Phantom VII EWB isn't long enough to feature jump seats folding out of the floor, but as a modern four-seat carriage for the ultra-demanding, it must be peerless. Rather than the extra four inches found between the front and rear wheels of the Silver Wraith II and Silver Spur, the Phantom VII offered…

If you fancy seeing your own Rolls-Royce or Bentley within these pages, it couldn't be easier! We're interested in any model of any age – and even its condition isn't important, as we're just as keen to see ongoing projects as we are potential prize-winners. All you need to do is email us a small selection of good quality jpeg images – and we'll do the rest. Within your email, don't forget to tell us a bit of history about your car, details of any work carried out, or perhaps your future plans for it. The more information, the better! Email us at rrb.ed@kelsey.co.uk – and don't forget to send your photographs fullsize. The higher the resolution, the larger we can use your images. If you'd prefer to send non-digital…

THE FINAL PAGE We have some odd words for longerbodied cars: a vehicle one drives on one's country estate. A heavyweight cart chassis adapted for carrying people to a shoot. A covered cart used for collecting passengers and luggage from a railway station. But if estate car, shooting break or station wagon doesn't quite make sense with modern marketing niches, we all know what it means. Perhaps the European word – combi – is the best, implying a combination of peoplecarrying and load-lugging abilities. What once seemed an outrage on a gracious town carriage like a RollsRoyce, or for that matter on a splendid grande routière like a Derby Bentley soon became an appealingly practical use for a high-quality chassis that was lasting better than its bodywork. The car that…