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 An Independent Publication

Kelsey Publishing Ltd, The Granary, Downs Court,

Yalding Hill, Yalding, Kent, ME18 6AL, United Kingdom
+44 (0)1959 541444

Editorial
Editor Nigel Boothman, rrb.ed@kelsey.co.uk
Art Editor Mark Baker, mark_baker04@yahoo.co.uk

Contributors
Sam Glover, Paul Guinness, Richard Gunn,
Will Holman, Lewis Houghton, Gregory Owain,
Marinus Rijkers, David Watt

Advertisement Sales
Talk Media Sales
CEO David Lerpiniere, david.lerpiniere@talkmediasales.co.uk
Sales Manager Russell Bedford, 01732 445328,
russell@talk-media.uk
The greatest generation?
Advertising Production Welcome to a bumper-sized special issue of Rolls-Royce & Bentley
Talk Media Sales Driver, in which we’re celebrating the diverse and delightful models
Production Manager Nick Bond of the SZ generation – those cars that began with the Rolls-
Artwork Enquiries 01732 445325, nick@talk-media.co.uk
Royce Silver Spirit and Bentley Mulsanne in 1980, evolving into
Management many new variants as the company’s fortunes rode something
Publisher Gareth Beesley of a roller-coaster up to the change of ownership in 1998.
Managing Director Phil Weeden
Subscription Marketing Director Kevin McCormick We have several SZ-generation cars whose owners bought them
Retail Director Steve Brown for unusual reasons: one was cheap because it was damaged
Fulfillment Manager Andy Cotton
in a shipping container, another was an object of desire ever
Events Manager Kat Chappell
Print Production Manager Georgina Harris since the owner was five years old and had been given a Spirit of
Print Production Controllers Kelly Orriss, Hayley Brown Ecstasy mascot to polish, a third was bought in a beery haze to
Subscription Marketing Managers Dave Sage
Affiliate Marketing Kate Chamberlain
get two friends home from Bavaria to Britain. Perhaps the best
reason, though, is Ron Webster’s, which we reveal on page 26.
Subscriptions As well as personal stories we have some company history,
Six issues of Rolls-Royce & Bentley Driver
are published per annum freshly researched for RR&BD by Marinus Rijkers, who can tell
UK annual subscription price £35.94 us the most complete story yet published of the Rolls-Royce
Europe annual subscription price £39.00 stretched limousines by Robert Jankel Design (p.66). Marinus
USA annual subscription price £39.00
Rest of World annual subscription price £42.00 even managed some driving impressions of one of these mighty
UK subscription and back issue orderline: 01959 543 747 luxury liners, which follow on from the history feature. Fancy
Overseas subscription orderline: 0044 (0) 1959 543 747 something a bit sportier? Our buying guide to the most dashing of
Toll free USA subscription orderline: 1-888-777-0275
UK customer service team: 01959 543 747 all the SZ-generation cars, the Bentley Continental R, should help
Customer service email address: subs@kelsey.co.uk separate the bargains from the bottomless pits (p.78). If you like
Customer service and subscription postal address:
your large two-door coupés a little more sedate, Richard Gunn’s
Rolls-Royce & Bentley Driver Customer Service Team
Kelsey Publishing Ltd, The Granary, Downs Court, Yalding Hill, Anatomy Of…series continues with the fascinating Rolls-Royce
Yalding, Kent, ME18 6AL, United Kingdom Camargue. Overlapping for six years with the SZ generation and
Find current subscription offers at shop.kelsey.co.uk/rrb
Buy back issues at shop.kelsey.co.uk/rrbback
sharing some features, it’s always been an outsider – but we’re
Already a subscriber? Manage your subscription online at: glad to welcome it into this roomy May/June edition, with much
shop.kelsey.co.uk/myaccount more besides. Even our Personal Choice and From the Archives
Digital issues and subscriptions
See our website at shop.kelsey.co.uk/rrb
sections have touches of SZ about them this time, but you’ll still
find a wide range of subjects from the 1930s to the 21st century.
Distribution Finally, this issue not only celebrates the SZ cars but marks the
Great Britain: Seymour Distribution Limited,
2 East Poultry Avenue, London EC1A 9PT 25th anniversary of those that replaced them. See page 88 for
Tel. 020 7429 4000, www.seymour.co.uk the story of how the Silver Seraph and Arnage were launched.
Northern Ireland and the Republic Of Ireland: Enjoy the issue.
Newspread, Tel: +353 23 886 3850

Part of the Classics World Family
www.classicsworld.co.uk
Nigel Boothman
rrb.ed@kelsey.co.uk
Kelsey Media 2023 © all rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is forbidden except with
permission in writing from the publishers. Note to contributors: articles submitted for consideration

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R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 3
MAY / JUNE 2023

CONTENTS

26 56

78 88
LEAD FEATURE REGULARS
6 UP FRONT
All the latest Rolls-Royce and Bentley news

22 MARKET WATCH
The under-rated, the unusual
and the plain desirable!

36 YOUR SHOUT
Your letters to RR&BD

84 FROM THE CLUBHOUSE

All the latest news from the RREC and BDC

108 PERSONAL CHOICE

A barn find – with a spooky twist!

114 STAFF CAR REPORTS

Removing the gearbox actuator – but is it faulty?

12 SOUPED-UP SILVER SPUR 120 FROM THE ARCHIVES

When a Rolls-Royce & Bentley expert rebuilds a SZ-generation promotional material
car to his ideal specification, you’re guaranteed
to end up with an intriguing machine 128 MOTOR FREE ADS
Rolls-Royce and Bentley classics for sale

4 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
 ‘Rolls-Royce had a large customer base who
bought a car not to drive, but to be driven’

130 THE FINAL PAGE 72 DRIVING A JANKEL LIMOUSINE

72
Picking favourites from the SZ generation Piloting 20+ft of stretched Silver Spirit

78 BUYING GUIDE:
FEATURES BENTLEY CONTINENTAL R
Choosing the leanest and meanest
26 BENTLEY EIGHT: of the SZ generation
WORTH WAITING FOR
A working life at Crewe, but no driving licence?
88 SILVER SERAPH &
One man didn’t let details stand in the way!
ARNAGE LAUNCH STORY
Behind the scenes of the launch
40 BAVARIA, BEER…AND A BENTLEY? events – 25 years on
Spur-of-the-moment purchase leads to road trip
96 THE DEALER’S VIEW
46 MEET THE EXPERTS: STEVE HUBBARD Selling the SZ, Seraph & Arnage, at the sharp end
Author of ‘The Vintage Silver Ghost’
98 ROLLS-ROYCE 20/25
50 ROLLS-ROYCE SILVER SPIRIT Get it right, then keep it right – as it should be!
Bought ‘70% good’, now nearly perfect!

56 ANATOMY OF…
ROLLS-ROYCE CAMARGUE SUBSCRIPTION
The bravest model in Rolls-Royce history? Discuss.

66 LIMOUSINES BY ROBERT JANKEL

OFFERS
PAGE 112
New research on the most extravagant SZ variants

R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 5
 UP FRONT
THE BEAST IS RELEASED
ohn Dodd’s legendary
J
and somewhat notorious
custom car, The Beast,
sold in an online auction
shortly before we went
to press for £72,500. As reported
on the RR&BD Facebook page, John
Dodd died in early December last
year in Spain at the age of 90, after
making Malaga his adopted home
The Beast in original form, before the fire
6 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
NEWS AND VIEWS
since the car’s peak moment of fame
(or infamy?) in 1981. The Rolls-Royce
Merlin-engined car was offered for
sale on Carandclassic.com, a major
coup for any auction house.
The Beast started life in 1966 as
a one-off chassis built by a gifted
engineer called Paul Jameson. He
created it to support a 27-litre Rolls-
Royce Meteor engine, essentially a
de-tuned and non-supercharged
version of the Merlin, as used in the
Centurion tank. Though making ‘only’
650bhp at peak, this was enough
to give Jameson many headaches in
attempting to transmit the power
to the car’s Jaguar Mk X rear axle.
While testing the car, he met gearbox
specialist John Dodd, who developed
a solution. Then, Dodd got a phone
call offering him the whole project –
as yet unclothed by any bodywork.
RUN-INS GALORE
Dodd found a GRP specialist in Kent,
Fibre Glass Repairs, to make him a
body that would cover the immense
works underneath. What emerged
in 1972 was rather like a Ford Capri
for the rear third, becoming more
and more like Lady Penelope’s Rolls-
Royce from Thunderbirds the closer
you got to the front. With a Rolls-
Royce engine, thought Dodd, why not
fit a Rolls-Royce grille and mascot?
Rolls-Royce were unimpressed, but
declined to interfere – at first. Then,
in 1975, on the way back from a car
show in Sweden (and an audience with
 Rolls-Royce Merlin
Mk35 powers
The Beast

Colossal centre
console needed to
clear step-up gears

King Carl Gustav!) The Beast caught

The bonnet alone is
fire and was extensively damaged.
ten feet long!
Dodd spent the insurance pay-
out having it rebodied, as before by
Bob Phelps and his son Roy of Fibre
Glass Repairs. This time they created
a gigantic sports-brake body, still a
two-seater but with an influence more
Reliant Scimitar than Ford Capri. Most
of the mechanical parts were rebuilt or
replaced at this point, most importantly
the Meteor engine, which was heaved
aside in favour of a Mk 35 Merlin
from a long-forgotten trainer called a
Boulton-Paul Balliol. Most significant,
as it turned out, was the fitment of a
grille and mascot from a Silver Shadow. a media circus with Dodd attending Smith for his 'Late Brake Show' Youtube
in The Beast – except for the day he channel and proved to be in working
and his family arrived on horseback. order, if intimidatingly noisy and smoky.
COURTING DISASTER The judge found in Rolls-Royce’s As a device to irritate the purist and
Aware of Rolls-Royce’s disapproval of favour and Dodd was ordered to pay offend the establishment, it could
his decision to ‘borrow’ their world- £10,000 in fines and costs, which he hardly have been bettered in its day,
famous branding, John Dodd later appealed. He lost again, refused to pay but Dodd and his creation are now
confessed to taunting the firm with and was given six months in prison, remembered with such fondness
phone calls pretending to be a German which he avoided by slipping off – with and respect that it’s interesting to
Baron (or similar) who had just been The Beast – to the Costa del Sol. imagine what would happen if that
overtaken on the autobahn by an He was obliged to remove the Rolls- Silver Shadow grille were replaced.
amazing new car with a Rolls-Royce Royce identifiers and settled down After all, Dodd had the last laugh:
grille, and could he buy one? Whether to a quiet life repairing automatic type KPD 67K into the DVLA’s
or not this led directly to Crewe’s gearboxes, keeping The Beast in regular vehicle check website, and you’ll
decision to take Dodd to the High use and even sneaking back to the UK find a Rolls-Royce first registered in
Court for trademark infringement isn’t a few times to MoT the car. In advance March 1972, coloured beige, and with
clear, but in 1981 the case became of the sale, it was driven by Jonny a cylinder capacity of 27,000cc…

R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 7
UP FRONT
NEWS AND VIEWS
PROTECT AGAINST
WATER IN ETHANOL FUEL
If your car is in storage or simply
unused for more than a few weeks,
you run the risk of suffering damage
due to corrosion caused by the
ethanol in modern fuels absorbing
water from the atmosphere. This is
separate to the issue of ethanol itself
reacting with certain substances,
such as brass and many plastics, but
potentially just as serious, as the acids
formed when hygroscopic ethanol
fuel absorbs water vapour have the
‘CREWE GENUINE’ PARTS SUPPLY FOR
HERITAGE ROLLS-ROYCE AND BENTLEY
MODELS SECURED… JUST!
Rumours of a serious threat to parts
supply began to circulate in May
or June of 2022 amongst those
involved with classic Rolls-Royce
and Bentley models. Bentley, it was
said, planned to restrict the sale of
all Bentley original equipment spares
(branded Crewe Genuine Parts) to
aftermarket re-sellers – the specialists
many of us go to for parts supply –
particularly those for classic models.
On the face of it, a desire to control
worldwide distribution of Bentley
OEM product across worldwide
markets offers some justification.
Firstly, the model of controlling
all parts supply through franchised
dealers only is a common one in the
motor industry and applies at Porsche,
for instance, who have been involved
8 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
potential to damage the whole the
fuel system, including the tank itself.
Castrol’s Classic Etha-Guard
Plus swiftly counteracts ethanol's
hygroscopic nature, stabilising both E5
and E10 biofuels. It prevents moisture
from saturating the ethanol and forcing
it to drop out of safe suspension within
the petrol, thereby protecting the
vehicle's fuel system against corrosion
and acidity. It has a two-in-one formula
that adds an Octimise-Plus friction
in overseeing major decisions at
Bentley. Secondly, car makers do this
because it allows them to maintain a
supply of parts at whatever is their
chosen price in overseas markets,
rather than leaving franchised dealers
to compete with independents who
have imported the same parts bought
more cheaply in another country.
Later in 2022, it became apparent
that this was more than a rumour,
and these plans caused some alarm
amongst those in the know. Bentley,
it seemed, had assumed the supply
of heritage parts (roughly speaking,
those for cars designed or built
before the VW takeover in 1998)
could be continued by franchised
Bentley dealers with no drop-off in
service for the customer. This seems
reasonable at face value but in practice
has significant problems. Almost all
franchised Bentley dealers have no
stockholding of heritage parts at all,
and very few have staff trained in
modifier to improve acceleration by up
to 3% and economy by up to 2% (which
may not be enough to notice, but
sounds nice!) while each 250ml bottle
will treat 250 litres of fuel. See www.
classicoils.co.uk for bulk-buy discounts.
finding, fitting or even identifying the
correct part for models that they never
normally see, and may well never have
worked on. After all, the large majority
of Bentley dealerships took on the
franchise after the introduction of the
VAG-platform Continental GT. This
meant that ordering something as basic
as a set of Crewe Genuine branded
brake pads for a Silver Shadow,
which can currently be supplied ‘off
the shelf’ from several aftermarket
sources in 24 hours, would take a
week or more to arrive – assuming the
correct part was identified by a parts
technician familiar with the model.
RR&BD understands that a wide
range of people in the industry made
their concerns plain to Bentley, and
this, when added to the fact that most
franchise dealers weren’t thrilled to
take on the job of supplying parts for
heritage vehicles, led to a change of
heart – albeit just a few days before
the policy was about to be instated.
‘Despite coming very late to the
party, Bentley have made the right
decision,’ says John Tupper of IntroCar.
‘They’ve recognised the role of
independents like us, who are prepared
to act as the specialist outlets of Crewe
Genuine parts for heritage Rolls-
Royce and Bentley and seen that the
plans would have been disastrous to
service for owners of heritage cars.
They’ve listened to complaints, and we
should celebrate that understanding.’
 3 4½ SPEED WEYMANN EX FORREST LYCETT 3 LITRE SPEED MODEL

THE LAST KNOWN 4½L FREESTONE & WEBB SALOON HARRISON BODIED BENTLEY

BLOWER SOLD
UP FRONT
NEWS AND VIEWS
FIENNES RESTORATION LTD
GOES BUST – EX-EMPLOYEES
CONSIDER LEGAL ACTION
The long-established Rolls-Royce and
Bentley specialist Fiennes Restoration
Ltd entered administration on February
1st 2023, with the loss of up to 40 jobs.
Fiennes, which was split some years
ago into separate specialist areas, had a
parts-supply business which is currently
up for sale, with offers due by a closing
date of Friday March 24th. The car sales
business, Fiennes Showroom, has also
gone, as has Fiennes Engineering, the
part concerned with engineering work
to all components apart from engines.
The engine building specialist, Fiennes
Performance, remains unaffected
and is still trading as normal.
Ben Edwards, Managing Director
of Fiennes Performance, has hope for
the survival of the parts business.
‘We’ve had significant interest
from alternative specialists, including
enquiries about the intellectual
property rights and branding, so the
parts business may continue under
the same name or with a different
identity. Parts supply for the cars
involved (mainly pre-war Bentley
and Rolls-Royce models -Ed) is vital
if values aren’t to be affected.’
Just before we went to press, we
received news that a firm of solicitors
in Leeds are coordinating a claim over
the way redundancies were handled.
Where 20 or more employees are made
redundant at one workplace, a company
is under an obligation to engage in an
The Rolls-Royce and Bentley Specialists Association
Established 1984
10
information and consultation process,
which must start at least 30 days before
the first redundancies are made. We
are told this may not have happened,
with staff only being made aware of
job losses, with immediate effect,
on the day the administrator was
appointed. Omar Ghaffoor, Employment
Solicitor at Morrish Solicitors, said:
‘Sadly, the administration of Fiennes
Restoration is another major blow to
a previously thriving British industry.
Unfortunately, not all the payments
that these redundant employees may
be due can be recovered from the
insolvent company. We have already
had numerous enquiries from those
who have been affected by the news
and who are looking for support and
other ways to recoup some of their
losses. If a protective award claim
is successful, such a claim could see
employees being compensated by
up to 90 days’ gross pay, up to eight
weeks of which can be recovered from
the National Insurance Fund, via the
government’s Insolvency Service.’
We tried to speak to the administrator,
Mark Bowen of MB Insolvency, but
in his absence were told by case
manager Mark Hunt that they have
a policy of making no statements to
the press. When asked about those
customers with cars undergoing work
at Fiennes, Mr Hunt said they had
‘notified those we need to notify’.
Rolls-Royce and Bentley Drivers …
'ULYHLQZLWKFRQÀGHQFHZKHUH\RXVHHWKLVVLJQ
Your guarantee of satisfaction
Visit
www.rrbsa.co.uk
for details of member companies
News of the collapse of the business
has been slow to leak out, yet a
liquidation sale to recover funds for
debtors, handled by AMS Auctions of
Cheltenham, had already occurred by
the time news of the administration
reached us. RR&BD spoke to Scott
Higgins, who visited Fiennes to look for
equipment to build his own restoration
business, SVH Engineering, and who
spoke to staff who were on site that day.
‘I only heard something was
happening at Fiennes through my wife,
and then tracked down the auction
seller by contacting the administrator,’
said Higgins. ‘The staff I met said
that cash-flow problems got them.’
The loss of Fiennes as a restoration
specialist and parts supplier will be
keenly felt by all those who have
benefitted from their expert assistance
since 1974. It is to be hoped that such
skilled technicians will find employment
with other businesses in the sector
and that the vitally important parts
business will remain as a going concern
under new ownership. As news
spreads, more details may emerge
about the problems that led to the
demise of this widely respected firm.
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
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LEAD FEATURE
ROLLS-ROYCE SILVER SPUR

ULTIMATE
EDITION
WORDS: PAUL GUINNESS P H OTO G R A P H Y: G R E G O RY OWA I N

If the final incarnation of any design is seen as its pinnacle, Nigel Sandell’s
late-model Silver Spur – which features a range of unique upgrades – is
arguably the ultimate Rolls-Royce SZ, as Paul Guinness explains

W
hen it comes to car
design and the individual
appeal of any model,
enthusiasts often find
themselves falling into one of two
camps: those who prefer the original
version in its pure, unadulterated form
and those who appreciate the near-
countless improvements carried out
during its career. Whether the car in
question is mass-produced or hand-
built, the final version will be different
from the original in many key areas;
and when a range has enjoyed such
a lengthy production run as Crewe’s
SZ saloons, the multiple specification
tweaks are all the more complex.
For Rolls-Royce, this process was
epitomised via the Silver Shadow II of
1977, a model significantly upgraded
from the original Silver Shadow that

12 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
had debuted twelve years earlier.
Admittedly, its aesthetic changes
weren’t exactly ground-breaking,
although the adoption of a front
spoiler as well as alloy and rubber
bumpers did cause consternation
among traditionalists. But under
the skin, the Silver Shadow II’s new
rack and pinion steering and crucial
suspension upgrades revolutionised
the driving experience. And as anyone
who’s experienced both an early Silver
Shadow and one of the final versions
R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3
from the late ’70s will confirm, the
differences are immediately noticeable.
Indeed, so significant were the
changes, a very late Silver Shadow II
seems to have more in common with
an early Silver Spirit – its successor of
1980 – in terms of spec and driving
style than with the original Silver
Shadow. And few owners are more
aware of this than Nigel Sandell, whose
prizewinning late-model Silver Shadow II
has previously been featured in Rolls-
Royce & Bentley Driver. This time,
however, it’s the turn of his Silver Spur,
another very late example from a long-
running and regularly updated range.
EXTENDED WHEELBASE
The launch of the original Silver Spirit
and Bentley Mulsanne in 1980 had
marked a major change of style for
Rolls-Royce Motors, ushering in a new
square-lined, sharp-edged look that
was a world away from the subtle
curves of the Silver Shadow family. »
13
LEAD FEATURE
ROLLS-ROYCE SILVER SPUR
Piped hide, embroidered
headrests, immaculate
veneers: nothing but the best!
The new direction was, of course,
bang on trend for the time, and
proved successful in bringing Rolls-
Royce up to date without alienating
even the company’s most traditional
buyers. But it was also an aesthetic
that would inevitably date – and given
how long Rolls-Royce was likely to
keep the Silver Spirit in production
(its predecessor having lasted an
impressive 15 years), this inevitably
meant upgrades would be needed.
Longest-lived of all the SZ saloons
was the long-wheelbase version
14
of the Silver Spirit, which debuted
alongside its standard-length sibling
and remained available to order for
an unprecedented 20 years. Badged
as the Silver Spur, the newcomer
boasted a 124-inch wheelbase – an
inch longer than its Silver Wraith II
predecessor, and four inches up
on the Silver Spirit’s wheelbase.
This time, instead of the bodyshells
being modified to long-wheelbase after
production, a different ‘body in white’
Silver Spur shell was built by Pressed
Steel. The ‘extension’ was created in
front of the rear seat and extended
floor panels, with a double-skinned
transmission tunnel also fitted to serve
as a heater duct to the rear. Lengthened
rear doors were needed, as was
(obviously) a longer roof skin, created
on early Silver Spurs by welding two
standard panels together. Rolls-Royce
claimed that the work was so neat it
was hard to find the join, although
the majority of early Silver Spurs
came with an Everflex roof. Perhaps
surprisingly in view of the extra length,
the Silver Spur weighed in at just 60kg
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D

over the weight of the Silver Spirit.
Naturally, the Silver Spur went
on to benefit from the same subtle
updates and enhancements as the
Silver Spirit, with the Series II models
arriving in 1989. But by the time the
fourth-generation line-up was being
announced in 1995 (known simply as the
New Silver Spirit and New Silver Spur),
the changes were rather more obvious.
In came the SZ family’s first sheet metal
changes to allow fitment of a shallower
version of the famous Rolls-Royce
radiator grille and new-design bumpers.
R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3
Dark Sapphire can
easily be mistaken for
black at first glance
Discreet timber cover folds
down to hide radio fascia
Nigel Sandell’s example rolled out of
Crewe two years later, by which time
the Silver Spirit had been discontinued
and the Silver Spur came as standard
with a light pressure turbo (LPT) set-
up, boosting output to around 300bhp
and providing a superbly smooth and
rather useful performance boost. These
days, of course, Nigel is a well-known
figure in Rolls-Royce and Bentley circles
thanks to the success of his N. Sandell
company, based in West London since
1999. For the last three decades he
has also been on the committee of the »
15
LEAD FEATURE
ROLLS-ROYCE SILVER SPUR

Glossy wheel centres and

white-band tyres make
wheels appear larger

“I heard about a job lot of engines that Jack Barclay had

acquired from Crewe, and so I managed to acquire a
brand new factory-fresh LPT version”

RREC’s Middlesex section. This is a man
for whom Rolls-Royce and Bentley are
a way of life, having experienced vast
numbers of them – classic and modern
– throughout his career. But the way in
which he came to own the magnificent
Silver Spur featured here was unusual.
‘Back in 2005, I had a phone call from
a company called Unique Vacations,
based in Chelsea, who asked if we
could provide a quote for work on
a 1996 Silver Spirit and a ’97 Silver
Spur,’ recalls Nigel. ‘Both cars had
recently arrived in the UK, having
been exported to Jamaica in 1999 and
used by the Sandals Resort there ever
since. The problem was, the seven
weeks that the two cars had spent at
sea, heading for Southampton, were
catastrophic. Neither Rolls-Royce
was properly secured, and so the cars
ended up bashing into each other and
suffering lots of damage as a result.’
STRIKING A DEAL
Nigel and his restoration team assessed
the Rolls-Royce duo, with the quote for
bringing them back to their former glory
coming in at £28,000 each. The owner »

As you'd expect, Nigel's

engine modifications
look entirely 'factory'.
Right, the man himself

16 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
INSPIRED BY THE LEGENDARY HURRICANE DIAL

www.96zero.co.uk chris@96zero.co.uk
LEAD FEATURE
ROLLS-ROYCE SILVER SPUR
“I like cars with the maximum possible specifications,”
says Nigel, “so it made sense just to tweak the Silver Spur’s
spec to my personal preference”
of the cars decided not to go ahead
with the work, instead inviting Nigel to
make a bid for them himself. In the end,
he paid £5500 each for the damaged
Silver Spirit and Spur, becoming the
unexpected custodian of a matching
pair finished in their original – but now
rather battle-scarred – Dark Sapphire.
‘We ended up restoring the Silver
Spirit first,’ explains Nigel. ‘With both
cars having been in Jamaica for most
of their lives, there were no corrosion
issues – but obviously the amount
of work involved was still extensive.
In the end, the completed Silver
Spirit was sold for £25,000 and work
then began on the Silver Spur.’
Nigel has always been a fan of
final-edition cars, and decided that
a late-model Silver Spur would make
an ideal companion to his 1979 Silver
Shadow II – a fully restored example
in its original hue of Athenian Blue:
‘Buying a late model of any car is
always my preference, as all the original
faults have been ironed out and the
specification improved over the years.
It’s as true with something like a Jaguar
18
XJ40 as it is with a Rolls-Royce. So,
being able to take on a dark blue
end-of-the-line SZ to complement
my Silver Shadow II seemed like too
good an opportunity to miss.’
Restoring the bodywork of the
Silver Spur was labour-intensive but
satisfying, with the original rust-free
panels being coaxed back to perfection
prior to the car being treated to a
high-quality respray that’s as good as
original. Certain items of trim proved
quite challenging, meanwhile, with
the damaged radiator grille being
painstakingly restored by a specialist – a
route deemed preferable to spending
£4000 on a new replacement grille.
As you’d expect of a Rolls-Royce
that’s been used in sunny climes as
resort transport rather than enjoying
the attention of a cossetting private
owner, however, there were also
mechanical issues to deal with: ‘The
head gaskets were on their way out, and
one of the pistons had dropped,’ says
Nigel. The major issues were sorted,
however, and what Nigel calls Phase
One of the project was completed,
Nigel's love for the highest spec:
phone, rear seat heaters, cocktail
kit, picnic tables, R-R cushions!
with the Silver Spur ready to hit the
road and provide its new custodian and
his family with many enjoyable trips.
PHASE TWO
By 2011, with numerous adventures
successfully completed in the Silver
Spur, Nigel made the decision to
take it off the road. Head gasket
issues were occurring again, and it
was obvious that the car needed
further attention. Inevitably though,
when you’re an independent Rolls-
Royce and Bentley specialist focused
on keeping your customers happy,
your own cars often end up near
the bottom of your ‘to do’ list.
‘We ended up mothballing the Silver
Spur until 2017, keeping it in storage
while we gathered the parts we were
going to need,’ says Nigel. ‘Then in
2014, I heard about a job lot of engines
that Jack Barclay had acquired from
Crewe, and so I managed to acquire a
brand new factory-fresh LPT version
for £3200. I wasn’t going to miss out
on such a great opportunity, even if I »
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D

FURTHER REFINEMENTS
Although the Silver Spirit and
long-wheelbase Silver Spur arrived
at a time of recession, their sales
improved throughout the 1980s,
ensuring Rolls-Royce Motors had a
prestige hit on its hands. Much of
the development in the early part
of the ’80s was focused on Bentley,
culminating in the Mulsanne Turbo
and subsequent Turbo R. But by 1989
the Silver Spirit and Silver Spur came
in for an upgrade via the Series II.
This ushered in an adaptive
damping system known as Automatic
Ride Control, which employed
electronically controlled dampers
front and rear, plus vertical and
horizontal accelerometers, linked
to a control module that could
vary the settings between soft,
normal and hard within fractions of
a second in response to steering,
R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3
acceleration and road surface.
A further revision came in 1992
when the Silver Spirit/Spur received a
new four-speed automatic gearbox,
while the Series III cars of August
’93 saw the classic V8 featuring
redesigned cylinder heads with
enlarged inlet ports and exhaust
valves, while a new induction
system improved low-speed torque.
Electronic transmission control
smoothed out the drivetrain, while
revised anti-roll bars and reduced
power assistance to the steering
sharpened up the ride and handling.
Inside, the car gained a revised
dashboard with dual front airbags.
The Flying Spur was announced
in 1994, featuring the turbocharged
engine from the Bentley models.
And the range was again overhauled
the following year with further
The view most road users see
as the Silver Spur storms past
revised cylinder heads, Zytek fuel-
injection and a charge-cooler for the
turbocharged cars. This latest Silver
Spirit and Spur (never called Series
IV, since ‘IV’ denotes death in some
Far Eastern cultures) also gained a
new wheel design and a shallower
radiator grille – complete with smaller
Spirit of Ecstasy – to allow for a
modernising raised bumper height.
Despite the SZ family being in
the autumn of its career by then,
electronic traction control was added
for 1997. That same year saw the Silver
Spirit dropped from the range, while
the Silver Spur gained a light-pressure
turbo (non-intercooled) to push power
to 300bhp. Body-coloured bumper
centres and blue lettering for the
model name were added in 1998, with
the Silver Spur remaining available
to order for another two years.‘
19
LEAD FEATURE
ROLLS-ROYCE SILVER SPUR
didn’t have time to do the work just yet.’
When Nigel and his team managed
to make a start, he came up with a
plan of action. He could, of course,
have simply fitted the new engine and
kept his car standard in every other
way, but he wanted more. Here was an
opportunity to create a one-off Silver
Spur with the kind of performance that
Nigel truly craved, and so he fitted an
ECU from a 2000-model Bentley Azure,
along with a transmission control unit
capable of ‘talking’ with that new ECU.
He also installed a liquid charge cooler,
fan and pump (standard on a Bentley
Turbo but not on LPT cars), as well
as a new downstream O2 sensor. The
end result saw Nigel’s uprated factory
engine producing a mighty 420bhp.
While involved in Phase Two of his
project, Nigel wanted to give his Flying
Shallower grille used on 'New Silver Spur'
from 1995 onwards is noticeable here
20
Spur long-term reliability, and so
embarked on a thorough mechanical
refresh. A replacement four-speed
gearbox was fitted, the brakes were
renewed, and the active-ride suspension
was overhauled and new dampers and
gas springs installed. Understandably
though, progress was slow: ‘I’m not
running a hobby shop,’ smiles Nigel,
‘so this was very much a part-time
project. It took five months just to get
the new engine fitted and everything
up and running, but that was fine.
I just wanted the car to be right.’
Numerous changes to the Silver Spur’s
interior were also decided upon, with
Nigel locating a pair of cocktail cabinets
from Flying Spares as well as installing
a pair of period in-car telephones
and a cleverly upgraded sound
system with Bluetooth connectivity.
‘I like cars with the maximum possible
specifications,’ says Nigel, ‘so it made
sense just to tweak the Silver Spur’s
spec to my personal preference.’
BACK ON THE ROAD
Nigel’s rejuvenated Silver Spur was
finally ready to return to the road
by 2018, since when it’s been used
extensively by him and his family: ‘I’m
not afraid to drive either of my cars,
so we’ll think nothing of taking the
Silver Spur on long trips. It’s been to
Reims, and it’s travelled all around
the UK – it’s not just a showpiece.’
Nevertheless, when Nigel’s Silver
Spur made its post-work debut at the
RREC’s 2018 Annual Rally, it scored
an impressive 87 points – but he’s
hoping for even better this year once a
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
 “The Silver Spur has a lower-ratio back axle than a Turbo R
– and so although the Bentley has the higher top speed, my
car is mind-bendingly fast off the line”

programme of fine detailing is complete,
and would obviously be delighted
to win the Silver Spirit/Spur class.
Experiencing Nigel’s Silver Spur today
is, of course, a joy. Rolls-Royces of the
1990s don’t come much more regal
than this, the extended wheelbase and
handsome Dark Sapphire paintwork
providing the perfect premium
combination. But it’s when you get to
experience the car’s immense power and
performance that it truly impresses, as
Nigel admits: ‘It catches a lot of people
by surprise, as they don’t expect that
kind of power from a classic Rolls-Royce.
The Silver Spur has a lower-ratio back
axle than a Turbo R – and so although
the Bentley has the higher top speed,
my car is mind-bendingly fast off the
line. It’s very, very quick indeed.’
A short time spent being chauffeured
around by Nigel in his lovingly crafted
Silver Spur confirms his observations. It’s
a car that uniquely combines astonishing
levels of standing-start and mid-range
acceleration with the kind of refinement,
peerless comfort and high-end luxury
you’d expect. And in that respect, it
might just be the ultimate variation
on the Rolls-Royce SZ theme. Q
THANK YOU
We’re grateful to Nigel Sandell for making
his glorious Silver Spur available to us
for this feature. To find out more about
the services he can offer today’s Rolls-
Royce and Bentley owners, go to nsandell.
com or call +44 (0)208 758 2322.

Sub-woofer and Rolls-Royce umbrellas

make unlikely companions in the boot

R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 21
MARKET WATCH
BUYING AND SELLING

MARKET WATCH
Each issue, we take a look at some of the most tempting cars for sale
and report on others that have sold – covering everything from
affordable modern classics through to the most premium-priced gems

S2 CONTINENTAL ‘SURVIVOR’ to buy into. Freshly restored

cars are lovely, but a ‘survivor’,

WAS CHAUFFEUR-DRIVEN well-used but equally well-looked-

after, has something you can’t reproduce.
A two-door car is an odd choice for and it drives beautifully now. It will This car also boasts its original Manshell
anyone intending to ride in the back, cruise effortlessly at 80mph – where parking lights to the front wings and a
but that was the role chosen for this that’s legal – and the brakes and Hershmann electric aerial, though the
exquisite 1961 two-door coupé by H.J. handling are perfect. It’s the cosmetic radio-cassette player is a couple of
Mulliner. It was ordered with some condition that I really like though; decades younger than the car – another
interesting features, most notably a the Mist Green paint is patinated and footnote in its long story. The odometer
removable head-rest on just one side flat, but the chrome is very good, reads 28,000, which Jonathan assumes
of the rear seat – the nearside – where while the interior is nicely mellowed. is once round the clock. Wouldn’t you
the first owner also had a reading light The carpet has been renewed and love to have the pleasure of adding many
fitted. Why choose such an arrangement nothing else is required, really.’ more thousand miles to this supremely
over a limousine, a standard saloon or The House of Commons Green useable grand tourer? The only obstacle
a four-door Flying Spur? Perhaps the hide looks supple and worn-in, but is the £235,000 asking price, but
appeal of the two-door Continental, undamaged, and while the dash veneers compared with values of fastback S1
probably the most expensive new car are crazed with age in some and R-type Continentals, it’s a snip!
in the world, provoked the greatest places, that’s the
pride of ownership, or perhaps the appeal you have
owner simply fell for the looks.
We could understand the latter
quite easily, especially nowadays: the
highly original form in which
the car has survived is
stunning. It’s with Ranmore
Service and Engineering
in Surrey, where Jonathan
Tait has been able to
drive it quite a bit to
assess its condition.
‘Mechanically, it’s
tip-top. It had a lot of
work that didn’t quite
amount to a full mechanical
restoration, but everything
required was properly tackled
Photos: Them Studio

22 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D

Photo: TheMarket
AUCTION TRENDS CATCH THE EYE
On page 88 of this issue, we hear
the inside story of the 1998 launch
events for the Rolls-Royce Silver
Seraph and the Bentley Arnage
from Peter Lavers, the man tasked
with organising those events. Peter
remains a keen enthusiast for both
marques and from the next issue of
RR&BD, he will be contributing market
analysis based on recent auction
sale prices for various models.
One of the first trends Peter
identified were gaps in the
relative values of Bentley and
Rolls-Royce versions of SY and
SZ-series, as he explains.
‘A Bentley T-Series was sold by
R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3
Delightful early T-series saloon
fetched £26,200; Corniche
made only £6000 more
Historics in February for £18,480, and
The Market sold one in January for
£26,200. This seems to confirm that
there's a premium for the much rarer
Bentley SY, with an average sale price
from the last 12 months of £13,277
versus the Silver Shadow average of
£8,933. This excludes the ex-Freddie
Mercury Silver Shadow, which sold at
£286,250 and totally skews the figures!
This phenomenon is not continued
into the SZ generation, where Bentleys
outnumber Rolls-Royces 2:1 on sale.
In fact, SZ Rolls-Royces are currently
selling at a premium above Bentleys -
£10,246 playing £9,668, on average.’
These are figures achieved at auction
and hence could be regarded as
wholesale prices, but the trends are
likely to be reflected in the much higher
prices asked for the best examples in
the retail market by specialist dealers.
Peter will be looking at various prices
and patterns in the coming months,
as well as spotting a few bargains.
‘Brightwells sold a 1980
Corniche Convertible in February
for £32,480, which looks very
tempting, while amongst the
online sellers, CarandClassic sold a
rather interesting 1994 Rolls-Royce
Silver Spur Limousine in February
for £13,750. Keep your eyes peeled and
there are still bargains to be found.’
Silver Spur limousine
- seating for eight at
only £13,750
23
MARKET WATCH
BUYING AND SELLING

9000 MILE MULSANNE

If you fancy benefitting from some
staggering depreciation, how
about £234,000 off a Bentley
Mulsanne from 2014? That’s the
amazing proposition offered by
one car on sale with Stewart Walker
Ltd in Newbury, Berkshire. It’s a
two-owner car, originally registered
to allow it to serve as a factory
demonstrator, and then owned by
a private collector, says Stewart.
‘The gentleman is getting older
and is thinning his collection. This
one is as-new; I don’t think it’s ever
seen rain and it’s only covered 9000
miles. The basic list price for these
cars was £260,000 and this one
has £53,000-worth of extras.’
The list of what’s fitted beyond
standard specification is almost
comical and would fill this page, but
highlights include a digital TV tuner,
ventilating and massage functions
for front and rear seats, curtains
to the rear compartment, rear and
side-view cameras and a 14-speaker
Naim audio system. The Mulsanne is
a significant model in Bentley history,
being the last to use the famous
L-series V8, but it’s rarely featured in
RR&BD. With 505bhp and a 184mph
potential, what’s it like on the road?
‘Take an Arnage, make it 50%
better in all regards, and it’s like that,’
says Stewart. ‘The build quality is
off the scale – better, in my opinion,
than a Rolls-Royce Phantom VII.’
Tempted? The car is available at
£78,995. See stewartwalkerltd.co.uk.

AFFORDABLE GLAMOUR?
This 1952 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith
limousine by H.J. Mulliner was due to
cross the block at Brightwells’ timed
sale on March 29th, a few days after we
went to press. Estimated at £30,000
to £35,000 it looked to be a useable
if not-quite-concours example that
could be one of the most affordable
routes into Silver Wraith ownership.
As the company’s flagship model –
costing considerably more than Silver
Dawn and its Bentley equivalent – the
Silver Wraith offered top-of-the-
tree limousine luxury to those who
were just a notch below Royalty or
heads of state, and were therefore
unable to order a Phantom IV.
This one must have found such
an owner in Dalkeith, just outside
Edinburgh, its first home. The car was
acquired by the vendor’s godfather
around 1990 and bequeathed to the
vendor on the condition he restore
it, some ten years ago, which was
partially completed when the car restored. It now shows the odd dent in need of a check-up after little
changed hands again before the and scratch in that flowing bodywork recent use. Find out what it fetched
vendor bought it back in 2018, fully but appears mechanically fit, though by going to brightwells.com.

24 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
 Internationally recognised
family business with a pride and passion
for Rolls Royce and Bentley marques

The highly-trained staff of The Beaconsfield Workshop boast countless

years’ experience of the prestigious Bentley and Rolls-Royce marques. Specialists in Pre and Post-war cars
Operating from state-of-the-art new premises set in rolling countryside,
yet just minutes from the Beaconsfield mainline station and M40
motorway, they are proud to offer the following services for both
modern and classic examples of the breed:

SERVICING AND MAINTENANCE | RESTORATION

BODY REPAIRS | REPAINTING | DETAILING

Workshop 1, Hall Barn Estate, Windsor End

Beaconsfield, Bucks, HP9 2SG
Tel: +44 (0)1494 675211
Email: tara@thebeaconsfieldworkshop.co.uk

www.thebeaconsfieldworkshop.co.uk
Follow us on

Motor Wheel Service

Renowned worldwide for the manufacture
and restoration of wire wheels

Speak to one of our specialists or visit our website to learn more about our range of
wheels, tyres, accessories and services to suit vintage and classic Bentley motor cars
www.mwsint.com
+44 (0)1753 549 360 info@mwsint.com
FEATURE CAR
BENTLEY EIGHT

26 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
 WORTH
WAITING FOR
Ron Webster overcame adversity to win an apprenticeship
with Rolls-Royce that became a 35-year career, then after
retirement he achieved an equally unlikely dream – his own
Bentley, despite being unable to hold a driving licence.
WORDS: WILL HOLMAN
P H OTO G R A P H Y: G R E G O RY OWA I N

R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 27
FEATURE CAR
BENTLEY EIGHT
‘W
hen I went to take my
driving test I knew
I’d fail because of my
eyesight, and I did,’
says Ron Webster. So why is he now
standing next to a 1990 Bentley Eight?
‘I was born with very poor eyesight,
and as a youngster I couldn't see below
my waist,’ he says. ‘As I got older my
eyesight improved slightly but I still
couldn't see the blackboard at school. I
went through mainstream education
with no help or assistance, and at 12 or
A BASIC BENTLEY? NOT REALLY!
The Eight (1984-92) was what
Bentley somewhat hilariously claimed
as an entry-level model. Bearing in
mind that one like Ron’s was more
than £70,000 when new in 1990, and
that the Brooklands was only around
£5000 more, this seems like an odd
market niche, especially as other
top-of-the-line executive saloons
were around the £30,000 mark.
28
13 the optician told my mother I’d never
work with detail, and would probably
be a labourer or menial worker. But
I never gave in, and in 1977 I got an
apprenticeship at Rolls-Royce. I was
ecstatic, and my mother was so proud
of me. I had to buy a moped to ride
the 10 miles to work. So I filled in the
paperwork for a provisional licence
and rode with L plates for two years,
which was allowed in those days.’
But after this period Ron had to
present himself for a test, which he had
A mesh grille distinguished the
Eight visually, and the lack of a
turbo made a big difference from
the driver’s seat – seats which on
early cars had cloth trim, although
leather became standard in 1987.
Originally intended as a UK market
only model, interest was high enough
for Bentley to offer the Eight in
Europe and North America too.
Crisp rear styling is one of the
SZ generation's best features
no chance of passing, and he was forced
to hand back his provisional licence.
‘When my licence was taken away,
a number of my apprentice friends
offered to take my test for me, but I
declined as I didn't want to get them
into trouble. I went to the top eye
specialist in the country who said there
was nothing they could do. I was 19
and I wasn’t allowed to drive – not
even a milk float. I then had to get lifts
or cycle 20 miles to and from work.
One night we were coming home from
night school, and we had a serious
car crash. My friend was driving and
was blinded by an oncoming car’s
headlamps. He swerved, clipped a
kerb and overturned the car. We didn't
have to wear seatbelts in those days
and I went through the windscreen.
‘We both ended up in hospital but
luckily we were alright. My mother
couldn't believe that I’d survived riding
motor bikes for two years without a
scratch and then within a few months
of losing my provisional licence I was in
a car crash. I finished my apprenticeship
a year later and moved to Crewe.’
After this major step, Ron began to »
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
Sales & Marketing of Fine Motor Cars the World Over

1924 Bentley 3 Litre Speed Model Vandenplas Style Tourer 1931 Bentley 8 Litre Vandenplas Style Tourer
£275,000.00 £1,150,000.00

1924 Bentley 3-4 1/2 Litre Lemans Tourer 1913 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost Colonial Open Drive Landaulette by Barker.
£440,000.00 £685,000

1910 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost “Rois-Des-Belges” style tourer by Cadogan 1933 Rolls-Royce Phantom II Continental Sedanca de Ville by Barker
£750,000.00 £190,000.00

1925 Rolls-Royce Phantom 1 Hooper all weather cabriolet 1920 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost Henri Binder Victoria Hood.
£150,000.00 £210,000.00

Attention to detail selling the world’s finest cars

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Viewings at our expanded Northampton showroom by appointment only
FEATURE CAR
BENTLEY EIGHT
do rather more than the menial jobs
his childhood optician had predicted.
‘During my apprenticeship I worked
in various departments to gain the
skills required. This was in the days of
the Silver Shadow, Silver Wraith and
Camargue. I worked on many famous
people’s cars – Princess Margaret,
Barry Sheen, Rod Taylor, to name a
few. And I worked with some great
craftsmen. When I came out of my
apprenticeship, I was put on the car
Driver's office is traditional and
un-cluttered, with a large, slim wheel
Automatic split-level climate control; temporary switch for fog
lamps has now gone!
30
assembly line working the interior
trim, fitting front screens, seats – all of
the things you see or touch in a car.
‘I worked on rectification for a good
few years, and I also became what was
termed a commando – we would fill in
anywhere within our trade for illness
cover etc. I then got involved with the
Corniche and limousine builds. I was part
of a team that brought these vehicles to
Crewe from Mulliner Park Ward (MPW).
The first day I went to MPW was the
Straight-grained walnut rather than ornate burr was another
Bentley Eight feature
day they handed out redundancy letters
at the Crewe factory, so we didn't know
if we had jobs to come home too.
‘I worked in the team on the Corniche
and limousine lines at Crewe, building
the Sultan of Brunei’s first 21 limos.
The cars we built had black interiors
and black paint for his ambassadors
to ferry people around. I see some of
them for sale every now and then.’
Ron stayed on the tools for 13
years then in 1993 an opportunity in
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
engineering opened up. It was only for
six weeks, to assist the zone engineer in
problem-solving issues on the build line.
He had a very good product knowledge
and had dealt with a lot of these issues
already. When the six weeks was up,
Ron’s manager told him he wanted Ron
to stay on. So it was back to college for
Ron, to get an ONC which he needed
to secure a position in engineering.
‘I later went on to achieve my HNC
and I took the Bentley Corniche Turbo
down the production lines as my
first new model introduction from an
engineering perspective,’ says Ron.
‘I’d worked on launch cars and show
cars before but only as a coachbuilder,
although I had been responsible for
some vehicles and sometimes had to
take the car keys home with me so
no one could get into the cars. That
probably wouldn’t happen today.’
In 1998 Ron enrolled at Staffordshire
Mesh grille, stainless
steel surround and
no headlamp wipers
mark out an Eight
R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3
“I did all the dismantling while he fixed
the wiring faults. It was just like old
times, except we were doing it on my
driveway rather than in Crewe ”
University and began an engineering driving a Bentley, if he bought one.
degree, landing the role of Senior ‘As you’d expect, she said yes, so
Engineer half-way through, a I started looking for a suitable car,
position he retained. Quite a and not long afterwards I found this
career for someone who couldn’t Bentley Eight. I bought it for £12,000
see the blackboard at school. from company in Glasgow, having seen
But in 2012, after a health scare, it advertised online. It looked pretty
Ron retired and moved to North good in the pictures and the seller
Wales at the age of 52. And in 2020, offered to fly me up to Scotland to
having spent a lifetime of not being have a look at it, so I thought they must
able to drive a motorised vehicle be a good company. I paid a deposit,
on the roads, he asked his partner, but when the car turned up it wasn’t
Katherine, whether she’d fancy as nice as I thought it was going to be. »
31
FEATURE CAR
BENTLEY EIGHT
It had some electrical problems so an
old colleague of mine, Dave Lee, came
down and I did all the dismantling while
he fixed the wiring faults. It was just
like old times, except we were doing it
on my driveway rather than in Crewe.
‘Dave also sent me a replacement
Parchment hide with
Spruce Green piping
32
ECU for the alarm, as that wasn’t
working either. And we had the seats
out because the seat ECU battery
leaked and wrecked the electronics. I
sent it to Bowling-Ryan (Rolls-Royce
& Bentley specialist in Manchester
– Ed) and they repaired it for me.
‘A lot of the people I used to work
with now run their own businesses
and so we took the Bentley up to one
of them on the outskirts of Crewe, to
have the air conditioning compressor
replaced. We also visited a paint shop
run by another ex-colleague and had a
Rear doors contain two speakers for
impressive all-round sound
No rear companion mirrors on the Eight,
but still a reading light
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
 Narrow-band
whitewalls on
Turbo R wheels Triple red coachline
- a later fitment is very sporty

impressive engine
bay is dominated
Stiffer front springs and firmer
by inlet manifold
damping means an Eight corners
and fuel distributor
better than the older Mulsanne

chat about the bodywork. He’s happy

to do it but we’ve been using it so much
I haven’t had time to get it done. The
woodwork has some lacquer work that
needs doing but again, I haven’t got
around to sorting that out yet either.
‘But I knew the Eight would want
some work doing when I bought it, and
with my knowledge and experience
of these vehicles, and all the people
I’ve worked with, I can usually get
most problems solved. Although once
when we got back from holiday we
got in the car and it sounded to me
as though the alternator bearing had
gone, so I took it off and replaced it,
but the noise was still there. It turned »

With trim in place, the boot is as smart

and capacious as you'd expect

Full set of tools and jacking equipment, plus the original

bottles of hydraulic fluid - now topped up with fresh fluid

R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 33
FEATURE CAR
BENTLEY EIGHT
Narrow gorge looks a bit tight for
the Eight, but we'll give it a go!
out that the steering rack was
leaking fluid into the rubber boots,
and the PAS reservoir was empty.
What kind of use have Ron and
Katherine had from the Bentley?
Any longer trips to experience
the Eight as a touring car?
‘We’ve done several “Bentley Tours,”
S PECI FI C AT I O N
1990 BENTLEY EIGHT
LENGTH: 5,310 mm (17ft 5in)
WIDTH: 1,890 mm (6ft 2in)
WEIGHT: 2,320.2 kg (5,115 lb)
ENGINE: 6.75-litre OHV V8
POWER: 240bhp@4000rpm
TORQUE: 300lb-ft@2000rpm
TRANSMISSION: three-speed auto
0-60MPH: 10.4secs
TOP SPEED: 126mph
COST NEW: £72,000
34
as we call them,’ says Ron. ‘We’ve been
to the south of England, and Kent. We
do a lot of miles in it. And we always let
people sit in it if they want to. If there’s
a car show on while we’re on a tour,
we always go along. Katherine loves
driving it. She’s a proper Bentley driver
too – not afraid to put her foot down.
‘I’ve gone all round the car taking
off some of the original polythene
protection that was still on the trim
from when we built the cars. It had
only done 48,000 miles when we
got it, that’s up to 54,000 now.’
Ron has mixed views on his old
employer’s current products. ‘The
new Rolls-Royces don’t have the
pedigree of the old cars, but the
new Bentley Continental range
looks really stylish – they’ve done a
good job on the 63X. The Bentayga
is like an Audi Q7 reskin though.
‘I think I was there for the best times.
The factory at Crewe is totally different
now, not the same place at all. The skills
are not the same as they were. When
we used to fit the door pads, you’d rest
them on your knee and the whole car
would rock as you muscled them into
place. Your knees would click when you
stood up. In those days it was all done
by hand. When I started at Rolls-Royce
and Bentley in 1977 the average house
price was £13,650 and a four-door
Bentley T2 was £22,800, so relatively
speaking the cars are cheaper now!’
It seems somehow wrong that after
a lifelong association with Crewe
products, Ron had never driven
one, and thankfully that unhappy
situation has now been righted.
‘I actually had a drive of my Bentley
on a huge private car park with
permission from the owners, and my
partner Katherine as co-pilot at the
end of last year. It was brilliant. After
45 years of being involved with
these cars I finally drove one!’ Q
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
 Servicing and restoring
post-war Rolls-Royce and
Bentley since 1985
Experience the Hythe Road ethos

01234 713871 | info@hillierhill.co.uk

Renowned for High Class Bodywork

Repairs &Painting since 1979

• Restoration • Chassis Fabrication Body Repairs • Overdrive Conversions

• Mechanical Repairs • Panel Fabrication • Lead Loading • Historic Rally Preparation
• Servicing • Paintwork • Wiring & Electrical • We also sell classic cars,
• Ash Framing • Steel & Aluminium Repairs please see our website
Hightone Restorations Limited, Hopcrofts Holt, Steeple Aston, Bicester, Oxon OX25 5QQ
Tel: +44 (0)1869 349003 | Email: info@hightone.co.uk | www.hightone.co.uk
YOUR SHOUT
READERS’ LETTERS

YOUR SHOUT
Got something to say about anything Rolls-Royce or
Bentley related? Then we want to hear 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

8-LITRE MEMORIES
I very much enjoyed reading Steve
Natale’s article on GY 31 in the Mar/Apr
issue of RR&BD which brought back
many memories. Dad bought GY 31 from
Dan Margulies in 1974, but the Freestone
& Webb body had already been sold to
go onto another chassis. Fred Hofmann,
who had built Bentleys for the family,
restored the car. It was the last car he
worked on before retiring in 1976.
The 8-Litre was finished in British
Racing Green, not black as stated in
the article. Dad sold the car in 1980 to
Mark Bamford of JCB. You mention the
tremendous cost of the restoration.
What the article fails to mention is that
at the same time, dad also built the
T-type single-seater race car, SSSC-
2 (featured in RR&BD, Winter 2017)
at even more cost and complexity.
Attached is an image of both Bentleys at
the Lex Mead dealership in Maidenhead.
As a footnote, my grandfather
Douglas owned the very first 8-litre,
GK 672, which was first owned by the
musician Jack Buchanan. This 8-litre
had an H J Mulliner saloon body
on a 13ft chassis. The car was also
restored by Fred Hofmann and won
the Kensington Gardens concours in
both 1952 & 1953. The car later was
owned by the Llewellyn family, but
is now owned by Bentley Motors.
Ben Eastick
Competitions Captain & Director
Bentley Drivers Club

In the Dorchester hotel,

The Easticks' T-type single-seater and GY 31 at Lex Mead in Maidenhead at the dinner dance!

At the annual Bentley Silverstone

meeting, 1977 or '78 The young Ben Eastick (centre) and family in GY 31, sometime in the late 1970s

36 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
 RECALL SHAME FROM
45 YEARS AGO
I was looking through a copy of Autocar
from February 1978 and this news story
caught my eye. I thought the phenomenon
of a ‘recall’ was a more recent one, but I see
Rolls-Royce were obliged to do it for 2500
cars around the world fitted with cruise
control some 45 years ago. It must have
been a rare piece of bad PR for the firm,
not least because there is no mention of
any ‘fix’ – just that cruise control systems
were disconnected, and new cars sent
out to their owners with non-functional
cruise control. Does anyone in RR&BD’s
readership own a Silver Shadow II, Silver
Wraith II, Camargue or Corniche from 1977
or early 1978 with cruise control that’s
never worked? Perhaps we now know why!
Chris Hutton
Doncaster

IN PRAISE OF
WINTER DRIVING
I just flicked though the
superb Rolls-Royce Bentley
Driver magazine and on the
last page read your article
about winter driving (Mar/
Apr issue, 2023). As you can
see in the photo attached, I
got caught in the snow while
in Bristol (I live in London)
in my Silver Cloud 3 and use
my cars in all weathers. So,
I agree that many are
missing out when put off
by the weather. I know lots
of people who simply won’t
even venture out in the rain.
I don’t have a ‘normal’ car, so
my fleet gets a lot of use.
Keep up the good work.
Will Bate
Sec. RREC Middlesex

R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 37
YOUR SHOUT
READERS’ LETTERS

ST MORITZ IN ‘76
Whilst having a sort-out in the loft
I came across these slides I took
back in 1976 on a skiing holiday at St
Moritz, of a smart Bentley in beautiful
surroundings. Perhaps you might want
to publish the enclosed in RR&BD.
Alex McKuhn

Thanks Alex! Does anyone recognise

this attractive early T-series or its
registration? It no longer shows up
on the DVLA computer and may be
abroad. The snowy theme goes nicely A stylish way to see the Engadin's winter wonderland
with another letter we received. – Ed

Registration number no longer known to DVLA

Making careful progress - on standard tyres?

A LOYAL READER WRITES

I felt the need to write to assure you and your
excellent staff that my interest and enthusiasm for the
magazine has not waned. I still eagerly look forward
to receiving the next issue; even with the postal
dispute the magazine manages to arrive promptly.
As ever, the last two issues were of the usual high
standard of variety, interest and enjoyment, and the Mar/
Apr issue promises to be just as interesting, informative
and entertaining. I have had a quick look through and I’m
looking forward to reading the feature ‘Quality of Life’ on
p.38, that gorgeous bronze Corniche. The road test of the
Bentley Continental Flying Spur on p.66 looks interesting.
Also, I particularly like the look of that Empress on p.16 and
the lovely Bentley on p.22. Hoping this letter reaches you.
Kind Regards,
Stephen Williams
Thank you, Stephen. Yes, problems with the post have
been an annoyance to us all, and I believe many readers
have not been so lucky with receiving subscription
copies on time. Apologies to all those affected, but
we do rely on Royal Mail for domestic deliveries and
national postal services in other countries for overseas
subscribers, so delays can be hard to eliminate. - Ed

38 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D

1939 Bentley 4¼ ‘Overdrive’ Park Ward Sports Saloon
Rare, handsome & desirable ‘M’ series car with much, well
documented, work done. Pleasing original interior, used for
Continental touring, ready & willing to go again! £88,000
Eight other interesting pre-war Bentleys: open/closed, 3½, 4¼
1949 rare Left Hand Drive Silver Dawn Sports Saloon
›’’—Š••¢ȱŽ•’ŸŽ›Žȱ ’ĵŽ›•Š—ǰȱ›¢ȱœ˜›Žȱ˜›ȱœ˜–Žȱ’–Žǯ
Now re-commissioned & running/driving well; £32,500
1949 S/Wraith HJ Mulliner Sedanca de Ville; £45,000
1949 Bentley MKVI HJ Mulliner 4 Dr S/Saloon; £32,500
1951 Bentley MKVI HJ Mulliner ‘Lightweight’ S/Saloon
Advanced, sporty & spacious design, sound throughout with
original Blue/Grey leather. Enjoyed enthusiastically by the last
2 owners, drives very nicely, ideal to just use & enjoy; £36,500
UNIQUE 1939 Experimental Bentley 4¼ - see website/video.
Visit our eBay Real Car Co Parts shop –
follow link on our website.
HANWELLS
1975
OF LONDON
2012/62 Bentley Flying Spur Mulliner..Finished in
\UTHYRLK/HSSTHYR:PS]LY^P[OPUJO4\SSPULY
alloys and electric sunroof. The interior is in
Linen leather with contrast stitching and Beluga
ZLJVUKHY` OPKL -P[[LK ^P[O YLHY WHYR JHTLYH
6US`  TPSLZ ^P[O -:/ 2UV^U [V \Z MVY
last 6 years. Immaculate throughout .....£37,250
2008/08 Bentley Arnage T Mulliner Sports Combination
(Level 2) PU )SHJR :HWWOPYL ^P[O   PUJO [^V
piece blade design alloys, electric sunroof and
-S`PUN)THZJV[*V[Z^VSKPU[LYPVY^P[OKHYR
stained Burr Walnut veneers and picnic tables.
6US`TPSLZ^P[OMVYTLYRLLWLYZHUK
FSH. Immaculate condition ..................£46,950
1997 R Bentley Turbo RT. This rare Limited Edition
PZ ÄUPZOLK PU 4HZVUZ )SHJR ^P[O :VM[ )SHJR
PU[LYPVY HUK >HSU\[ ]LULLYZ ^P[O 4\SSPULY
Z\YYV\UKZ VU [OL NH\NLZ HUK :VM[ )SHJR
JHYWL[Z4HPU[HPULKYLNHYKSLZZVMJVZ[MVYSHZ[
4 years. Full Service History. Immaculate, an
investment at only .......................... only £21,950
1985 B Bentley Mulsanne PU \UTHYRLK +LLW
Ocean Blue with twin headlamps, alloy wheels
and a Cream coachline. The interior is Beige
leather and French Navy carpets piped in Beige,
^P[O >HSU\[ ]LULLYZ 6US`  TPSLZ ^P[O
SHYNLOPZ[VY`ÄSL3V]PUNS`JHYLKMVYP[»Z[OLILZ[
`V\^PSSÄUK ..................................... Only £18,950
1963 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud III LWB By James
Young.. 6ULVMVUS`PU[OL^VYSK;OPZILH\[PM\SS`
LSLNHU[JHYPZÄUPZOLKPU\UTHYRLK+V]L.YL`
V]LY (Z[YHROHU ^P[O )LPNL PU[LYPVY HUK WPJUPJ
[HISLZ ;OL ^VVK ]LULLYZ HYL SPRL UL^ 6US`
TPSLZ^P[OOPZ[VY`6US`V^ULYZ;V[HSS`
immaculate throughout ........................ £149,000
OVER 60 ROLLS-ROYCE &
BENTLEY IN STOCK
All vehicles have a full 20,000 mile service plus a 100 point check and
1 year MoT, together with a 24 month 5 star warranty (parts and labour)
Open 7 days a week for appointments
BROADWAY, 86-88 UXBRIDGE ROAD, LONDON W7 3ST
Tel: 0208 567 6557 / 0208 567 9729
After Hours: 01932 224872
Email: sales@hanwells.com
Web: www.hanwells.com
2023
2009/58 Bentley Continental GTC W12 Mulliner. One
V^ULY HUK VUS`  TPSLZ -PUPZOLK PU 3PNO[
;\KVY.YL`ZWLJPHSVYKLY^P[OPUJOHSSV`ZHUK
H )SHJR OVVK 3PULU SLH[OLY PU[LYPVY ^P[O
contrast stitching, Grey carpets and Piano
)SHJR]LULLYZ:LY]PJLKL]LY``LHYH[)LU[SL`
4HPU+LHSLY;OL]LY`ILZ[ ............. Only £59,995
2004/54 Bentley Continental GT. Finished in
\UTHYRLK4VVUILHT:PS]LY^P[O PUJOZWSP[YPT
HSSV`Z :HɈYVU SLH[OLY PU[LYPVY 5H\[PJ )S\L
ZLJVUKHY` OPKL HUK )\YY 6HR ]LULLYZ ^P[O
veneered inlays to doors and rear quarters. Recent
Z[LYLVHUKZH[UH]\WNYHKL^P[OYLHYWHYRJHTLYH
7LYMLJ[OPZ[VY`VUS`TPSLZ .............£20,950
1997 P Bentley Turbo RL. -PUPZOLK PU )SHJR
:HWWOPYL ^P[O H *YLHT JVHJOSPUL HUK  PUJO
alloys. The interior is in Cotswold with French
5H]`JHYWL[ZHUK>HSU\[]LULLYZ6US`
miles with Full Service History, with invoices.
;OPZJHYSVVRZHUKKYP]LZSPRLUL^HUKT\Z[IL
seen. .........................................................£21,950
1970 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow Series I. Finished
PUJVTWSL[LS`\UTHYRLK:L`JOLSSLZ)S\L^P[OH
single Shell Grey coachline. The Shell Grey
interior is in almost new condition. The French
Navy carpets with Shell Grey piping are as new.
Very comprehensive history. Immaculate
throughout, an investment at only ..only £25,950
1963 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud III. Finished in
original Burgundy, with London Tan leather.
Special order folding rear seats by Rolls Royce
appointed agents Radford. Extremely well
maintained with just 4 owners and a large
OPZ[VY` ÄSL KH[PUN IHJR [V   1\Z[ 
TPSLZHUKVɈLYLKH[VUS`.......................£79,999
ROAD TRIP
BENTLEY EIGHT

Sam and Neil, toasting

their progress so far

BAVARIA, BEER…
AND A BENTLEY?
What could be more out of character for a dedicated fan of the Eastern
Bloc’s four-wheeled offerings than the knee-jerk purchase of an
enormous Bentley? Sam Glover recounts this unusual blip in his car
history from 2015, and attempts to explain…
WORDS: SAM GLOVER P H OTO G R A P H Y: V L A D I M I R VOZOV I K

B
uying a Bentley Eight was the
solution to our problem. The
problem was interesting.
It had begun eight months
previously, when I’d bought an AWS
Shopper in Traunstein, Bavaria. For
the uninitiated, a Shopper is a piece of
German 1970s exhibition furniture with
a 247cc Goggomobil engine. It’s notable
for its clip-together tubular structure,
bright orange plasticised steel panels
and astonishingly buoyant production
run of c1700. My friend Frank Walther
– a classic car pervert, mechanic and
dealer – had offered me the Shopper
at a suitably low price and I’d been
unable to resist its ridiculousness.
I’d spent three weissbier-fuelled
long weekends in Frank’s workshop
administering the mechanical
improvements necessary for a TÜV
(a German MoT). Coventry enthusiast
Neil Campbell and I had then flown
to Traunstein to attempt to drive it to

40 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
 This thing is an AWS Shopper, certainly
an unusual route into Bentley ownership
the
Initial repairs were carried out on
the UK. The attempt had failed after
three miles, when the offside universal
joint that connected the driveshaft
to the transaxle had disintegrated.
As the driveshaft doubled as the
lower suspension link, the rear wheel
had flapped around uselessly and
we’d bounced into the gutter, the
flailing driveshaft leaving a furrow
in the polished German tarmac.
We’d established that replacement
parts would not be forthcoming.
Our conclusion was that we needed
a superior means of transport.
‘You could buy my Bentley for
£3000!’ suggested Frank, displaying a
seamless combination of benevolence
and capitalism. It was exactly the sort
of Bentley that you should not buy. Its
undocumented mileage was 155k, it
had no service history and its interior
was soiled and worn. It’d received a
four-sevenths decent respray that’d
clearly involved an industrial quantity
of body filler. Its thrusting red paint
R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3
Two tons of temptation - just add beer
Sam begins the process of waking
showroom floor
‘”You could buy my Bentley for £3000!”’
suggested Frank, displaying a seamless
combination of benevolence and capitalism’
and cocaine-white interior were a
comic pastiche of 1980s excess. Its
glovebox housed a British racing green
baseball cap bearing the Bentley logo,
a similarly branded faux-silver cigarette
case, a fake Rolex and a pair of red
leatherette driving gloves, suggesting
that its previous custodian had either
had a sense of humour or had taken
Bentley ownership rather too seriously.
Frank had bought it on a whim at
the Beaulieu Autojumble four years
previously and it’d since languished
unregistered, unloved and unsold in his
showroom. ‘It is a great conversation
piece,’ Frank enthused, ‘but they are
not conversations that end in people
the sleepy Bentley
giving me money!’ We spent the evening
at a brewery. The more beer we drank,
the more appealing Bentley ownership
became. By last orders, we’d convinced
ourselves that it was an excellent
idea. It was just as ridiculous as the
Shopper, we reasoned, but its 6750cc
V8 placed it squarely at the opposite
end of the ridiculousness spectrum.
MAKING IT
ROADWORTHY…ISH
Awakening the Bentley from its four-
year stupor was a solid day’s work. Frank
disappeared into his museum of car
batteries and returned with a healthy »
41
ROAD TRIP
BENTLEY EIGHT
specimen, which he installed. We drained
the sad brown ooze from the petrol tank
and replaced it with 20 litres of finest
German E10. The electric fuel pump
was unresponsive, so I uncomfortably
extricated it from its rusty nest ahead
of the rear wheels. Purging it of
ectoplasm, exercising it by hand and
exfoliating its electrical connections
got it working, but not, as it turned out,
very well. When back in its nest and
furnished with fresh hoses, it supplied
Both a snack and a description
of the Bentley
did the trick
m defenceless Jaguar
Fuel pump swiped fro
Which would you rather drive back
42
just enough fuel to get the engine
idling, but greater demand emptied the
carburettors’ float chambers faster than
it could fill them. On the plus side, the
car appeared to be broadly functional.
The engine sounded fundamentally
decent and the self-levelling rear
suspension eventually rose to action,
relieving the car of its undignified
arse-down stance and making it
possible to traverse the step on the
exit of Frank’s showroom. It burbled
from Bavaria?
Head gasket departing
in a cloud of oily steam
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
 Neil, trying not to add up the fuel bills in his head
On the road at last, across wintry Germany
groggily into the Bavarian sunshine.
Shifting the Bentley to a two-post
ramp in Frank’s workshop enabled more
intensive and luxurious titivation. The
fuel pump was replaced with a superior
item borrowed from a Jaguar XJ6 on
a neighbouring ramp. Happy revving
and a decent idle came as a reward for
partially stripping, cleaning, lubricating
and exercising the two bucket-sized
SU carburettors. Both of the exhausts’
downpipe-to-manifold joints were
blowing badly. Their six fossilised nuts
and bolts refused to be tightened or
undone, so had to be removed surgically
with a nut splitter, a disc cutter and foul
language in English and German. New
fasteners and a lavish smear of exhaust
putty nearly solved the problem.
The Bentley’s underside sported
a rich tapestry of oil leaks, worn
suspension components, dubious
welding and crustiness, but none of
the issues it displayed were critical
to forward motion. We replaced the
coolant, engine oil and LHM brake/
suspension fluid. We topped up the
R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3
On the banks of the Rhine in Bacharach
‘Poking haphazardly at relays and
various verdant connections restored
approximately 75% of electrical functions.’
automatic transmission fluid, checked
the final drive oil and corrected the
tyre pressures. Poking haphazardly at
relays and various verdant connections
restored approximately 75% of electrical
functions. An array of sundry items
were checked, twiddled, adjusted or
lubricated – or a combination thereof.
An evening test-thrash proved highly
satisfactory. It drove far better than
a car in its unloved condition had any
right to. We asserted that no further
workshop action was required.
BLIGHTY OR BUST?
We figured that a lack of tax and
MoT would be of little concern to
continental authorities. A friend of
Frank’s arranged temporary third-party
insurance that’d get us as far Calais.
This done, we pointed the Bentley
west and accelerated towards the
next petrol station. It was majestic on
the Autobahn, retaining good grace
and stability at speeds well above
100mph. The clatter of its still-blowing
downpipe joints marred its refinement
but added a certain Wagneresque
grandeur. Munich and Stuttgart were
swiftly dispatched, and we arrived at the
spectacular Sinsheim Technical Museum
in time for lunch and a supermarket
sweep of its star exhibits, most notably
the Concorde and Tupolev Tu-144
‘Concordski’ mounted above its roof.
The Bentley attracted approval in
the car park, despite the oily smell that »
43
ROAD TRIP
BENTLEY EIGHT
‘After three days
and 900 miles in
its presence, it’d
completely won
me over. It was
fast, comfortable,
charismatic and
really good to drive.’
Almost home, the Eight was a snug but manageable fit in the Eurotunn
pervaded the air and the oily puddles
that sullied the tarmac. The smell,
the puddles and the reception were
constants wherever we dismounted. We
had worried that the car would be seen
as jingoistic or show-offish and that we’d
be greeted with hostility. Instead, it was
generally viewed as exotic and eccentric,
attracting curiosity and, occasionally,
admiration. A pre-departure check at
Sinsheim revealed that the coolant
level had diminished slightly. A wisp of
steam from the exhausts on start-up
suggested a mild head gasket leak.
The engine’s temperature control
remained impeccable, however, so we
decided not to let it slow us down.
We got bored of the Autobahn at
Mannheim and loosely followed the
Rhine valley by A- and B-road. The
Bentley excelled on the twisty and
44
el train car
undulatory single-carriageways. Its
grunty and guttural V8 provided
commanding acceleration. Steep inclines
had little effect on performance and
lesser road-users were easily left in its
steamy wake. I was impressed by its
sure-footedness, poise and chuckability.
I enjoyed experimenting with how fast
it could be thrown into sharp, damp
corners. Oversteer was achieved, but
always in a dignified fashion. Neil’s
job was to wiggle relays whenever the
headlights went out, which tended
to happen when braking heavily into
hairpins. We called it a night at the
extremely German town of Bacharach.
The Bentley breakfasted on a litre
of coolant and a half-litre of engine oil.
Start-up was particularly steamy, but
the engine regained its composure as
soon as it was up to temperature and
Technological marvels lined up
together at the museum in Sinsheim
its performance remained un-blunted.
We resumed Autobahn-storming and
reached Bruges by lunchtime. We
sipped Westvleteren 12 – considered
by some to be the finest beer in the
world – in the city’s market square and
watched the afternoon sun glistening
on our illegally-parked Bentley. Life,
we reckoned, could be pretty damn
good. We visited a supermarket to
buy beer, wine, petrol and coolant,
then roared on to Calais. Eurotunnel
delivered us to Folkestone. We bottled
out of driving such a conspicuous car
around the M25 without tax or MoT, so
we abandoned it on a nearby friend’s
drive and prostrated ourselves to public
transport. I recovered it by trailer.
I’d bought the Bentley because I was
drunk and thought it was funny. Its initial
appeal was entirely ironic. However,
after three days and 900 miles in its
presence, it’d completely won me over.
It was fast, comfortable, charismatic
and really good to drive. That it was all
of these things despite its advanced
state of decrepitude was testament to
the quality of its engineering. I found
myself admiring it in a totally un-ironic
way. It managed to project an air of
respectability despite its rust bubbles
and onanistic 1980s colour scheme. I
decided to keep it. Sadly, however, the
price of giving it the mechanical overhaul
it deserved caused me to reconsider. This
was eight years ago, and the cost of the
requisite parts would’ve bought a better
Bentley Eight. I sold it on eBay at a small
loss. In retrospect, I wish I’d kept it. Q
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
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INTERVIEW
STEVE HUBBARD
M E E T
THE VINTAGE SILVER GHOST
An unusual ‘Meet the Experts’ introduces us to Steve Hubbard, whose
extraordinary three-volume work The Vintage Silver Ghost has completed
the printed history of the most influential of all Rolls-Royce cars
P H OTO G R A P H Y: S T E V E H U B B A R D / VA R I O U S
Where and when did your interest
in Rolls-Royce, and particularly
the 40/50hp, begin?
‘My great uncle was a chauffeur for
the Mackintosh family and when I
was growing up, he would visit my
home town of Halifax, always in a new
Bentley. Sometimes he would give me a
lift to school in the car and that sparked
my interest in them. My wife and I
bought a Silver Cloud III in the 1980s
then a Silver Shadow II and in 1996 I
bought a 1938 Wraith, in scrapyard
condition. In 1994 I saw a new book,
‘The Vintage Silver Ghost’ book set,
ISBN 987-0-95445-270-4,
published 9th December 2021.
Barker Torpedo shown on the Rolls-Royce
stand 279 at the 1922 Olympia Show, on
1922 chassis 27-RG. The car was bought by
John James Sainsbury, of Highgate, North
London, proprietor of the grocery chain. It
was finished in Black with polished aluminium
deck, and scarlet crocodile grain leather.
46
T H E E X P E R T S
The Edwardian Rolls-Royce by Fasal
and Goodman. I was blown away by the
early photographs in that book, many
by coachbuilders and many of Silver
Ghosts in their first ownership. That
caught my interest in the Silver Ghost,
or more correctly the 40/50hp. I started
looking at Silver Ghosts at RREC rallies
and quickly discovered that most of the
Silver Ghosts I saw and photographed
were NOT in The Edwardian Rolls-
Royce, because that book only
covered cars built up to WW1, and
the majority were built after 1919.’
Claude Johnson commissioned this
Coupé Brougham body from Barker &
Co (Coachbuilders) Ltd. on 1919 chassis
10-LW as a trials car (demonstrator), for
his personal use. Here it is seen in Hyde
Park with the second Mrs. Claude Johnson,
formerly Evelyn Maud Mill (1880 – 1955)
and chauffeur Collins, early in 1920. Maud
had been CJ’s girlfriend since 1906, when
she was working as a barmaid in Cambridge.
He created a job for her publicising Rolls-
Royce cars from her own office at 37 South
Molton Street, in London’s Mayfair district.
By 1909 they were living together, and
by 1912 they had a daughter together,
but they had to wait until 1919 to marry,
following the death of CJ’s first wife Fanny
on 15th December 1918 in the influenza
epidemic. CJ referred to Maud by her nom
d’amour, Mrs. Wigs. She referred to the car
as her Black Coupé. CJ also kept another
Silver Ghost Open Tourer in the garage
alongside it, along with a Ford Model T
wagonette, nicknamed ‘The Ambulance’,
and a Morris Cowley Open Tourer.
So that was the genesis of the
idea to write your own book?
‘After I bought The Edwardian Rolls-
Royce I started a list of registration
and chassis numbers of the Silver
Ghosts I saw and photographed. In
1998 I went to the RREC HQ, The
Hunt House at Paulerspury and saw
Peter Baines, the General Secretary.
He showed me the build records for
all the early cars and he encouraged
me to write the book. He said that it
was a missing piece of the Rolls-Royce
story, and he knew that no-one else
Hooper bodies 5413 and 5422 were a pair of
identical limousines for the Emperor of Japan,
on 1920 chassis 21-UE and 38-UE. They were
high roof bodies to enable the occupants
to wear top hats. Wheels, body and bonnet
were painted Imperial Red of Japan, gold
lined with black mouldings. Upholstery
was light grey woollen cloth to interior and
red leather to match paintwork in front.
Hooper body no. 5205 Open Drive Limousine
for Viscount Lascelles, of Chesterfield House,
Mayfair, London W.1., on 1920 chassis 34-EE.
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D

Steve Hubbard at the wheel of 46-PK some 90 years
after the photo below. In the intervening years the
car had carried an ambulance body and a home-made
estate wagon, before having a replica of its original
coachwork fitted in 2003. (Photo Graham Mead)
This 1920 chassis 50-RE was shipped to India complete with a light metal
domed roof Limousine body by H. J. Mulliner & Co. There it was bought by The
Maharaja of Jodhpur along with chassis 47-RE, which had an H. J. Mulliner & Co.
6-Seater Open Tourer body. The Limousine body from 50-RE was transferred
to 47-RE and this Barker Torpedo body was transferred onto 50-RE. It became
common practice in India to remove the paint from car bonnets, as the heat of
the sun tended to melt it anyway. Gradually it became fashionable to polish
the entire aluminium body on cars for India and elsewhere. (Photo: Gil Fuqua)

Frederick Henry Royce at the wheel of experimental chassis 46-PK at

his summer home Elmstead at West Wittering. It was fitted with the new
engine 7EACII and was to become the first New Phantom. It is seen here This Hooper Touring Phaëton on 1921 Alpine Eagle chassis
with its second Hooper body Number 6559, and was Royce’s personal 34-MG is painted in Celadine and Black. It was sold new to Lt.
transport replacing 6-EX. The photograph was taken by Ernie Wooler. Col. Sir John Ganzoni, M.P., who later became Baron Belstead.

was doing it. Early in 1998 I started

to compile a list of every Silver Ghost
built after the Great War. Little did
I realise when I started that the list
would grow into an appendix of over
5,000 chassis built both in Derby
and Springfield, Massachusetts in
the USA between 1919 and 1926.’
The book's reception has been
extremely positive - what
have you enjoyed most?
‘The book has been received well
particularly in Australia and the
USA as well as the UK. I have
enjoyed becoming part of a Ghostly
community of Silver Ghost owners and
enthusiasts who “talk Ghost” wherever
they are. I have become friends with
some well-known Silver Ghost owners
in the three countries mentioned and
learned enormously from them. Some
‘Peter Baines said that it was a missing
piece of the Rolls-Royce story, and he
knew that no-one else was doing it’
of the greatest Ghost experts have
told me that they have learned things
they didn’t previously know from my
book. That has been gratifying. Many
people said I would never finish it. It
took me 23 years, and many people
who would have bought it had passed
away by the time it arrived! Restorers
have been particularly appreciative
of the book because they can look up
the ‘On Test’ date and then trace all
the Production Modifications prior
to that, so they know the precise
specification of every chassis.’
Can you tell us something you
learned while researching
the book that surprised you,
or was unknown before?
‘Several things came as great surprises.
In 1919 development on a left-hand
drive Silver Ghost was started in
Springfield then in mid-1920 it was
stopped. The American Silver Ghost
was produced as a right-hand drive
car until 1924. This decision probably
doomed the project before it was even
started. It is often stated that Rolls-
Royce only built chassis and did not »

R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 47
INTERVIEW
STEVE HUBBARD

build complete cars until after WW2.
This was not true of the American
Rolls-Royce, which was built as a
complete car, with coachwork built
under strict control by sub-contract
coachbuilders, but brought back in
house to be painted and trimmed
by Rolls-Royce Custom Coach Work
(RRCCW), part of Rolls-Royce of
America Inc. from the outset. The only
exceptions to this rule were external
companies such as Brewster which
bought chassis from the English works.’
The first volume contains 468
photographs, few of which readers
will have seen before. How did
you go about sourcing them?
‘Coachbuilders used photographs
to sell their different body styles.
I was able to buy many of these
photographs on Ebay, and in the case
of the coachbuilder Mann Egerton
of Norwich I visited the company
archivist at her home, where she had
the original albums showing all their
completed cars. Lord Cholmondeley
invited me to Houghton Hall in Norfolk
to copy the Silver Ghosts in the family
photograph albums. The Jacques
Henri Lartigue archive in France gave
me special permission to reproduce
and crop Lartigue’s photographs of
Pierre Boucard’s Silver Ghosts with
skiff bodies by Labourdette of Paris.
The late Wing Commander Ken Wallis
invited me to his home in Norfolk to
copy photographs from his albums.
The majority of these photographs
have never been published previously,
certainly not in a book about
Rolls-Royce cars. I also had great
co-operation from the auction houses,
particularly Bonhams, Sothebys and
H&H. I also received photographs from
P & A Wood and Vintage and Prestige.’
Studying a certain model can make it
even more desirable - what would be
your perfect vintage Silver Ghost?
‘My perfect vintage Silver Ghost would
be a very light weight sporting body
of the type built by Labourdette
of Paris, also the Cunard special for
Capt. Broomhall, which was known
to be the fastest production Silver
Ghost ever built, and the Sporting
Four Seater by Carrosserie Georges
Gangloff. Also, the Americans built
some very desirable Piccadilly
Roadsters on the Silver Ghost chassis.’
The original owners of these
cars were often fascinating -
what's your favourite tale?
‘In 1920 Charles H. Anderson, a
professor of mechanical engineering at
the University of Kentucky, contacted
his good friend Maurice Olley at the
Rolls-Royce factory in Springfield,

Front view of 72-MG. The car was fitted

with Whitehead front wheel brakes. This
modification made the car, according to
Mike Evans with his good friend and neighbour Bill Tatam at Calke Abbey on 11th August Rolls-Royce Limited, a “bedevilled chassis”,
2013, shortly after completing the restoration of chassis 72-MG, the fastest production Silver which no authorised distributor or dealer
Ghost. The car was specially built jointly by Rolls-Royce Ltd and Cunard Motor & Carriage was allowed to touch until such time as it
Co. Ltd., Napier’s dedicated coachbuilder for Capt. Maurice Broomhall, and took 32 months was reverted to original specification. Mike
to complete. Broomhall’s sole purpose for the car was to ‘see off’ the new 3-litre Bentley, decided to leave the Whitehead brakes in
which it did in a road race on the Great North Road with Frank Clement driving the Bentley. place as they were part of the car’s history.

This Sporting Four Seater by Carrosserie
Georges Gangloff of Geneva, Zurich and
Colmar, was supplied to Baron Jean Jacques
de Bonstetten, of Berne, Switzerland, on
1922 High Speed Alpine Eagle chassis
2-HG. In 1928 the car was bought by
Randolph Trafford of Michaelchurch
Court, Herefordshire and well-known
aviator, whilst staying at his Geneva
home. (Photo James Baxendale OBE).
This is the very first body built by Rolls-Royce
Custom Coach Work, and was a prototype
for the Tilbury design. Body no. 12211 is
stamped throughout the body. It has one
front door on one side and one rear door
on the other. First built on Derby chassis
27-PB around 1921, it was sold to England
in 1992 where the body and chassis were
parted. This historic body is now fitted to
Derby chassis 2-LE. (Photo: Dr Ric Naish)
Mayfair Town Car by Rolls-Royce Custom
Coach Work built by Merrimac Body
Co. body no. M1010 for Mrs. B. M. Duke
(wife of the Tobacco King) of New York
on 1924 chassis 353-LF. The car is now
owned by Dr David Forward, author of
‘The Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost - Origins
and Development 1906 – 1926’.

48 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
Massachusetts and asked to purchase
one of the first cars off the new
assembly line. It is interesting to note
that Professor Anderson had an income,
beyond his academic salary, as a result
of developing and patenting a process
for producing “puffed” cereals. In 1921
he took a train to Springfield and
collected chassis 90-LG, fitted with a
rudimentary bench seat and windshield
but no top or doors, as used by the
factory for road testing and transfer
to the coachbuilder for construction
of a formal body. Professor Anderson
drove it that way for at least 24 years.
‘Apparently, every summer during
break Professor Anderson would drive
90-LG from Lexington, Kentucky to
Springfield and stay with the Olleys
as their guests while 90-LG was
serviced and updated to the current
factory specifications. The trips to
and from Lexington, Kentucky, were
always made on his open chassis. His
appearance, on arrival, with dirty, mud-
spattered, grey sweater and tousled,
wind-blown hair, was scarcely that of
the typical scholar. The current owner
David Morrison has restored the car
This June 1926 chassis S295-PL first carried
a Brewster Stratford Convertible Coupe body
B2830, then a Brewster Warwick Limousine
body B5400, and finally this Piccadilly
Roadster by Merrimac Body Co. M1668. It
was first owned by the film director Josef von
Sternberg, who discovered Marlene Dietrich,
in 1929. (Photograph by Brad Zemcik)
Photographed here in 1934 Professor
Anderson has at last compromised and has
had a hood fitted behind the seats, perhaps
the result of being caught out in the rain
once too often! (Photo: David Morrison)
R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3
‘My perfect vintage Silver Ghost would
be a very light weight sporting body of
the type built by Labourdette of Paris’
to exactly the way it was in 1921 when
Professor Anderson took delivery.’
‘The Vintage Silver Ghost’ is a
huge three-volume set in slipcase,
priced at £495. How did you
decide to self-publish the book?
‘I had several in-depth discussions with
publishers prior to deciding to self-
publish. The discussions convinced me
that if I allowed a publisher to have my
book it would become theirs in every
way. Not only would they overrule
me on editorial decisions, they would
control the viability of the book by
taking all the commercial decisions,
including how many to print and
what price to charge, and they would
determine how long it would remain
on their current titles list until it was
‘remaindered’ (sold off at a discounted
Here is Professor Anderson photographed
in 1921 shortly after he collected chassis
90-LG from the Springfield Factory with its
delivery / test rig seat and windshield, the
way he kept the chassis for the duration of his
ownership. Note the front wing already looks
battered and is clearly not new, whereas the
rear wing looks new. (Photo: David Morrison)
Here is the chassis in the midst of the
Coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The only
difference since we saw the chassis in 1934 is
that the wings have lost much black paint and
gained 86 years of rust! (Photo: Brad Zemcik)
price). It was vitally important to me
that I retained control over these
decisions. It is my book, with the
quality look and feel that I wanted, the
layout that I wanted, and it will not be
remaindered. It was worth the financial
risk to me in order to achieve that.
‘I got to know the designer, Richard
Charnley through the RREC’s Silver
Ghost Register magazine which I edited,
and he was willing to create the layout
for the book, which worked out to be
excellent. I decided to print just 400
copies and I told myself I’d be doing
alright if I sold around 150 copies in
the first 18 months. I’ve actually done
considerably better than that.’ Q
To learn more about the book,
or purchase it, see www.
vintagesilverghost.com
Photographed again in 1924 on the
University of Kentucky campus. Despite
Professor Anderson’s wealth from his
patents, he chose not to have a body built for
his chassis, giving him the appearance of an
eccentric academic. (Photo: David Morrison)
This is the product that Rolls-Royce
of America built, operating exactly
as it did when it was new, 100 years
ago. (Photo: Brad Zemcik)
49
FEATURE CAR
1987 ROLLS-ROYCE SILVER SPIRIT

FIRST THE
MASCOT, THEN
THE CAR… WORDS: NIGEL BOOTHMAN P H OTO G R A P H Y: G R E G O RY OWA I N

50 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
 Lee Whiting was five years old when his parents bought him
a Flying Lady mascot from a Rolls-Royce. He would polish it to
perfection, but did he really believe he might drive a Rolls-Royce of
his own one day? Good things come to those who wait!
‘I
t’s true, I’ve wanted one since I
was five years old,’ says Lee. ‘I
honestly don’t know whether the
mascot I was given had come off
a Silver Shadow or a Silver Cloud – it
was a long time ago – but to start with,
it was a Shadow that I wanted. Then,
after driving a few examples, I decided I
preferred the way the Silver Spirit drove.’
By this time, almost 35 years had
passed since the small boy first got
his hands on Eleanor Thornton’s
likeness. Lee had enjoyed a varied
working life in advertising, plumbing
R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3
and finally as a painter and decorator,
and in his late 30s was in a position to
become a Rolls-Royce owner at last.
‘I thought, if I don’t buy one now…’ Lee
smiles, remembering the feeling, clearly
still relieved that he took the plunge.
It took some guts to select a car that
Lee knew wasn’t a perfect example, as
a tempting sale price can often mean
a much less pleasurable bill for all the
corrective work that comes next.
‘It was an okay example,’ says Lee,
‘probably about 70% good. The only
rust was on a sill, and I made sure I
bought a car with faults I could sort
out myself, for the most part.’
Early steps included a thorough
clean, underneath as well as the
more obvious spots, and then some
undersealing to keep the hull in good
shape. It’s a process Lee repeats
from time to time, as he uses the car
all year round, ‘little but often’. Also
sorted out as the months went by
were new brake discs, front and rear
dampers, spring cups and injectors.
New tyres improved the car too:
‘The old ones were really noisy, but
the new Avons were so much nicer,’ says
Lee. ‘They made a huge difference.’
The rear bumper had rotted
inside, so Lee dismantled it and was
able to replace the rusty sections
and reassemble. But we’re getting
ahead of ourselves – what had
Lee actually bought, and why?
KNOW WHAT YOU WANT
‘It’s a 1987 Silver Spirit, the first model
year that any cars were fitted with
fuel injection for the UK market,’ says
Lee. ‘I didn’t want a carb-fed model
and I preferred the newer dashboard
layout, but at the same time I didn’t
want anything too new with active ride,
so when I found this one in Walton-
on-Thames, not far from my home in
Surrey, it seemed to fit the bill. It had
been chauffeur driven, so there was
some wear to the back seat, and I was
able to replace the rear seat cushion
with one I had re-coloured to match.’
It doesn’t show anything like 88,000
miles-worth of wear now, but then »
51
FEATURE CAR
1987 ROLLS-ROYCE SILVER SPIRIT
Renewed rear seat squab fits right in
neither does the rest of the car. You
can’t spend long with Lee’s Sliver
Spirit before realizing that Mr Whiting
is something of a perfectionist. It’s
not so obvious from meeting Lee
himself, who is as relaxed and chatty
as anyone could be, especially on
a hot sunny day in Richmond Park
with nothing to do but talk cars. But
have a close look at the Rolls-Royce
and certain things strike you.
It's impeccably prepared; clean and
polished as you’d expect. Better than
that, the areas that tend to let down
52
Patient, skillful work to restore lacquered surfaces is impressive
many otherwise excellent SZ generation
cars – bumper rubbers, trim strips
around front and rear lamps, lamp
lenses themselves, the finish around the
rear numberplate aperture or on the
front valance under the bumper – it’s all
spotless. Open the bonnet and it’s the
same story. Lee admits to ‘a hell of a lot
of work’ in the engine bay, and you’d
have to say it was well worthwhile. It’s
a showroom-fresh look without going
overboard into the kind of concours
preparation that ends with every fixing
being plated and polished. Indeed, Lee
Steering wheel and dash little
changed from Silver Shadow II
isn’t much of a trophy hunter, though
he has taken it to shows and indeed
won the RREC’s Surrey Section shield.
Like a significant proportion of Rolls-
Royce and Bentley owners, Lee likes
things to be right. There are one or
two tales from his refurbishment of
the interior that illustrate this nicely.
Those of us who have attempted the
restoration of our cars’ interior timber
will have genuine respect for anyone
who makes a professional-looking
job of it, and Lee’s work is such that
you’d just assume it was factory.
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
‘Like a significant proportion of
Rolls-Royce and Bentley owners,
Lee likes things to be right.’

‘I removed all the wood pieces,

picked the cracked lacquer off with a 'How have you kept it so
straight?' asks our editor
scalpel and then tidied it all up with
fine sanding using wet-and-dry paper.
I gave everything about ten coats
of two-pack lacquer, which took all
day, and then when it was properly
dry I could begin the long process of
flatting with more wet-and-dry paper
and polishing it back up. After all that
work, I try to keep the car out of the
sun – for prolonged periods, anyway!’

IMPROVING ON
PERFECTION
Lee has also been tempted to
modernize one aspect of the Silver
Spirit’s specification by adding daytime
running lights, or rather, by added the
facility to use what’s already there by
hiding LEDs within the sidelights, using
a new bulb-holder. But these would
require a new switch, and that would
look ugly and out of place wherever
you sited it on the dashboard. Unless…
‘I found a new Rolls-Royce switch
panel with front and rear fog lamp
symbols, for sale in Lithuania,’ says
Lee. ‘I took the fog lamp symbol off
one of them and applied adhesive
letters instead – DRL for daytime
running lights, then I put a green LED
behind it. It looks very authentic.’ Tyre pressure and fuel data - did you
Lee also added a high-level brake » know max payload was 450kg? Note DRL switch - this is Lee's own creation

R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 53
FEATURE CAR
1987 ROLLS-ROYCE SILVER SPIRIT
light and installed bulb-holders for
four-light braking, as the wiring was
already present – it was standard on
US models. He runs LED lamps these
days, all of which should combine to
make the Silver Spirit as safe and as
visible as any modern car, with stopping
power to match thanks to the superb
Rolls-Royce high-pressure hydraulics.
Oh, and one more tale to show
the kind of care and attention
54
this car receives, this time about
the piece that connects it right
back to Lee’s early childhood.
‘The Spirit of Ecstasy mascot should
retract into the top of the grille,’
says Lee, ‘but it didn’t when I bought
the car. I fixed the mechanism but
the plinth it sits on was still 2-3mm
proud of the top of the false radiator
shell – they all are. This annoyed me,
so I modified it by taking the grille
Lee's detailing efforts
produce a showroom finish
off to adjust the height of the plinth
and therefore the mascot itself. Now
it works and looks like it should.’
Lee’s car was registered new with
the number it carries today – D86
HYK, and although the production
record reveals it was once going to
be green with Silver Spur wheel trims,
the first owner changed their mind
to the Cobalt Blue you see here, with
Silver Spirit wheel trims. Is that blue
piping on the seats a special option?
‘The car’s history is all there,’ says
Lee. ‘The first owner lived in Mayfair,
so as you’d expect, it has early history
with Jack Barclay and H.R. Owen,
the supplying dealer. It went through
Hanwells of London at one time, and I
think it’s had four owners before me.’
Tool kit is very little changed from Silver
Shadow. Lee's is complete, of course!
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D

Lee Whiting's second Flying Lady
- this one has a car attached
How they're supposed to look
- no droop at the rear axle
It fits into Lee’s life very nicely,
though you couldn’t accuse him
of using it as a work truck.
‘I did turn up to one job with my
tiling gear in the boot,’ he says, ‘which
was actually at Nigel Sandell’s place – I
must explain how I got to know Nigel.
But most of the use it gets is purely
for pleasure. I like to get up early on a
Sunday, say 6.30 or 7am in the summer,
and go for a trundle. It definitely does
the car good to be used regularly and
it does me good to drive it, too.’
Rolls-Royce ownership has come with
unforeseen bonuses, as Lee hinted. Not
long after he bought the car, he was in a
café when he bumped into a bloke with
a Rolls-Royce logo on his overalls. Lee
got talking, and the man turned out to
This sign points the way to spare
LHM fluid for hydraulics
R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3
They certainly derive
mutual benefit
Retractable mascot now does as intended,
and sits perfectly flush with radiator shell too
MODEL YEAR
DEVELOPMENTS
be Nigel Sandell, one of the foremost
Rolls-Royce and Bentley experts in
the country, especially for the SZ
generation, and known to many of our
readers. His car is featured on page 12.
‘Nigel has become a good friend
and has helped me out a lot,’
says Lee. ‘The other person who
has been very generous to me is
John Tupper from IntroCar. He
tested out some different damper
specifications on my Silver Spirit.’
It’s easy to see that 30-plus years of
longing for a Rolls-Royce was worth
the wait for Lee, who seems to be
enjoying the whole car even more than
he enjoyed polishing the mascot.
‘It’s true,’ he says. ‘I still get as much
pleasure from it now as I ever did.’ Q
And here are the original LHM bottles
Made for each other?
The Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit
lasted from 1980 to 1989
before the Silver Spirit II marked
some significant changes, but
throughout those nine model
years, Rolls-Royce would often
introduce upgrades when they
became available, as had been
company practice for decades.
The first fuel-injected example,
chassis 20001, was completed in
mid-1987, when the cars changed
from a twin exhaust to a single-
pipe outlet. Here are some other
changes introduced at that time:
Q Re-styled seats with adjustable
head restraints and electric
position adjustment, now
memory-controlled, that
includes door mirror settings
Q Bosch-controlled antilock
braking system
Q One-piece airdam
Q Layout changes to dashboard
and centre console
Q Firmer suspension
settings, a la Turbo R
Q Catalytic converter (from
chassis 20240, late 1987)
Basic performance remained
similar, with slightly slower
acceleration (0-60mph in 10.6s
rather than 10.2s) but a higher
top speed of 126mph vs the
carburettor cars’ 119mph. All in
all, 577 Silver Spirits were built
in 1987, about half of those
with the updates listed above.
Credit: rrsilverspirit.com for data
55
MARQUE HISTORY
THE ROLLS-ROYCE CAMARGUE

AN ANATOMY OF…
THE ROLLS-ROYCE
CAMARGUE
When Rolls-Royce collaborated with Italian coachbuilder Pininfarina for its
new 1970s flagship, the Camargue was the distinctive but divisive outcome.
Almost 50 years on, the car is still a contentious subject
WORDS: RICHARD GUNN P H OTO G R A P H Y: K E L S E Y A RC H I V E /R I C H A R D G U N N

F
ew Rolls-Royces have ever
created quite so much debate
as the Camargue. And nearly
40 years on from the last one,
Crewe’s flamboyant flagship of the
1970s and 1980s remains a talking
point. It is a Marmite machine (albeit
Marmite from Harrods’ food hall of
course), loved and… well, loathed may
be too strong a word, but certainly
unappreciated, in equal measure. For
the record, here on RR&BD, we’re very
fond of the Camargue and its dramatic
Pininfarina styling. But we can also
understand why others haven’t
warmed to it, against a backdrop of
cars that trod a safe, conservative line.
It is the Camargue’s looks that
have generated so much debate.
Underneath that striking, impassive
appearance, the luxury leviathan
was essentially a Silver Shadow. On
top though, it could be seen as an
attempt to recapture something
of the old coachbuilt days of more
individualistic cars. The Silver Shadow’s
monocoque construction had made
things very difficult for traditional
body builders, who were no longer
able to transfer their own coachwork
to separate rolling chassis. At first
James Young and then Rolls-Royce’s
own coachbuilder, Mulliner Park Ward,
addressed the issue with the two-
door saloons and drophead coupés
that were rechristened Corniches
in 1971. But although these had
a distinctive flair, there was still a
great deal of Silver Shadow in their
make-up. Rolls-Royce wanted to go
further, with something that was very
much of its time and also differed
considerably from the Shadow’s very
recognisable style. Cue Pininfarina,
cue Camargue, cue controversy…
Initial planning for a more exclusive
model began at the end of the 1960s.
However, rather than give the task to
Crewe’s very busy in-house styling
team, Rolls-Royce’s new managing
director Geoffrey Fawn decided to look
not just beyond the company, but also
beyond Britain. Italy’s coachbuilders
had a particularly rich recent history
of clothing British vehicles – the
Triumphs of Michelotti, the British
Motor Corporation’s relationship
with Pininfarina, Aston Martin’s and
Jensen’s fruitful flirtations with Touring
of Milan and AC’s association with Frua
– and so seemed the obvious choices.
Of all the great Italian carrozzerie, it
was Pininfarina that already had a

56 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
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The 1968 Bentley T-Series coupe that Pininfarina

created for the London Motor Show probably did much The Ferrari 365 GT4 2+2, launched in 1972, was
to win it the contract for the Camargue. Elements of another Pininfarina design where the lines were
the show car made it into the production model. broadly reminiscent of the Camargue.

connection with Rolls-Royce. Beyond

its bespoke bodywork for separate-
chassis cars of the past, it had created
a one-off Bentley T-Series coupe
for the 1968 London Motor Show.
While the result wasn’t completely
harmonious – the rectangular
headlamps in particular looking
somewhat at odds with the curved
Bentley grille – it did have the virtue
of looking nothing like the Shadow/T-
Series design on which it was based.
CODENAME DELTA
During the 1960s and 1970s,
Pininfarina of Turin, founded by
Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina in 1930, was
probably Europe’s pre-eminent design
and coachbuilding concern. A prime
factor in this was its work with Ferrari,
with the 1968 365 GTB/4 Daytona
just one of many fabulously attractive
results. According to Rolls-Royce’s
chief engineer at the time, John
Hollings, Pininfarina was the only
company considered for collaboration.
So, during 1969, Crewe made contact
and pitched the brief for a new top-
of-the-range two-door, four-seater
fixed head coupe. The project was
given the codename Delta. The idea
of an outside design firm, however
prestigious Pininfarina might have
been, was not received with universal
delight by Rolls-Royce’s own styling
team after its recent successes.
However, the new senior management
was adamant that a fresh approach
was needed for the new decade.
Pininfarina wasn’t given a
completely free hand for Delta, and
Two of the Delta project prototypes, with D3 on the right. Note the
rectangular headlamps fitted to the experimental car on the left.
the strict guidelines from Crewe
contributed to the Camargue’s slightly
incongruous appearance. The platform
had to be that of the Silver Shadow,
as was the traditional Rolls-Royce
grille at the front, even if it could be
a little lower and wider than that of
the Shadow. It was also inclined seven
degrees; the only previous Rolls-Royce
with a forward-sloping radiator shell
was Lady Penelope’s pink FAB 1 from
Thunderbirds. That wouldn’t be lost
on the Camargue’s future detractors.
But this went against the low bonnet
line trends of the day; something
Pininfarina was certainly used to with
its Ferraris. Having to incorporate the
large radiator shell dictated a bulky,
somewhat slabby frontal appearance.
The substantial V8 engine and the
new air conditioning system under
the bonnet didn’t exactly encourage
athletic aerodynamics either. Then
there was the need for adequate
and comfortable rear passenger
space plus a boot of Grand Touring
luggage proportions, which dictated
that the fastback roof couldn’t be
too extreme. However the new
Rolls-Royce was going to turn out,
a Ferrari Daytona it would not be.
The 1968 London Motor Show
Bentley T-Series undoubtedly helped
influence the ideas that Pininfarina
came up with. Eight proposals were
presented by Sergio Pininfarina during
a London meeting at the start of
the 1970s. Of those, it was a Paolo
Martin concept that was chosen, albeit
with changes – there wasn’t much
enthusiasm for having the window
frames finished in black instead of
chrome as intended, to make the
glasshouse look bigger. However,
the decision to drop this aspect,
radical as it was for a Rolls-Royce to
minimise brightwork, seems to have
been less about how it looked and
more about concerns as to how well
it would wear. The front quad lights,
while round, were set in rectangular
panels that echoed those of the »

R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 57
MARQUE HISTORY
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TEL: +44 (0)208 546 2027

‘Rolls-Royce wanted to go further. Cue Pininfarina,

cue Camargue, cue controversy…’

London Motor Show T-Series.
With a final design accepted, clay
models were created before work
began on a prototype at Mulliner
Park Ward’s premises during 1971.
This was despite the financial turmoil
at Rolls-Royce during that year. And
then Fiat launched its 130 Coupe…
The large Fiat Grand Tourer was
also a Pininfarina design by Paolo
Martin and its angular looks bore
a distinct resemblance to Rolls-
Royce’s forthcoming flagship. Cars
for different marques in different
countries having similar looks
weren’t that uncommon in the
days before vehicles were widely
exported, and Pininfarina already
had previous form. Its 1959 Farina
family saloons for the British
Motor Corporation, typified by
the Austin A55 Cambridge MkII
and Morris Oxford Series V, were
spookily close to the Fiat 1800 of
the same year and the Peugeot 404
of 1960. But in the early 1960s, a
typical Cambridge or Oxford owner
might never come across one of
his car’s continental counterparts.
By the following decade though, »

One of the 1975 press cars, also used for A 1976 American advert for the Camargue; its cost at the time
promotional and marketing material. was $90,000, which Rolls-Royce admitted was ‘considerable’.

BENTLEY BADGING
It may seem strange that the
Camargue was theoretically available
only in Rolls-Royce form, given
that its sportier coupé appearance
and enhanced performance might
have made Bentley badging more
appropriate. However, some Winged
B variants were created. All the
prototypes sported Bentley grilles
during pre-launch testing and, in
addition, D1 was also fitted with a
turbocharger at one point, as part of
a proposal for a high-performance
Bentley version. While that only came
to fruition with the Silver Spirit/
Mulsanne generation, the single
Bentley Camargue Turbo proved
capable of 145mph. In 1985, a single
Bentley Camargue, albeit normally-
aspirated, was officially produced as
a special order for a customer. The
Forest Green machine, registered
B199 MDF, created a few headaches
at the factory when it came to
making the bonnet line blend in
with the more curved radiator
shell. The car still survives today.

58 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
MARQUE HISTORY
THE ROLLS-ROYCE CAMARGUE
the world had shrunk, and growing
European exports and less automotive
isolationism made such a scenario
less likely. The first alarm bells were
reputedly sounded by a motoring
journalist who had some inside
knowledge of project Delta, and drew
parallels between it and the new Fiat.
WEARING THE
SAME DRESS
Rolls-Royce was sufficiently spooked
that an emergency meeting was called
to compare the two cars. That there
was a similarity seems to have been
accepted but as future chief stylist
Graham Hull (back in 1971 a new recruit
to Crewe) later commented, ‘Although
the two vehicles were clearly related, it
The Camargue’s grille sloped forward
at a seven degree angle; the first time
it had ever been anything but totally
vertical on a production Rolls-Royce.
AIR SUPPLY
One of the Camargue’s most hi-tech
features was its advanced air-
conditioning. Rolls-Royce claimed it
had taken 10 years of development
to perfect and it seems that
problems during testing on prototype
D4 during 1973, after everything
else on the car had been resolved,
contributed to the Camargue’s
delayed launch. It reputedly cost
the same price as a small saloon
car to build. The system was fully
60
wasn’t a case of two women wearing
the same dress at a social function’.
Pininfarina has always denied any
copying but its case probably wasn’t
helped by the subsequent launch
of their Ferrari 365 GT4 2+2 in 1972
which also had a side profile close
to the 130 Coupe and embryonic
Camargue, albeit with sportier, sloping
nose, and from the pen of Leonardo
Fioravanti rather than Paolo Martin.
The first prototype Camargue was
running by mid-1972; it would soon be
followed by three more, all sporting
Bentley grilles. The opinion among
Rolls-Royce’s own designers was that
it looked too bulky, inelegant and
somewhat down at the rear end. One
engineer allegedly likened it to the
Rock of Gibraltar. But by this stage,
The Camargue featured the expected 6.75-litre V8, but after 60 cars had
been built, the SUs were replaced by a fixed-choke, four-barrel Solex 4A1
carburettor to improve power and performance.
automatic, and while this wasn’t new
(Jaguar, for example, having come
up with something similar in 1973),
where the Camargue went further
was that it was also split-level,
distributing air at between 17 to 33
degrees Celsius (63 to 91 degrees
Fahrenheit) at face and floor levels.
To make this possible, four sensors
were fitted inside and out, one of
which even compensated for the sun
glare. In theory, a Camargue could
there was little action that could be
taken. The only real change carried
out by Crewe’s team was to add
small tell-tale embellishments to the
front wings to aid manoeuvring.
After the D1 prototype, D2 was
used for crash testing, while D3
eventually became a launch publicity
model and was also, at one point,
trialled with a 7.25-litre V8. D4 was
built in 1973, the year the Camargue
was originally intended to debut.
However, Rolls-Royce’s own financial
problems, an industrial dispute, the
set-up of the factory for production
and issues perfecting the new air
conditioning all served to delay
matters. This postponement at least
enabled further comprehensive
testing, with D4 completing around
be driven from artic conditions to a
tropical climate and the temperature
would remain constant with no input
needed from passengers. Almost half
a century ago, this was a ground-
breaking system. To explain it, Rolls-
Royce’s instruction booklet ran to
30 pages, albeit going into much
more proud engineering detail than
strictly necessary. So advanced was
the set-up that it was still in use in
Corniches and Azures in 2003.
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When the Fiat 130 Coupe came out in 1971, its similarity to the The Camargue from the rear; from any angle, it
forthcoming Camargue did cause some concern at Rolls-Royce. was a very substantial-looking machine.

50,000 miles, most of them in France.
It also allowed the fuel crisis of 1973
to pass, something that might have
adversely affected the appeal of such
a large and thirsty luxury vehicle.
In January 1975, Sicily was the
appropriate venue for the unveiling
of the Italian-flavoured Rolls-Royce.
However, its name followed the
convention set by the Corniche,
referring to a French location. In the
case of the earlier two-door cars,
it was the coastal roads of France,
especially the beautiful Grand Corniche
on the Riviera, that the title echoed.
The Camargue region wasn’t that
many miles away, being south of Arles
where the Rhone river split into two
before flowing into the Mediterranean.
It was also a type of horse from
the area, known for stamina,
hardiness and agility – all qualities
that Rolls-Royce hoped customers
would also find in its new model.
At £29,250, the Camargue was the
most expensive production car in the
world; the equivalent of almost two
Silver Shadows and a considerable
premium over the Corniche. The
typical build process took around
six months, with Pressed Steel in
Cowley constructing the floorpan,
which was then sent to Mulliner Park
Ward’s premises in Willesden, London
for the bodyshell to be added. Then
it was off to Crewe for mechanical
fitting out, rustproofing and paint
priming, before returning to MPW
for completion. Thanks to demand
for Corniches – also bodied at MPW
– blunting manufacturing capacity,
those who ordered a Camargue could
potentially wait for up to two years
before delivery. The situation was
exacerbated due to variable panel
quality. In 1978, Motor Panels of
Coventry took over MPW’s body-
building responsibilities, with the
cars then completely finished at
Crewe once they’d left Coventry.
PININFARINA
FLOURISHES
Aside from the exterior, there were
other Pininfarina flourishes that
marked the Camargue out. Inside,
while there were the expected acres
of high-quality leather and wood,
the gauges and switchgear were »

The gauges, controls and vents fitted in black panels over the top
The split-level automatic air conditioning of the Lombardian walnut veneer gave the dash of the Camargue
was regulated by just three controls. something of an aircraft appearance – which was intended.

R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 61
MARQUE HISTORY
THE ROLLS-ROYCE CAMARGUE
One of the few things added by
Crewe’s design team was these
tell-tale embellishments on the top
of each front wing, to help drivers
judge more accurately where
the corners of the car were.
mounted in black panels overlaying
the walnut veneer rather than
being behind or in it. This was done
because behind the thin sliver of
timber was mounted on aluminium,
to improve safety and keep weight
down. The overall effect resembled
something from an aircraft – a
nod to Rolls-Royce’s aviation links.
Ironically, when the Camargue was
being designed, the car division and
the aeronautical arm were all one
company, but by the time it was
launched, the two had split and
Rolls-Royce Motors was independent
from Rolls-Royce Limited. The
interior felt more open and less
An apprentice at Crewe fitting a radiator surround to a Camargue. Back in 1983, it
took one worker a day to make the shell; five hours were then spent polishing it.
62
Because of the need to accommodate a typically plush level of rear
accommodation, the sloping roof line couldn’t be too extreme.
claustrophobic than previous two-
door machines from the marque,
thanks to the slimmer pillars.
Mechanically, everything was
pretty much Silver Shadow spec, save
for the adoption of a fixed-choke,
four-barrel Solex 4A1 carburettor
after 60 Camargues had been built.
This increased power slightly, and
thus performance. Of course, how
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much power wasn’t officially revealed
by Rolls-Royce, but 256bhp seems
to be a generally-accepted ballpark
figure. Cars for the USA and Japan
retained twin SU HD8 carburettors.
Some consideration may have been »
given to fuel injection, but nothing
around at the time met the exacting
standards expected of a Rolls-Royce.
While the Camargue provoked a
mixed response, perhaps it didn’t
matter that much. It was always
going to be a very exclusive, very
expensive model produced in small
numbers. Therefore, it didn’t need
that many customers to want one
– just enough who were prepared
to pay the fantastic price for a
Rolls-Royce that bucked the norm.
Changes to the Camargue
throughout its 11-year life were
relatively few. Rack-and-pinion
steering was adopted in 1977 along
with a front spoiler, while the more
effective rear suspension from the
forthcoming SZ generation cars »
PRODUCTION FIGURES
1975 TO 1986
Rolls-Royce Camargue: 525
Bentley Camargue: 1 (1985)
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SPECIALISTS IN ROLLS-ROYCE, BENTLEY & PORSCHE Specialists Established 1984

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St John’s Road, Isleworth,
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£39995 ™•žœȱ—ž–Ž›˜žœȱ˜‘Ž›ȱ™Š›œȱŠ••ȱ•’œŽȱ˜ȱ–Š”Žȱ
ŒŠ›ȱŗȱ‹ŽŒ˜–’—ȱŸŽ›¢ȱŒ˜••ŽŒŠ‹•Žȱ£49995
(020) 8758 2322
Telephone: 01635 866833 • Mobile: 07831 800727 email: information@nsandell.com
Website: www.stewartwalkerltd.co.uk • Email: info@stewartwalkerltd.co.uk
Unit 1Q, Faraday Road, Newbury, Berkshire RT14 2AD
website: www.nsandell.com
MARQUE HISTORY
THE ROLLS-ROYCE CAMARGUE
While all Camargue were fixed-head coupes as standard,
convertible versions have subsequently been created, such as this
one from the final batch of 12 sold in the USA during 1987. Fitted
with a retractable hard-top by the Niko-Michael Coachworks,
it was sold by RM Sotherby’s for $252,000 in January 2019.
such as the Silver Spirit was fitted
in 1979. Fuel injection – the Bosch
K-Jetronic system, now sufficiently
developed to satisfy Rolls-Royce
– finally came along in 1981, but
only for markets where there were
strict emissions regulations such
as the USA. European cars stayed
on carburettors to the end.
While sales of the Camargue
were never strong, they slowed to a
trickle in the 1980s; 19 found homes
during 1983 and 22 the following
THE
VIEW
John Tupper,
managing director
of IntroCar, says:
Richard Gunn ably
covers the fascinating
story of how Rolls-
Royce came up with a
design that was so out of kilter with
the rest of the model range, and even
the historical oeuvre of coachbuilders
and designers of "standard" Rolls-
Royce models. We should remember
that the Camargue was a product
fresh from the political paroxysms of
the 1960s and economic shocks of
the early part the 1970s, emerging
into a world where the status quo
had been thoroughly upturned. This
found its way inevitably into art,
popular culture and design. It is only
now - a whole 50 years later - that
a fresh wave of enthusiastic owners
64
In some of the brochures, there seemed a deliberate
attempt to minimise the bulk of the Camargue.
year. During 1984, the price soared
to a lofty £83,122, while in-house
competitors such as the Bentley
Mulsanne Turbo had arguably stolen
the Camargue’s thunder. The final
examples were built in 1986, albeit
the last dozen didn’t make it across
the Atlantic for American sale
until early 1987. In total 526 were
constructed over 11 years, and only
120 were right-hand drive. One of
which belonged to Shirley Bassey…
Debates about the pros and
are able to embrace the design and
the context into which it was born.
As an investment, the value of the
Camargue seems only likely to travel
north. The car is rare and usually
owned by persons who regard the
vehicle as a statement rather than
an expensive run-around. As a car
that can be maintained mechanically,
the truth is that they are pretty
much as easy to look after as a
Silver Shadow or Silver Spirit, which
means that availability of spares is
excellent and expert technicians well
represented (if you allow for the fact
that they are usually pretty busy). In
summary, anything mechanical can
be fixed, and the specialist network
is well-equipped to do so. For that
reason, I will not go into depth into
what to look out for in terms of the
vehicle running gear, as previous
articles cover that ad nauseum. I will
recommend including the full chassis
number with any parts enquiry.
There are some wrinkles in what was
fitted to the Camargue and when,
which does not always correlate
perfectly with a Silver Shadow or
www.introcar.co.uk
TEL: +44 (0)208 546 2027
cons of the Camargue continue, as
they did throughout its life. It was
something unexpected and left-
field from a car maker that usually
played it safe and traditional. Even
today, in a world of blueprint-busting
Phantoms and Cullinans, opinions
remain split over it. And maybe that’s
no bad thing. If nothing else, as a
thoroughbred classic, it’s always
going to turn heads, always going
to be talked about, and it will never,
ever fade quietly into the past. Q
Silver Spirit (etc.) of the same year.
For those looking to own a unique
part of the history of Rolls-Royce
Motors, not many will be available for
sale at any one time. Most ownership
challenges will centre around the
unique features of the car, by which
I mean the interior and exterior
trim and bodywork. Damaged and
missing parts are likely to be difficult
if not quite impossible to source.
Creative solutions will be required,
which takes time and costs money.
Nevertheless, I am always surprised
by how much is around. The spares
are recognisable, so people in the
know often realise what they are
being offered when it turns up on
the marketplace. If ownership is
treated as a long-term prospect,
then this is a car that is likely to
become part of the family, and the
process of preserving or making
it better best viewed as such.
I'm tempted to say that an owner
should also consider themselves
a conservator. This is a car that
says something about itself,
its owner, and history itself.
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
 +44 (0) 1252 850231 PHANTOM MOTOR CARS LTD www.pmcuk.com
Telephone Independent Rolls-Royce and Bentley Specialists Established in 1961 Website

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All work is carried out by dedicated & passionate specialist technicians that
take serious pride in their work.
VEHICLE SERVICE & MAINTENANCE
Ensure your car retains its optimum performance and reliability

PHANTOM MOTOR CARS LTD, FARNHAM, SURREY GU10 5QT • OPEN MONDAY TO FRIDAY: 8:30AM – 6:00PM

“Capture the Spirit,

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TRAVEL IN ULTIMATE LUXURY
IN SOME OF THE WORLDS
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Please view our website to peruse some

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07704 493 221

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SPECIAL FEATURE
JANKEL LIMOUSINE HISTORY

One of the two six-door stretched

limousines. This car, finished in
Honey Gold, was built for Brunei and
was used for the press pictures.

STRETCHED LIMOUSINES
BY ROBERT JANKEL DESIGN
In a new piece of research for Rolls-Royce & Bentley Driver, historian Marinus
Rijkers of rrsilverspirit.com reveals the story of the largest and most
extravagant SZ models of them all – the bespoke limousines by Jankel
W O R D S : M A R I N U S R I J K E R S I M A G E S : M A R I N U S R I J K E R S , A N D Y H U R F U R T, H A N S P O R R I O , J A N K E L A R M O U R I N G LT D

D
uring the 1970s and early
Eighties demand for
stretched limousines was
growing, and Rolls-Royce
Motors decided to offer a solution
for this niche market. From February
1984 onwards, Rolls-Royce sold
stretched limousines as an addition
to the long wheelbase models they
already offered. The limousines were
not built by the factory in Crewe, but
by Robert Jankel Design in Weybridge,
Surrey, just south west of London.
It was a collaboration between two
companies with no previous mutual
history. In this article, we will dig into
the history of Robert Jankel and his
company, and explain what happened
in the five years they spent stretching
limousines for Rolls-Royce Motors Ltd.
The growing demand for stretched
limousines through the Seventies led
to model extensions by several car
factories. Although Rolls-Royce had
long wheelbase versions of the Silver
Shadow on offer, as well as the classic
Phantom VI, several customers became
interested in stretched limousines
from other brands. When Robert
Jankel Design started a new business
in the growing luxury car market in
1979, reforming due to bankruptcy,
it did a few exercises in stretching
Rolls-Royces. Rolls-Royce had some
concerns about the brand reputation
and got in touch with the firm. When
contacts intensified and ideas for a
structural partnership grew, it was
remarkable that Rolls-Royce didn’t
work with their in-house coachbuilder,
Mulliner Park Ward. There seems to
have been a practical reason, though:
it is said that the factory would have
to follow the homologation rules for
the limousine model with crash tests
and other obligations, if creating
it themselves. But if a customer’s
existing car was converted by another
coachbuilder, these rules didn’t exist.
So in the summer of 1983, Rolls-
Royce Motors Ltd. signed a five-year
contract with Robert Jankel Design
to build stretched limousines that
were based on the Silver Spur.
THE MAN BEHIND
THE FIRM
Robert Jankel (1938 – 2005) grew
up in a family that ran a fashion
business. His interest in cars started
at the age of 16 when he rebuilt a
wrecked Austin 7. In 1955, at the age

66 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
Details of the entertainment features of a
1986 42inch stretched limousine for the
USA market. (picture author's collection) The interior of a rear compartment of a Silver Spur Limousine with a 36inch stretch.

Silver Spur Limousine

42inch stretch for the USA
market. (press picture made
available by Andy Hurfurt)

Robert Jankel,
courtesy Jankel
Armouring Limited.

of 17, he founded the Jankel Group, a

coachbuilding company that was little
more than a hobby firm. After a few
attempts to establish himself as a car
seller, he joined the family business
as a fashion designer. After several
other recommissioning projects and
selling activities, he restored a classic
1930 Rolls-Royce. It was the sale of
this car that inspired him to start an
automobile company. At the age of
34 he left the fashion business to
continue his life in the car business.
That was in 1972 when he founded the
Panther Westwind Motor company
in Weybridge, Surrey. His first model
was the Jaguar-powered Panther J72,
an evocation of the classic SS100, of Silver Spur Limousine 42inch stretch for the
which about 500 units were built. A USA market, rear compartment, press picture.
few other models were designed and »

R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 67
 SPECIAL FEATURE
JANKEL LIMOUSINE HISTORY
Boot lid badge of the Silver Spur limousines
built by Jankel. (picture author's collection)
built, the Morgan-like Panther Lima
being the most successful, before the
company went bankrupt in 1979.
Robert then turned his focus to the
Jankel Group. He now concentrated
on building specialist versions of cars
for high-end manufacturers, mostly
Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Mercedes-Benz
and Jaguar. It was in this period, in
1983, that he signed the contract
with Rolls-Royce as the primary
subcontractor for stretching Silver
Spurs. After the contract was ended, in
1988, he continued the coachbuilding
activities, now commissioned by
individual customers. From 1990 the
focus was on building police vehicles,
high-protection armoured cars and
exotic luxury stretch limousines. Upon
his death in May 2005, the Jankel
Group continued to build made-to-
Bentley Mulsanne LWB Limousine 42inch stretch for an African customer (pictures Porrio collection)
68
An early 36inch limousine, ordered with Silver Spirit hub caps (press picture made available by
Andy Hurfurt).
order speciality vehicles and is still a
successful coachbuilding business.
THE FIRST ORDERS
COME IN
Unfortunately, the Jankel company
doesn’t possess records from the early
Eighties that would illustrate how the
co-operation with the Rolls-Royce
factory started and what it exactly
consisted of. Only the car records in
the Archives of the RREC reveal a
few secrets from this period. The first
Silver Spurs that were sent to RJD by
Rolls-Royce Motors for lengthening
were specified and ordered to Jankel
in October 1983, for a 36-inch stretch.
The donor Silver Spurs that were used
for these stretch orders were built
in model year 1982 and were built
to British (RHD) or European (LHD)
specifications. Until October 1983
both companies were occupied with
designing a four-door and six-door
configuration. Initially two six-door
cars were built. Both were built for
the Sultan of Brunei and for both
cars the completed specifications
were sent to Jankel in October 1983.
A black limousine was completed in
January 1984; a second car, finished
in Honey, in February 1984. Both
cars got six doors that opened at
the front edge, with fixed centre
door glasses and the remaining four
windows electrically operated.
The jump seats in the centre
position rolled up forward, and
these seats faced forward directly
behind the electric division. The
rear compartment was fitted with a
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
1985 Silver Spur Limousine 36inch stretch FCX12910, the last 36inch example built before 42inch became the
standard stretch. Finished in Georgian silver and delivered new to the USA. (picture author's collection)
secondary air conditioning system
and an eight-inch colour TV. Both
cars were fitted with two seatbelts in
the front, three in the rear and none
for the jump seats. Furthermore,
both limousines were ordered with
a blue forward-facing external roof
light, called an Opera Light, and a
flag mast to the centre front of the
roof. The mascots were gold plated.
During the manufacturing of the first
cars the factory had agreed with RJD
that contacts about the car should
be avoided and no publicity about
these orders was allowed. The official
press release was on 28th of February
1984, titled ‘Rolls-Royce announce six
door limousine’. The six-door Brunei
limousine finished in Honey gold was
used for the press pictures. Strangely,
after this press release not a single
six-door car was ordered. All further
cars were ordered with four doors
and only one example with five doors.
This oddity was ordered to Jankel in
May 1984 and was based on a 36-inch
stretch. The car was built for use in
Great Britain and was therefore RHD.
One ‘fold-forward jump seat facing
forward’ was specified, and one
‘rearward-facing jump seat’. The fifth
door was built to the nearside of the
vehicle, for easy access to the kerb.
Another unique order arrived in 1984
for one car with a stretch of 14 inches,
but the archives don’t reveal what was
intended when this car was created.
All stretched limousines were
equipped with many extremely
luxurious features as standard. The
36-inch limousines were fitted with an
Everflex roof, an electric division with »
R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3
PRIMARY SOURCE: ROLLS-ROYCE MEMORIES
We’re very grateful to Bernard
Preston, Product Planning
Director at Crewe for many years,
for contacting Nick McGrath, an
engineer directly involved in the
Stretched Car Project with Jankel.
Their memories confirm some of
what’s described in our main article
and add new details. Bernard writes:
‘I became Product Planning
Director in early 1987. By then the
project was under way and we
were concentrating on the Corniche
replacement, early planning on
Spirit replacement, progressing
new V8 and early work to replace
the Jankel stretch with a Mulliner
Park Ward stretch. We of course
were worried about the engineering
integrity because when you cut a
car in half, you cut all the systems
as well, hydraulic, electrical and
so forth and it was essential to
maintain our reputation whilst
allowing Jankel to do the work.’
Nick picks up the story with
his own recollections.
‘When I joined Product Planning
in 1984 working with John
Stephenson, we researched several
different limousine options. Several
companies were already making
unauthorized stretched Silver
Spurs including Robert Jankel in
the UK and some others in the
USA. In addition, we also looked
at building a more Phantom-like
limousine based on a Silver Spur.
We actually built a prototype at
Ogle Design in Letchworth. I believe
it was an 18-inch stretch with a
much-raised roof. Ultimately it
was rejected on cost grounds but
was very similar in appearance
to The Touring Limousine we
built several years later.
‘The cars Jankel had built were
36-inch stretches. Our research
indicated that for the US market
we needed to go longer. 42 inches
was where we ended up, though I
can’t remember exactly why. The
problem was that the car looked like
a squashed sausage. I remember
working with Graham Hull (Rolls-
Royce designer and later Chief
Stylist) to get a raised roof line and
I think it ended up being about two
inches higher on the production cars.
We looked briefly at production at
MPW but it was more cost effective
to make Jankel our authorized
coachbuilder. I think we were
planning on 30 to 40 cars a year.
Jankel built the first 42-inch stretch
cars in 1985. As I recall, Jankel made
36-inch and 42-inch stretches for
different markets. Unfortunately,
the car never sold as anticipated and
when production ended, I believe
less than 100 were produced.’
Nonetheless, the perceived
need to offer stretched limousines
remained and as mentioned
by Bernard, it moved ‘in house’
with Mulliner Park Ward.
69
SPECIAL FEATURE
JANKEL LIMOUSINE HISTORY

intercom, two rear facing occasional
seats, burr walnut door panels, an
extra air conditioning and heating unit
controlled from the rear compartment,
a second stereo system, a television,
a video player (the majority suitable
for VHS), a refrigerator and a bar
with a crystal decanter, four crystal
glasses and two stainless steel vacuum
flasks. The entertainment features
and bar were fitted in a central
console tower against the partition,
with the foldable occasional seats
left and right of it. Some customers
specified cloth upholstery in the
rear and leather in the front.
MORE LENGTH,
MORE LUXURY
Through 1984 an average of two cars
a month were ordered. In the years to
follow this increased slightly to five
in two months in 1986 and three a
month in 1987. A year after the launch
it was decided to enlarge the stretch
to 42-inch as standard, with the first
examples delivered in July 1985. This
extra length was especially desired by
American customers. In 1985 and 1986
no less than 85% of the completed cars
were shipped to the USA. The 42inch
limousines were similarly equipped,
albeit with a second bench rearwards
against the division, while the tower
with special features was relocated
besides the bench. Every example
was fitted with a moonroof over the
rear compartment with an electrically
operated blind, and a fifth crystal glass
was added to the standard equipment.
Some customers ordered bespoke
features, such as curtains in the rear, a
gold-plated mascot, gold-plated door
handles, electric rear seats, a large
opening roof panel with roof rails, or
a reduced rear window. One customer
from the Far East ordered a blue pilot
lamp to the roof, red flashing lights
under the front bumper, and a siren
facility under the bonnet with a ‘Hawaii
5-0 siren as on TV programme’!
In October 1985 an African customer
ordered a 42-inch stretch limousine to
be built as a Bentley. A year later he
ordered a second one that had to be
armour protected. After completion
of this second car, the first one was
returned to Crewe to have armour
protection fitted too. These cars
were called the ‘Bentley Mulsanne
Limousine’, a model that was not
offered in the price lists. Both cars were
based on a Mulsanne long wheelbase
and were specified in the same way.
RJD fitted bench-type rear seats, as
well as a full-width occasional bench
seat to the division. All seats were
trimmed in Oyster Harris Opera Velvet
piped with Beige hide, and the windows
could be covered with curtains. The
side console with the cocktail cabinet
and refrigerator was replaced by a fixed
side panel. In the rear a large opening
steel sunroof was specified with
controls in both compartments. The
second car was completed in June 1987.
These were the only stretched Bentleys
ordered during RJD’s involvement.
The last orders to Jankel were
specified in January 1988 and the final
car was completed in July 1988. The
five-year contract was not renewed
or lengthened, for reasons which
are not recorded. Some years later,
Rolls-Royce would make its own move
in this niche market, but for now,

A Silver Spur Limousine photographed in the

streets of Tokyo (credits Andy Hurfurt) Entertainment devices built on top of the central
console tower of a 36inch stretched limousine (press
picture made available by Andy Hurfurt)

1987 Silver Spur Limousine 42inch stretch HCX20847,

finished in Ebony with Magnolia hide. After this USA
delivered car only nine examples would be built before A Silver Spur Limousine photographed in the streets
production was ended. (picture author's collection) of Monaco, around 1987 (credits Andy Hurfurt)

70 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D

The intercom button of a limousine.
(picture author's collection)
Jankel continued as an independent
constructor of coachbuilt limousines.
GOING IT ALONE
Shortly after the end of the contract
with Rolls-Royce Motors, Robert
Jankel Design offered a wide choice
of stretched limousines, all of them
to be distinguished by exotic names.
Customers could order a Silver Spur at
the factory and after delivery (without
the intervention of Rolls-Royce Motors)
ask for conversion into a Rolls-Royce
Antibes (10inch stretch to the rear
quarter), Beaulieu (30-inch stretch,
with centre section), St Tropez (29-inch
stretch behind the rear doors), Royale
(46-inch stretch to a Silver Spirit with
extended doors and increased height),
Presidential (44-inch stretch, six
doors), Nice (42-inch stretch combined
in the centre and in the rear), Spur
Limousine II (44-inch stretch with
centre section), or Spur Limousine III
(46-inch stretch with centre section).
Besides these coachbuilt stretched
limousines, Jankel offered a two-door
fixed-head coupé and a two-door
convertible that could be created from
any four-door Rolls-Royce or Bentley
model a customer could supply. These
two-door versions were given the
name Azur, though any connection
to the later Bentley Azure convertible
seems to be coincidental. Jankel also
created a two-door convertible model
of their own, fitted with the Turbo R
power plant, and baptized ‘Gold Label
Tourer powered by Bentley Turbo’.
When a customer wanted a Silver
Spirit estate car or such a conversion
of a Bentley model, he could order a
Provence adaptation. The final model
Jankel offered was the four-wheel
drive Val d’Isere, an estate version
of a SZ model, fitted with Jankel’s
four-wheel drive arrangement, an
R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3
The number of cars that were built by RJD, based on the author's research.
(Note that the years in this table are the model years of the donor cars)
Page of the 1989 RJD brochure from 1989, featuring the models RJD had on offer with a
Rolls-Royce or Bentley donor car.
innovative hydraulic hub-drive
system which deserves coverage in a
separate story. In 1992 Jankel added
the longest of the lot, a 72-inch (six
foot!) stretched limousine above a
Silver Spur II to this impressive list of
models. Furthermore, in a separate
company branch called R J Armouring,
RJD specialised in armouring cars
of different makes, protecting
against high velocity rifles, large
calibre hand guns, and kidnapping.
Although Jankel was pretty
successful with these coachbuilt
offerings, it was quite a challenge
to stay in business with these niche
market products. Jankel had a strong
competitor in this market: Hooper & Co.
(coachbuilders) Ltd. from London, UK.
Both Hooper and Jankel offered two-
door Bentleys, Rolls-Royce stretched
limousines and other adaptations
to a customer request. At the same
time, Rolls-Royce Motors built the
last Phantom VI’s and was preparing
a stretched Silver Spur that would be
built in their own factory, in conjunction
with the in-house coachbuilder Mulliner
Park Ward. From 1991, the Silver
Spur II Touring Limousine by MPW
could be equipped with any feature
the coachbuilders could offer. A few
years later, both Jankel and Hooper
ceased competing in the Rolls-Royce
stretched limousine market. While RJD
continued with other work and remains
in business today, a late flowering
of British coachbuilding traditions
came to an end as construction of
these extravagant stretched vehicles
left the independent sector. Q
CREDITS
This article was made possible with the help
of (in alphabetical order) Davide Bassoli,
Nigel Boothman, Andy Hurfurt, Colin Hyams,
Nick McGrath, Hans Porrio, Bernard Preston,
RJ Armouring, Ibalo Luxury Sportscars.
71
SPECIAL FEATURE
JANKEL LIMOUSINE ROAD TEST

To follow his revealing new history of these cars, Marinus Rijkers

drives a 1984 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur limousine stretched by
Robert Jankel Design. Step in, sit down, and join us!

I
t feels very normal, to start with. In
the front, the car has the standard
doors and interior of the donor
Silver Spur. Getting behind the
wheel is exactly the same movement
and experience as taking a seat in the
front of any normal Silver Spur. The
dashboard, the upholstery, the seats,
everything has remained the same. The
adjustment of the front seats of a Silver
Shadow LWB with division is limited
to four instead of eight directions,
but the seats of this car are not only
adjustable forwards, backwards, up
and down, but all tilt directions are
available as well. The division behind
the front seats does, of course, impose
a strong restriction on the rearward
movements, but the driver can still
adjust the seats better than in the Silver
Shadow models with division and he
also has slightly more space to move.
Yet there are a few small differences
with the standard Silver Spur, as
a consequence of the limousine
configuration: the intercom facility
and the button for operating the glass

72 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
 THE LUXURY
OF SPACE
division. Jankel has chosen the simplest
solution for these extra facilities. The
intercom is mounted on the headliner,
not far from the rear-view mirror, and
the button for the glass screen is built
into the small centre console, hidden
between the front seat switches.
Under the bonnet we find the same
6750 cc V8 engine fitted to all Rolls-
Royces from the 1980s. In this model
year, the Silver Spur with European
specifications had an engine with two
SU carburettors, and there’s nothing
unfamiliar about the starting procedure
or the location of the controls. It’s only
R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3
WORDS AND PICTURES: MARINUS RIJKERS
when you’re moving that it starts to
feel like a very different car, especially
when taking small roundabouts or
turning into side roads. Then you drive
a little bit further before instructing
the car to change direction. But to be
fair, during the average journey, the
car’s extra length requires hardly any
adjustment to driving technique.
The engine sounds and behaves in a
manner familiar to all Silver Spur owners,
but due to the increased weight, there
is clearly less acceleration available.
The car can’t be called lifeless, though,
and it’s actually perfect for a limousine,
because if there are occupants who
sit with their backs to the direction
of travel, it would be unpleasant for
them to fold in half when the chauffeur
activates the kick-down. The engine is
certainly suitable for a driver with a lively
driving style, but not for an impatient
speed maniac. When braking, there is no
difference at all with other Rolls-Royces
from this era. That's how it should be,
of course, but still good to ascertain.
Turning your car around in an average
street is something that everyone with
a driving license has had to learn. With
a car of around six meters in length it »
73
SPECIAL FEATURE
JANKEL LIMOUSINE ROAD TEST

is more of a problem than with a small

family car; the larger turning circle
becomes significant. In practice, if
you’re driving this limousine and you
need to turn back on yourself, you look
for a roundabout or you reverse the
car into a side-street. The latter is no
problem at all, surprisingly; the view
to the rear is almost unobstructed.
Because the rear window pillar is set
further back, it is optically smaller and
takes up less visibility. The standard
Silver Spur mirrors are large enough to
give all the rearwards view you need.
What distinguishes the car the most
while driving is the ride quality. A Silver
Spirit or Silver Spur is not badly endowed
in terms of suspension comfort, but the
extra length of the limousine and the
increased weight mean that the ride
quality is head and shoulders above
that of the standard models. At shorter
speed bumps, the long wheelbase is
almost sufficient to smooth out the
vertical movement. Then add the famous
Rolls-Royce ‘waftability’, and you can
praise the experience in capital letters.
(Note: ‘waftability’ is a term coined by
The Autocar in 1906 to describe the

74 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
behaviour of a Rolls-Royce 40/50hp,
and since 2003 has been registered as a
trademark by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars.)
BACK SEAT DRIVER
This Silver Spur is finished in Royal Blue
with a dark blue Everflex roof covering,
and with Champagne hide and burr
walnut woodwork. It has been fitted
with everything on the standard list of
extras: an electrically operated partition,
rear controls for air conditioning and
heating, a refrigerator, a Clarion stereo
system, a colour TV, a VHS video player,
a crystal decanter with four crystal
glasses, two flasks with stainless steel
caps and an electronic intercom.
Customers who bought a stretched
limousine intended to be driven by
a chauffeur. During the ride they
can entertain themselves in the rear
compartment with drinks and music,
or prepare for a meeting or speech.
Theoretically, a meeting can be
HISTORY OF THIS CAR
When the Rolls-Royce factory
commissioned Robert Jankel Design
(RJD) to stretch Silver Spurs into
limousines, the initial stretch was
36 inches, as we explored in the
previous article. The Royal Blue car
in this article is from 1984, and is the
24th example built with this 36-inch
stretch. Like the large majority of
Jankel’s output at this time, this car
is in left-hand drive with European
specifications. Indeed, at this time
only one limousine had been built
for the British market. Most cars
R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3
organized during the ride, because
there is room back here for five people,
three on the back seats and two in the
smaller seats on either side of the bulky
centre cabinet. These two seats with
the backrests against the division are
low, narrow and the backrest is in an
uncomfortable position. People with a
stronger build are a bit wedged between
the cabinet and the side, and have the
greatest difficulty getting up from the
seat to get out. These are perfect seats
for children, for example, but not for
average adults – perhaps good enough
for your business rivals, though!
From 1985 the 42-inch stretch was
introduced; in that car the cabinet was
moved to the side of the compartment
and a single rearward-facing bench
was introduced, improving the usability
of the two extra seats. If you’re lucky
enough to be sitting in the back seats
themselves, the comfort is superb.
Jankel made no changes to the shape
and softness of the donor Silver Spur's
were sold to the Swiss and French
market, though soon after the
official launch in February 1984, the
American market took over much
of the production. Not all, though.
In April 1984 Rolls-Royce Motor
Cars European Division in Lausanne,
Switzerland, ordered a standard
Silver Spur. The car was completed
in October 1984 and Lausanne then
ordered the car to be stretched by
RJD Ltd to ‘project A (four doors)’.
The vehicle specification sheet was
completed on 10th October and
rear seats. A leather-finished housing
has been placed in the headliner above
the rear seats, containing a loudspeaker
and microphone to be able to
communicate with the driver. A storage
compartment is built into the centre
armrest for small items. All rear seats
have seat belts, three in the back and
two for the seats next to the cabinet.
From the rear seats, occupants
have a beautiful view of the extensive
entertainment equipment on board.
At the top of the cabinet, built against
the division, is a radio/cassette player
surrounded by a number of equalizers.
At the front, a colour TV has been
built in, looking very much ‘of its time’.
Directly below the TV the buttons for
the climate control are fitted, with
the air vents located to the left and
right of the cabinet. Finally, at the
very bottom of the tower, the VHS
video player is located. Thirsty? If the
occupants want to take a sip during all
this entertainment, they can reach for »
Jankel started that day with the
production. The stretched limousine
was completed on 28th December
1984. It remained in Switzerland a
few years before a customer was
found. That was the Obayashi Sangyo
Company’s office in Paris, France,
who took delivery on 25th September
1988. When they sold the car and to
whom is not known, but it is certain
that the car has been owned in several
European countries. The current
owner resides in the Netherlands, and
he bought the car in Latvia in 2011.
75
SPECIAL FEATURE
JANKEL LIMOUSINE ROAD TEST
“Rolls-Royce had a large customer base who bought
a car not to drive, but to be driven”
the mini-fridge fitted between the two
backrests of the rear seats. Under the
cabinet tower, to the left and right of the
transmission tunnel, two leather bags
are available for storage of two bottles.
To be passengers in the back seats of
the Silver Spur limousine is undeniably
a fantastic experience. The beautifully
designed rear cabin with its graceful
cabinet and the veneers on the doors
and other panels, creates a sublime
feeling of luxury and exclusivity. The
engine noise barely reaches the rear and
the suspension comfort is unbeatable for
S PECI FI C AT I O N
1984 ROLLS-ROYCE
SILVER SPUR LIMOUSINE
36 INCH STRETCH
LENGTH: 5,310 mm (17ft 5in)
VIN: SCAZN0000ECX09808
LENGTH, WIDTH, HEIGHT:
628, 189 (201 over the mirrors), 148 cm
WHEELBASE: 408 cm
CURB WEIGHT: 2550 kg
ENGINE: 6750 cc V8 with SU carburettors
GEAR BOX: GM400 3-speed
automatic gear box
DRIVE: Rear-wheel drive
POWER: c. 200bhp
TOP SPEED: 119 mph
76
cars from this period. If you wanted to
make optimal use of the entertainment
accessories, they would need to be
upgraded to current standards and
geared to the local reception; for now,
they remain original. Many limousines
were initially used in the USA or in the
Far East and have equipment on board
that is tailored to those markets. It is
difficult to choose between maintaining
this nostalgic equipment and installing
modern devices. The experience in the
back is so magnificently Eighties that
I wouldn't replace the original devices
myself. After all, technology changes so
fast that new devices could be obsolete
before the car is due for its next service.
Rolls-Royce had a large customer
base who bought a car not to drive,
but to be driven. That had to be a
car in which life mainly took place in
the rear compartment. A personally
furnished place in which the customer
could isolate himself from the chauffeur
with a division and be free to talk
without being overheard. It also had
to contain every facility to make life
easier or more pleasant for the often
spoiled and demanding customer.
Now, in 2023, these cars are more
than 35 years old, but regardless of
age, these were never cars for everyday
transport unless your daily routine
involved a full-time chauffeur and trips
to exclusive boutiques or the opera. It’s
hard to see this car at the supermarket
or furniture store…and anyway, it won’t
fit in any average parking space.
No, this Silver Spur limousine 36-inch
stretch is a car for the Rolls-Royce
enthusiast with a large family, or for
the hobbyist who likes large cars, or for
the rental company that wants to offer
something exclusive. There are plenty
of applications for a special vehicle like
this, with its wonderful classic limousine
atmosphere on board in combination
with a luxurious driver's compartment.
It is a very enjoyable car, and that’s true
whether you’re in the front or the rear. Q
THANKS TO: Ibalo Luxury Sportscars,
Breukersweg 14, 7471 ST Hof van Twente
(Goor), the Netherlands, (www.ibalo.nl)
for making this Silver Spur Limousine
available for this driving impression.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marinus Rijkers runs two of the most
useful and informative websites
for enthusiasts of all SY- and
SZ-series models. You can find
them at RRSilverShadow.com and
RRSilverSpirit.com. He has also
written a couple of books, which can
be found at RRBspecialist.com.
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
 01322 669081 / 07836 250222
Gildenhill Place, Gildenhill Road, Swanley, Kent BR8 7PD England

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BUYING ADVICE
BENTLEY CONTINENTAL R AND T

BUYING ADVICE

BUY BENTLEY’S
SUPER-COUPE
It bore a great weight of history on its broad shoulders – the Continental
name and a decent shout to be the Blower Bentley for the 1990s. With
prices spread across such a vast range, what should we look for?
WORDS: WILL HOLMAN P H OTO G R A P H Y: K E L S E Y A RC H I V E / R M S O T H E BYS

T
he first Bentley since 1965
to feature a bodyshell not
shared with a Rolls-Royce
was tasked with reviving the
company’s fortunes and sold very well,
despite being the most expensive car
in the world at the time. Choosing the
right car for you, and understanding
the wide spread of price points in the
market, begins with understanding
the many variants Bentley offered
between 1992 and 2003.
MODEL HISTORY
This is a tale of number ones. Not pop
songs, but firsts claimed by 1991’s
Continental R. The most expensive
Bentley to date. The most powerful,
and the fastest. The first to have a gear
selector on the transmission tunnel,
and without doubt the most successful.
Building on the success of the Mulsanne
Turbo, 1991’s Continental R was revealed
at that year’s Geneva show, which it
took by storm, much to the annoyance
of Mercedes, who fully expected its
new W140 S-Class to be the star.
But although the bodywork was all
new, the Continental’s underpinnings
were similar to the Turbo R, and the
325bhp L-Series V8 remained at the
heart of the matter. In common with the
four-door siblings from the 1992 model
year, the new car used a four-speed
electronically-controlled gearbox from
GM, used in, among others, the Jaguar
XJ12, Aston Martin DB7 and Hummer H1.
With 450lb-ft of torque available
between 2000 and 4000rpm, the
Continental R could accelerate to
60mph in just 6.6 seconds, despite
weighing in at a hefty 2420kg, and
would happily chase S-Class Mercs all
the way up to 145mph on the autobahn.
All this for just £178,000 at launch.
By 1994 that ticket had climbed to
slightly more than £180,000, but
power and torque also went up, the
latter to an oak-felling 500lb-ft. This
was achieved with help from Cosworth,
who reworked the V8’s cylinder heads
to great effect. In the same year the
wheels increased in diameter to 17
inches with a new seven-spoke design.
For the 1995 model year only,
the Continental S was available as a

78 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
limited-edition performance model Wide arches of
with a charge-cooler system added Continental T make
to reduce intake temperatures on it stand out
the force-fed engine. Only 37 were
produced and offered to established
Bentley customers, the late Alan
Clark MP being one of them.
In 1996 the Continental R got a long
list of revisions, the most notable
of which was a new standard
fitment of the charge cooler. At
the same time a Zytek engine
management system took
over from the previous Bosch
unit, which gave the car
improved throttle response
and even managed a slight
increase in fuel efficiency.
Power – for the first time
officially quoted by Bentley –
rose to 385bhp and torque to
550lb-ft, another first for the
Continental R as this was more
than any other production car at the
time. We’re guessing this is why the alloy dash distinguished the T, and a a wider body, bigger wheels and a
policy of performance non-disclosure push button start accentuated the Continental T engine, allowing the full-
came to an end. The sprint to 60mph performance aspect. Top speed was sized coupé to get to 60mph in just
was now achieved in fewer than six now a ballistic 170mph. All this came 5.6 seconds. Between 1999 and the
seconds, and top speed exceeded that at a price – 20% more than the R. last cars built in 2003, Bentley offered
of German machinery by five miles an In 1998 traction control became various special models via its Personal
hour, which was limited to 150mph. New standard (thank goodness) and the Commission programme, including
17-inch alloy wheels helped justify the front seats from the Azure convertible the Le Mans, Continental R 420 and
list price of more than £187,000, as did version now went into the fixed head Millennium. Yet more power – and
a new tilt adjustable steering column. too – easily spotted as the seat belt rarity – means they’re in demand. The
In the same year Bentley Launched is an integral part of the seat itself. Continental R finally ended production
the Continental T, with 102mm less These cars also have small mesh grilles in 2003, the last of all the models
in the wheelbase and a slightly below the headlights, a laser cut mesh based on the Rolls-Royce SZ platform,
more powerful engine. The extra radiator grille as standard and small and the end of an era in many ways.
15bhp was nice but the torque rise tweaks to the front and rear bumpers.
to 590lb-ft was positively naughty, In the same year Bentley built just six BODYWORK AND
and allied to the lighter shell led to Continental R California Editions, with
an appreciable performance hike. To wide bodies and 420bhp engines. EXTERIOR
cope, larger front discs with ABS as A year later the Continental R We chatted to the very amiable and
standard were fitted. Inside, a turned Mulliner model range appeared, with extremely knowledgeable Simon »

Beware of damage - new rear

Ensure there's no corrosion in the rear seam of the boot, near lamp units lamp lenses are hard to find

R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 79
BUYING ADVICE
BENTLEY CONTINENTAL R AND T

‘Rust, of course, is the thing you want to avoid at all costs,

especially now that new panels aren’t available.’

Worthington of Phantom Motor
Cars in Farnham, Surrey, to find
out what to look for when buying a
Continental. The first thing he pointed
out was that a number of parts
are hard to come by these days.
‘Bentley, in their wisdom don’t
really maintain parts supply
as the cars are so old.’
Not a good start. Rust, of course,
is the thing you want to avoid at all
costs, especially now that new panels
aren’t available. So look for corrosion
in the lower panels, especially the
sills, then inspect the tops of the
doors around the area of the stainless
steel finisher and the rubber seal
– rust gets hidden by the trim.
‘That chrome trim holds the water
and then the door rusts’, says Simon.
‘You can’t get any parts so we have
to make our own repair panels. And
even when doors were available,
they were £3000 each. Also look for
corrosion on the boot lid’s back seam,
where the rear lamp units are.’
Check the lower front wing areas
for rot too. Moving on to the car’s
underside, the subframes go rusty
– especially on cars left parked
outside near the sea, or ones that
have seen lots of salty roads.
‘We had one car that was left up at
Lake Geneva, and that was really bad,’
says Simon. ‘The subframes themselves
are made of such thick steel that you

With all that performance, look for

high quality W or Y-rated tyres Well-proven Turbo installation just needs attentive servicing to last and last

80 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
don’t generally find holes, but they look
awful. We strip the car, remove them, AZURE AND CONTINENTAL SC
sandblast them and repaint them.’
This obviously makes them not
only look pretty again but prevents
further corrosion. Budget £4000 at
each end for the job though. Bentley
didn’t really take rust proofing
seriously back in the day, says Simon.
‘They splashed a bit of Waxoyl
in the sills from new, but that was
it. If we find a really nice car that’s
rust free, we get it up on the ramp
and inject wax everywhere.’
Look out for cracked or damaged light SC ideal for the south of
France, says our expert
lenses. The good news is you can get
front ones – headlights and indicators.
The bad news is the inners are £300 The Continental SC (Sedanca Coupé) 2003. ‘They were never designed
each, which makes the outers look a bit was a 1999 limited production to be a convertible and cutting the
of a bargain at £200. The worse news version of the Continental T with roof off left the shell with a fair
is that rear lamps are not available. And a removable roof panel over the amount of flex and scuttle shake,’
if the door seals are split don’t imagine front seats. A total of 79 cars says Simon. ‘If you buy the Mulliner
it’s an easy fix. They were around £200 were built, six of them with the wide body version the combination
each, but they’re no longer available. Mulliner package. Forty-eight of of the increased unsprung weight
‘The Continental R Mulliners are these cars were left hand drive. and the body flex isn’t great.
wide-bodied cars and have larger ‘Unfortunately, the removable roof We’re seeing a lot of issues on
wheels and much more unsprung panels have a three-dimensional the hood hydraulics, with seals
weight as a result,’ says Simon. ‘They seal that never worked well and failing. There are eight rams – six
look great but they just don’t drive as is now unavailable,’ says Simon at the rear and two at the front.’
well as the standard cars. We looked Worthington. ‘The cars just fill These rams cost £100 each.
at having some magnesium wheels up with water. SC equals soggy Some of the nylon pipework can
made for the Mulliner cars but a wheel carpets! And the sills rot out as a fail on cars from hot climates.
set would have been £15,000.’ result. They look absolutely great ‘You can also get problems
but unless you live in the south with position switches and
SUSPENSION of France they’re best avoided.’ potentiometers, and then the
The Azure is the true convertible roof just stops. You need a
AND BRAKES version of the Continental R, and proper diagnostic test kit to
‘The rear suspension doesn’t cause was produced between 1995 and tell where the problem is.’
much of an issue except that the
rubber bushes age and that throws
the camber and toe settings out of
alignment. In theory these aren’t
adjustable, but we can move it around
a bit to compensate and get it all set
up on the laser alignment rig’, says
Simon. Thankfully the bushes don’t
really wear out, they just settle, hence
the need for the realignment work.
‘The biggest issue is the rear springs. More waterproof than an
The cars should have 50 percent spring SC's targa panels fit under SC? Quite possibly! But hood
tray in false boot floor mechanisms fail expensively
input and 50 percent hydraulics, and
this needs to be kept balanced. But
the springs tend to settle, and some
people just compensate by adjusting the
torque arm on the self-levelling valve
underneath the car. But if you place
too much emphasis on the hydraulics
then the ride becomes very hard – you
can’t compress hydraulic oil, obviously.
So if the car is hard at the back then
someone has compensated for weak
springs by effectively upping the
hydraulic pressure. You either need new Azure's side profile reveals a sleek and successful convertible conversion
springs or the ones that are on there »

R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 81
BUYING ADVICE
BENTLEY CONTINENTAL R AND T

need shimming. At this age almost
all these cars now need this work.
‘On the front suspension the springs
also get compressed – look for a low
ride height. Again, the answer is to
shim the springs. When the cars were
new they came with a height/spring
rate figure and you’re supposed to
shim them accordingly. We have a
spring chart that we use. If you don’t
get the right height, it changes the
camber, caster and toe. Often we fit
new bushes then redo the camber and
caster settings. You can easily tell if
a car needs this work doing as it will
wander into the kerb. There’s also a
modification to the settings we can do
that gives the car more caster on the
front to alleviate the steering sensitivity.
After this we think the cars probably
drive better than when they were new.
‘One thing we notice on a lot
Continentals is vibration problems.
It’s the propshaft – the car shudders.
Some are so bad you get a droning
noise at motorway speeds, and a lot
of owners sold the cars because of
it. The propshaft isn’t worn out – the
universal joints are usually fine, they
just weren’t balanced properly.
‘The brakes are pretty good and don’t
often give problems if they’ve been well
maintained. But the seals in the engine
mounted brake pumps are supposed
to be changed every seven or eight
years.’ Unfortunately this isn’t a cheap
job because the pump is buried under
a lot of parts and sits in the vee of the
engine. All this kit needs removing to get
to the pump, resulting in a £2000 bill.
The brake pressure then goes
to the accumulators mounted low
down on the engine. ‘We’re noticing
that a lot of the accumulator valve
bodies are now leaking. They’re steel
units and they corrode so we’re
rebuilding a lot valve bodies’.
‘If you find a rusty car you can bet
it will also have rusty brake pipes’,
says Simon. ‘The originals are Bundy
tubing as used by Citroën. It’s a steel
pipe with a plastic covering. We
replace the pipes with Bundy tubing
but we find a lot of places use copper.
These brake systems run at 2600psi,
so we really wouldn’t recommend
this. Caliper seals are supposed to be
changed every seven years – they will
last a bit longer but not much. Part of
the service is to pull back the caliper

Engine-turned dash panel

Doors are heavy and sumptiously trimmed is in Conti T is striking
- is corrosion hiding behind exterior trim? but catches sun glare

Bargain over clouded or cracked lacquer Sun can damage dash tops and wooden door cappings - inspect with care

82 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
 Continental T's
reduced wheelbase
is quite subtle
dust seals and look for dampness.
This is part of the reason that a total
brake rebuild could cost £5000. We
remove all the calipers, clean them
up and fit all new seals to them.’
Some of the larger brake discs are not
available from Bentley, and the Final
Series Cars (2003) had larger Alcon
brake discs and upgraded calipers.
You can’t get Alcon discs any more but
there are aftermarket replacements.
Standard discs are £700, Alcons £1200.
‘Rear brake discs are an integral
part of rear hub assembly so take six
hours a side to change. The rear discs
themselves are £300, but generally
we’d replace the rear bearings and
seals at the same time,’ says Simon.
Budget £3000 for this job.
ENGINE AND GEARBOX
If only everything in life was as reliable
as an L Series V8. Well, whatever
Volkswagen might say, the long lived
powerplant is a strong, dependable unit.
‘The engines don’t have any real
mechanical issues as long as they’re
looked after’, says Simon. ‘Turbos
last forever. They’re water-cooled,
specified for Mobil 1 oil, and they give
no problems. The weak point is the
rocker area, which wears, at 70-80,000
miles, and the engine starts to sounds
a bit tappety. There are “elephants’
feet” on the rockers – you can take
these out and replace them, at a cost of
£3500. But generally, apart from slight
oil leaks from the sump gasket, crank
seals, front timing gasket and rocker
gaskets, the engines are pretty good.’
It’s a similar story with the GM 4L80E
R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3
‘On the front suspension the springs also get
compressed – look for a low ride height.’
four-speed automatic gearbox too.
‘If they’re properly serviced they’re
reliable, and will last up to around
140,000 miles,’ says Simon. Proper
servicing according to Bentley is
a fluid change every year, with a
fluid and filter change every two,
but with many cars doing minimal
miles this is hard to justify.
INTERIOR
Most seat ECUs will have been rebuilt by
now. The rechargeable battery in them
leaks and wrecks the circuitry. They
last around ten years or so but if the
car is used regularly, they fare better.
‘They get their supply from the
car’s main battery’, explains Simon,
‘and if the car’s not used very often
the battery in the module will fail.’
Alarm control modules can also
cause a problem at or around the
10 year mark, and a replacement
is £700 fitted. As for the interiors
themselves, look out for sun damage.
‘Leave your car in the sun and the
leather on the dash shrinks and pulls
away,’ says Simon. ‘Plus the lacquer on
the wood suffers and comes loose.’
It’s a bargaining point, but it’s all
costly to fix. The leather upholstery
itself is pretty durable but needs regular
cleaning and applications of hide food
to keep it looking good. Switchgear
is also reliable, but can suffer from
underuse. One common problem is that
the push button rear foglamp won’t
work. ‘They often fail an MoT because
of this’, says Simon, ‘but we find that
repeatedly pushing the button will
usually get it working again. Electric
window faults should be avoided - the
weakest links are the runner seals on the
glass. The fronts wear out and aren’t
available, so we have to take a back
section and make a repair using that’.
WHAT TO PAY
As a guide, you can expect to pay
the following for a good example
of each variant, with average
mileage for the year: £60,000 for
a standard-bodied Continental R,
£85,000 for the Continental T and
the Mulliner, perhaps £80,000 for
an Azure and £90,000 for an SC.
The cheapest cars – those early
Continental Rs you see for £30,000
– need not be a disaster, you just
need to have your eyes open to
possible expenditure to bring them
up to scratch. Likewise, six-figure
sums are achieved for the best low-
mileage examples of the sought-
after variants. So which to choose?
‘Pay as much as you can,’ says
Simon. ‘The better cars are the later
cars – ’98 onwards. They barely
changed after that point and Bentley
got everything right by then.’ Q
83
THE CLUB HOUSE
BENTLEY DRIVERS CLUB
MOTORSPORT
IN ‘RUDE HEALTH’
Club racing matters were discussed and awards presented
when the BDC held its annual Competitions Day.
S
ome 70 racers, officials
and guests were brought
up to speed with the latest
Club motorsport plans and
regulations at the annual Competitions
Day gathering at the Clubhouse in
Wroxton at the end of January. Those
who enjoyed success at the BDC
Silverstone race meeting last season
were honoured at the day’s traditional
awards presentation ceremony.
Competitions Captain Ben Eastick,
who presided over the meeting
together with Club President Duncan
Wiltshire, kicked off proceedings on a
positive note when he told attendees:
‘The Club is in rude health in terms
of Competitions. And we’ve got some
exciting plans ahead for the next two
years.’
Looking back at the 2022 season,
Ben commented: ‘Last year was full
of ups and downs but generally quite
encouraging.’
Hailing BDC Silverstone as a
‘great success’ Ben said: ‘A lot of
clubs have suffered in the last 24
months but we had a really good
Competitions Captain Ben Eastick
was honoured for his 2022 successes
(image: Stuart Newman)
84
PICTURES: STUART NEWMAN / MIKE GRIFFIN
turnout. Apart from the Allcomers
open race we were close to having
full grids, and the Times Challenge
Trophy race was fully supported.’
In his rallying call for more
competitors to take part in events,
Ben reiterated his desire to see yet
more Mk VI Specials take to the track
following the ‘encouraging’ increase
in numbers during last season.
‘Mk VI Specials have been a really
fundamental part of the Club racing
scene over the years,’ he said.
FISCAR (the Fifties Sports Car
Racing Club) has also offered good
news, making Mk VI Specials eligible to
compete in its series, confirmed Richard
Culverhouse, the organisation’s CEO and
Competitions Secretary. Turning to the
changes in regulations the Competitions
Committee has implemented, Ben
highlighted the groupings for Bentleys.
‘If we can get the cars running more
in a Bentley period specification it will
lower the costs overall and stop the
development – which, ultimately, will
bring more people out to compete.’
Meanwhile, this year’s nominated
More Mk VI Specials are being encouraged to compete with existing racers such as Vernon
Moore (image: Mike Griffin Photography)
WORDS: STUART NEWMAN
Club sprint, revealed Ben, will be at
the classic Aintree course (using part
of the old Grand Prix circuit), with the
Club’s nominated hill climb to take
place once again at Harewood. Looking
at more modern Bentleys, the Club
is currently working with M-Sport to
develop a Continental GT race car, with
Comps Committee member Simon
Worthington explaining that ‘we
would like to get together a number
of cars to race in a series at BDC
Silverstone and some other venues.’
The meeting ended with the
presentation of class awards from BDC
Silverstone 2022. Ben Eastick received
four prizes, including one for winning
the Times Challenge Trophy race and
another for Racing Driver of the Year.
Oliver Llewellyn won three awards
while newcomer Vernon Moore and the
seasoned Clive Morley took two each.
The Stan Terry Memorial Trophy, for
Official of the Year, was posthumously
awarded to Terry Rogers, who passed
away recently, in recognition of his
many years of service as the Club’s
Chief Scrutineer. Q www.bdcl.org
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
 ADVERTORIAL

DRIVERS CLUB
F
ounded by enthusiasts for Members enjoy a
enthusiasts. The Bentley Drivers range of benefits
Club is proud of its ethos: a club with the BDC:
of friends who share a love of • Bi-monthly
all things Bentley. It’s also the only club Review and
directly affiliated with Bentley Motors. monthly
While some follow in the tyre tracks of the Advertiser
iconic ‘Bentley Boys’, competing in races & Diary
and rallies, others have taken pleasure publications
watching their modern-day counterparts in plus frequent
the most recent GT3 race cars. e-newsletters
Off track, some simply enjoy driving • Access to
their Bentley on the road, frequently in the comprehensive
company of other enthusiasts. archives
No matter what your inspiration, the through
BDC can help enhance your Bentley the club’s
ownership and take your appreciation of association
this classic marque even deeper. with the Bentley Memorial
A great feature of our club is the Foundation, providing a deep insight
excellent events we hold, both at home into the marque’s history
and abroad. These include our annual • Access to the spares schemes,
long-established Concours d’Elegance and covering the three key eras of Bentley
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tours and social occasions organised by • Favourable insurance rates and service
our ever active Regions worldwide. plus undisputed valuations
So, with lots of activities to look forward (for insurance purposes)
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TO FIND OUT MORE, PLEASE CONTACT US AT INFO@BDCL.ORG

OR VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.BDCL.ORG
THE CLUB HOUSE
ROLLS-ROYCE ENTHUSIASTS’ CLUB
AFTERNOON TEAS
AT BURGHLEY
Tickets for the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts’ Club Annual
Rally are on sale now, and the Club is pleased to
confirm the return of a refreshments marquee in
which to sit down and refuel!
T
he Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts’
Club is excited to announce
the launch of the Annual
Rally tickets, now available
for purchase. The highly anticipated
event will take place from Friday 23rd
June until Sunday 25th June 2023
at the beautiful Burghley House in
Stamford, South Lincolnshire, UK.
The RREC Annual Rally is a
celebration of all things Rolls-Royce
& Bentley, featuring thousands of
vintage and classic vehicles from
across the globe, as well as more than
70 specialist trade stalls offering
a range of products and services
86
related to these iconic vehicles.
This time, in response to feedback
from last year’s show, food and
refreshments on the site will offer a
mixture of options including a new
marquee serving cream teas and
offering a place to sit down and relax.
Last year’s show featured hot sunshine
and sudden rain showers, so somewhere
comfortable to shelter will be widely
welcomed. In addition, varied festival
food stands will be selling a range of
tasty options for lunch and snacks.
With limited availability, we
recommend booking your tickets early
to avoid disappointment. Weekend
WORDS: MARTIN CHESSE
passes are available now starting at
£77.00 for two people, while single-
day entry starts at just £26 for one
vehicle and two people on the Friday.
Caravan and motorhome passes are
available too, for those wishing to
stay on site for the weekend, starting
at £60 for a non-electric pitch.
Speaking about the event, RREC
Event Manager Martin Chesse said, ‘We
are thrilled to announce the return of
our Annual Rally, and we can't wait to
welcome enthusiasts from around the
world to Burghley House. This year's
event will to be a fantastic celebration
of all things Rolls-Royce, and we do not
doubt that it will be an unforgettable
experience for everyone involved.’
This year's event promises to be
bigger and better than ever before,
with an array of exciting activities and
entertainment planned for all visitors.
To purchase tickets and for further
information about the event, please
visit the members’ section of the RREC
website at rrec.org.uk, or if you’re not
yet a member, call The Hunt House on
01327 811788. Don't miss your chance
to be part of this incredible celebration
of Rolls-Royce and Bentley heritage. Q
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D

 



 



 




 !!"


#

 

 


"

 
        

I WAS THERE
PETER LAVERS

SILVER SERAPH & ARNAGE LAUNCH –

THE INSIDE STORY
In this SZ generation Special Issue, we mark the 25th anniversary of the
cars that replaced the SZ by revealing the story of launching the most
important Rolls-Royce and Bentley products in a generation
WORDS: NIGEL BOOTHMAN PHOTOGR APHS: PETER L AVERS / BENTLEY MOTORS

I
n 1998, Peter Lavers was Manager
of Relationship Marketing at Rolls-
Royce and Bentley Motor Cars.
He was in his mid-thirties though
looked younger, if the photo we’ve
seen (but promised not to print!) is
anything to go by: round spectacles,
floppy blond hair in a centre parting,
neat suit, shirt and tie. Every inch the
energetic young marketeer. Even his job
title, which would seem on-trend today,
revealed that Rolls-Royce was prepared
to do some things the modern way.
Peter was tasked with the project
management of the launches for both
new models, the cars we would come
to know as the Rolls-Royce Silver
Seraph and the Bentley Arnage. These
were the company’s most important
models – and their first all-new cars
– in more than 30 years. There can be
little doubt they were overdue, and
without certain strokes of luck and the
long-lasting loyalty of Rolls-Royce’s
customers, they may have been too
late. Peter sets the scene back in 1997,
with the new models just months away.

88 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
 ‘We were very aware of the age of the
SZ models,’ he says. ‘We were supposed Peter Lavers today, with
his much-loved Bentley T
to have launched a downsized saloon
model code-named SX by 1990, then
another SZ replacement (SXB) in 1995,
but both were canned, which left us
with the changes we could make to
the SZ. There was a real desire to bring
some focus back onto Rolls-Royce,
after the Turbo and Continental R had
done so well for Bentley. That was the
reason for the use of the light-pressure
turbo engine in the Flying Spur and the
last-of-the-line Silver Spurs, and for
reprising the Silver Dawn name in 1996 .’
The company was also investing
£40 million in significant changes at
Pym’s Lane in Crewe, ahead of the
long-awaited new cars. Making the
Crewe factory somewhere people
wanted to visit was part of a two-
point strategy, as Peter describes.
‘This strategy led, eventually, to
the current capability for large-scale
factory visits. We introduced customer
champions and tour guides, so we
didn’t have to take anyone off their
day jobs in the factory to show people
round. It started with refreshing the as you might think, says Peter. numbers: 250 of Rolls-Royce’s best
front of the factory, making it attractive ‘We all knew, of course, about the customers, world-wide, each with their
enough to host a launch event. new models’ use of BMW engines and partner, totalling 500 visitors from
‘The second part of the launch so we all assumed BMW would buy the UK, USA, Europe, Asia and the
strategy was to give a few clear months Rolls-Royce and Bentley – it was the Middle East, their visits split across
of spotlight to the new Rolls-Royce obvious thing to do. It wasn’t until five days between Monday 16th and
before the Bentley was introduced. And the launches were safely completed Wednesday 25th of February.
a key part of that was the customer that Volkswagen came into the The guests were to make their
launch at Crewe that we did before the picture and it became possible that own way to one of two hotels within
car’s public debut in Geneva, as a way the two marques might split.’ striking distance of Pym’s Lane, where
to thank long-standing customers.’ The launch team, headed by Ian their accommodation was paid for.
This was February 1998. Though McKay and Alasdair Stewart, forged Split into groups of 25, they would be
rumours were starting to circulate ahead with their ideas for a truly collected by a fleet of Rolls-Royces
about the forthcoming sale of the luxurious and impressive event. Peter’s and driven to Crewe to start in the
company by its parent Vickers, customer launch plan from the time has new Gallery reception area before a
the atmosphere wasn’t as tense survived, and details some impressive welcome speech and a tour of the »

Launch theatre backdrop fell away to reveal... ...new Silver Seraph production line

R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 89
I WAS THERE
PETER LAVERS
new Lineage display area. There would
follow a presentation which offered
a bit of drama, as Peter describes.
‘We built a theatre at the end of
the new production line,’ he says.
‘We revealed the Silver Seraph in a
fairly traditional way, but then the
Heritage vehicles from RREC members played an important role
90
backdrop fell away and suddenly you
weren’t in a theatre, you were in the
factory! Our agency for both launches,
Furneaux Stewart, ran all the staging
for us and it was hugely effective.’
As an aside, Peter mentions an
interesting nugget about the creation
Project Team, Peter
kneeling on the balcony
of the new production line, saying that a
friend of his from the supplier observed
that making a production line that
ran so slowly was a nightmare. Most
‘normal’ cars move past each station
in seconds, which was never suitable
for the man-hours required to finish a
Rolls-Royce. But back to the launch.
For the evening receptions, Peter
had grabbed Crewe Hall, a stately
home soon to open as a hotel. Rolls-
Royce took it over and it made for an
impressive evening setting. Guests
would be collected from their hotels
once more, this time in the fleet of
25 Silver Seraphs, and driven to the
venue. The menu for the celebration
dinner was created by Anton Edelman
of The Savoy and accompanied not
only by four different fine wines, but
also by a musical programme from the
Royal College of Music. For instance,
the Lamb Noisette on Mediterranean
Vegetables was served with a 1987
Hermitage La Chapelle by Paul
Jaboulet Ainé, to the sounds of Molto
allegro ed agitato from Mendelssohn’s
Piano Trio in D minor, Opus 49.
Finally, when the last group had
departed, Rolls-Royce offered a
similar day and dinner to ‘selected
members of the press’, but the priority
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
was firmly with the customers. This
special attention seems to have
‘A key part of that was the customer
been appreciated, as it was noted
in a Rolls-Royce dealer publication
launch at Crewe that we did before the
that orders were flowing in only a Silver Seraph’s public debut in Geneva, as
week after the events finished.
‘I ended up going to lots of lunches a way to thank long-standing customers.’
and dinners!’ says Peter, who somehow
survived all that fine food and wine
and stayed fit enough to carry on to
the next launch: the Bentley Arnage.
This would make the organisation Anton Edelman's menu
required for the Silver Seraph events at
Pym’s Lane and Crewe Hall seem like
a skittles night in the local pub. Not
only was the Bentley launch going to
feature twice as many guests, it was
going to involve shifting the whole
launch operation from home turf in
Crewe to the Le Mans circuit in France.
‘The Seraph launch was much
more intimate and was something
to which our customers could bring
their partners,’ says Peter. ‘Even the
invitations were special – impressive
“stiffies” that you’d want to keep.
The Arnage launch, on the other
hand, was going to be a colossal
boys’ (and girls’) day out’.
Both the Silver Seraph launch and »

Post-launch, the Silver

Seraph on display at Crewe Seraph launch Invitations

R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 91
I WAS THERE
PETER LAVERS

‘The Arnage launch would make the organisation required

for the Silver Seraph events at Pym’s Lane and Crewe
Hall seem like a skittles night in the local pub.’

the Arnage launch drew heavily on
assistance from the clubs – RREC
and BDC members helped provide
various heritage vehicles at Crewe and
a staggering 50 different examples
at Le Mans, to go with the 50
Arnages sent over for the weekend.
‘All of the 50 lineage cars we chose
were around the 4 ½-litre mark,’ says
Peter. ‘We wanted vintage 4 ½-litre
Bentleys, 1930s 4 ¼-litre Derby Bentleys
and post-war Mk VI and R-type Bentleys
with 4.3-litre and 4.6-litre engines, all to
resonate with the new 4.4-litre Arnage.’
The invasion fleet from Crewe
and elsewhere consisted of several
bus-loads of volunteers and helpers,
including 176 staff members.
‘We couldn’t afford to pay them
overtime but they wanted to be there,
and they were absolutely brilliant. I
can’t emphasise enough what a huge
contribution was made to both launch
events by the people who worked
at the factory. Those 176 people at
Le Mans only got a jumper and a
certificate to thank them, but it couldn’t
have happened without them.’
Unlike the staggered visits of the
Rolls-Royce launch, the Arnage launch
all culminated on one manic day –
Sunday April 26th, 1998. The intention
was for 936 invited guests including
customers, BDC club members, press
and dealers to descend on Le Mans
to see the moment the new model
was revealed, and then to enjoy a
variety of activities and events in a
programme called ‘Live the Legend’.
Roped in to help with the driving
experiences were Gerhard Berger, Tiff
Needell and Nigel Mansell. Except
Nigel didn’t earn his crust behind
the wheel, at least not at first.
‘We usually expected a 10% drop-
out rate for any event, but rather more
people turned up than were invited –
about 1100,’ says Peter. ‘Lots of them
flew in and Le Mans airport couldn’t
cope, so we had people getting in
late and having to queue for lanyards.
There were some customers who
thought they were a bit special – “I
don’t queue!” and then they saw Nigel
handing out the lanyards, and calmed
down a bit. He was great; he mucked
in and helped us get through it.’
The day began with an introduction
by Chief Executive Graham Morris
and then the dramatic ‘reveal’ of the
Arnage. Because so many arrived late,
the team and Agency crew actually had
to perform the reveal twice, but apart

92 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
 Gerhard Berger (above)
the cars to their limits
from that, the organisational machine
kept on ticking and many hundreds of
keen visitors were taken for laps of the
inner track, experiencing for themselves
the step-change in performance and
handling offered by the new Bentley.
‘It was mad, one of the hardest days of
my life,’ says Peter. ‘I was in the middle,
fighting the fires and trying to keep it all
going smoothly, which it did in the end.
But it was impossible to rehearse fully.
We hired someone to dress as Tim Birkin
but on the day itself, I never saw him!’
Bentley dealers made a significant
contribution to the launch by organising
parties and charter flights to France.
R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3
and NIgel Mansell
(below) helped push
50 Arnages from the Le Mans
launch went off to the dealer
network - is yours one of them?
The press contingent, looked after by
Richard Charlesworth, would normally be
allowed their own launch event, but this
time there was an ambition from Bentley
to create something of unusual scale
and daring. Job done, without doubt.
In an interview for the staff newspaper,
published soon afterwards, Peter
revealed the event had been 18 months
in the planning. The morning after that
spectacular day, the many hundreds of
volunteers and launch team members
were up at 6.30am to begin the move
back to Crewe. What happened to those
50 Arnages from the launch event?
‘If you’ve got an R-plate or early
S-plate Arnage,’ says Peter, ‘it may well
have been a launch vehicle. They were
dispersed around the dealer network
and I imagine most have survived.’
But only a couple of months after this
second triumph of brand management
and promotion, Rolls-Royce and Bentley
Motor Cars Ltd crashed headlong into
one of the most notorious tales in its
history. We’ve often covered the strange
story of how Volkswagen gazumped
BMW’s purchase of Rolls-Royce and
Bentley, only to find that it hadn’t
acquired the rights to the Rolls-Royce
name and branding. BMW dived in and
acquired these for a tenth of what VW »
93
I WAS THERE
PETER LAVERS
paid for the Crewe plant and the Bentley
name. The two old marques split, and
all that work done by Peter and his
team in giving the new models the best
start in life looked like coming undone.
‘The business case was blown,’ says
Peter. ‘The Arnage didn’t achieve its
expected early sales volume because
a BMW engine in a VW-owned car
was a double negative, and there were
stories in the press about parts supply
concerns. Prices had gone up too,
and then Ferdinand Piech, VW’s boss,
immediately commissioned the return
of the old 6.75-litre engine, so selling
those 4.4-litre Arnages was a challenge
from the start. Which is a real shame,
because they are very good cars.’
Not only was the new Bentley’s
image harmed, but production of the
Silver Seraph came close to halting
altogether. BMW and VW managed to
come to an arrangement that would
allow VW/Bentley to continue producing
Silver Seraphs until the new BMW/
Rolls-Royce facility at Goodwood
opened, but it meant that marketing
Arnage launch at Le Mans involved the creation of a vast
theatre space with video screen, light show and a stage
94
and promotion of the model – and
indeed the similar-looking Corniche V
convertible – was a relative side show.
‘All that effort we’d made to give
Rolls-Royce a fresh boost went on hold,’
says Peter. ‘In the end, the takeovers
were about company survival. The
SZ was barely profitable, though
the company did make money from
the Continental R and the one-offs
and limited production runs they did
for a certain overseas royal family.
But that wasn’t sustainable, and
something had to change. It’s just a
shame it happened the way it did.’
How does Peter look back on
his time at Rolls-Royce, and those
two models he helped launch?
‘I was with Rolls-Royce from 1982 to
2000. When I arrived, there were people
working there who had been working
for Rolls-Royce at Derby in the 1930s,
and even Bentley at Cricklewood in the
Twenties! I’ve got such fond memories of
the skilled engineers I got to know. And I
think we should be proud of the Arnage
and Seraph. They came out of a difficult
background; it’s soul-destroying to be
part of a project that gets canned. I still
love Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars and I
have a Bentley T of my own. I’m involved
in a Rolls-Royce / Bentley staff reunion
that we run every two years, so the
company will always be part of my life.’
It seems incredible that this spring
marks 25 years since the launch of these
two models - where has the time gone?
After all, it took us a while to see the
Arnage and the Silver Seraph as classic
cars, but that’s undoubtedly where
they are now. Silver Seraph values,
for some time higher than equivalent
Arnages, seem to be rising further,
while those first 4.4-litre Arnages
have followers who appreciate their
reliability and more modest thirst. After
Peter’s fascinating tale, we can add
another reason to love both models:
they’re the last link to that imperfect
but inspiring old firm that means so
much to all those who worked there.
Were you there as a customer, club
member, dealer or employee? We’d
love to hear from you if you were. Q
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
I WAS THERE
ANTHONY KEARSLEY

FROM SZ TO SILVER SERAPH &

ARNAGE: THE DEALER’S VIEW
Anthony Kearsley was at the sharp end of Rolls-Royce and Bentley sales
when the Silver Seraph and Arnage were launched, and his startling stories
paint a picture of a business much in need of change
WORDS: NIGEL BOOTHMAN PHOTOGRAPHS: ANTHONY KEARSLEY

A
nthony Kearsley admits his
experience in the motor trade
made for high expectations when
he joined Dutton Forshaw, the Rolls-
Royce and Bentley agent for Preston,
in 1995. Having learned much from the
UK BMW dealer network, he moved
to the USA to sell Jaguar, Porsche and
Audi cars, after which he owned his
own Honda dealerships back the UK. So
Anthony was used to slick organisation
and near-faultless products.
‘Those Hondas were so perfect
they were boring,’ says Anthony. ‘Yet
when I went to sell Rolls-Royces,
I assumed I’d be dealing with the
best products I’d ever offered.
That impression didn’t last long.’
In his first week, Anthony rejected one
of the cars that arrived on a transporter
from Crewe.
‘It was a Bentley Turbo RL in metallic
silica with a crooked orange fine-line,
kinked like a dog’s hind leg, and with
a thumbprint in the paint. So I sent it
back. I was carpeted, and told “this is
Rolls-Royce – you don’t reject a car”.
So the next day it came back. When
the customer appeared, I apologised
to him straight away, pointing out the
fault. To my amazement he wasn’t
bothered. He said “Don’t worry lad,
they’re all like that. I’ll keep it for a
year and then get another one.”’
Anthony has many such tales, and
they paint a picture of a company
struggling to maintain the standards
associated with it while hampered by a
dealer network that, in the case of some
franchises, was terribly set in its ways.
‘The dealership I worked for had had
the franchise for 40 years, but they
were only allocated six cars a year,’ says
Anthony. ‘In my first year there I sold
twelve and got a telling off: don’t do
that or they’ll put our allocation up and
we’ll have the trouble of getting rid of
them. The other marques carried by this
dealer were all the old British Leyland
brands and the attitude was straight out
of BL. The hand-over pack you got with
your new Rolls-Royce was exactly the
same as the one you got with a Rover
Metro. As salesmen, we weren’t even
insured to drive the cars. It was pathetic.’
Anthony sometimes encountered
rather outdated attitudes from Rolls-
Royce themselves, or branches thereof.
‘I had one customer who was a
wealthy builder and wanted to use his
new car – Peacock Blue with Magnolia
hide – during his working day, so he
asked if I could have some seat covers
made. I phoned Mulliner Park Ward
and they said, ‘can’t you get him to
change his clothes more often?’
Even to an outsider, it was obvious
by the mid-1990s that Rolls-Royce’s
four-door products were behind the
opposition, with updates to a 15-year-
old model - itself based on the 1965
Silver Shadow – the only tactic to stay
current. Anthony saw signs that the
company might be looking for a buyer
when unusually generous finance deals
arrived with some special editions.
‘These were cars with a list price of
£145,000, yet you could put down
£18,000 and pay nothing more for
a year. You could even give it back
after a year with nothing more to
pay, or re-finance and drive home
in a new one. It was a good way to
get sales volume up and increase

Just a normal day for Anthony

at Jack Barclay, late 1990s,
and right, back at his desk

96 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
the apparent value of the company,
even if it didn’t make any financial
sense from a sales point of view.’
At the same time as the rumours
began to circulate about the sale of
Rolls-Royce in the spring of 1998,
the Seraph and Arnage were being
launched. This led to a sudden
change in Anthony’s career and a
new perception of the business.
‘I was invited to Geneva for the
Seraph’s public launch, to be on the
Rolls-Royce stand. My boss grudgingly
let me go if I paid for it all myself –
which I did! I had a fabulous weekend
and met Stephen Foulds, a master of
Rolls-Royce sales and now a brand
ambassador and sales manager at
Rolls-Royce Motor Cars London. He
suggested I should come and work for Yes, one day Sooty really
Jack Barclay and I was soon in London did pop in to sign a cheque!
for an interview. To my horror, there
was the Chairman of Dutton Forshaw,
who asked me to tell him about the ‘Every time a car was sold, they think now of Rolls-Royce in those
current state of Rolls-Royce Preston banged the table and opened a bottle of years, and the products they made?
and repeat what I’d said to my boss. I champagne,’ he says. ‘It was a hangover ‘When I joined it was a company that
said that if the business didn’t change from another time, and the last bastion needed to be sold – it needed new
direction, it would lose the franchise. of the gentlemanly motor trade, when investment and new management to
“We’ve lost it,” he said. “We’ve been it was about people, not cars. Every sweep aside the intransigence, ego
terminated.” A few weeks later I moved salesman had a chauffeur and there was and snobbery. But the new models,
to London and began at Jack Barclay.’ a uniformed commissioner at the door the Seraph and the Arnage, were
Although Anthony had previously to spot the real customers amongst wonderful. The brands kept me sane.
been a dealer principal, he regarded the tourists and brochure collectors. I Nowadays I have an Arnage, and a Silver
a sales job at Jack Barclay a step up, used to say my customers ranged from Seraph I watched coming down the
such was the prestige of the famous Sooty to Shirley Bassey. When the production line when it was new. Yes,
old business. He arrived just as the SZ Sooty franchise was sold, it bought the it was my job to sell these cars, but as
generation ended – he remembers the Corbett family a Bentley…Sooty came Stephen Foulds said, “if you need to
last black Silver Spur being sold just into the showroom and signed the order sell a Rolls-Royce, something’s wrong.’
after he started. The new cars impressed form! That’s how eccentric it was.’ Through turbulent times in both
him, though, while the sudden change Anthony looks back fondly on those company headquarters and dealerships,
in the volume of business (Barclay’s sold boozy but eventful times at Jack the Silver Seraph and Arnage kept both
250 Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars a year Barclay, regretting the end of an era marques’ reputations alive, and 25 years
with eight full-time salesmen) seemed when H.R. Owen acquired the business on, they’re still celebrated and enjoyed.
like a mad whirl compared with Preston. in September 2000. What does he Success from the jaws of failure? Q

Anthony's Silver Seraph and

right, his Arnage, commissioned
in one-off Iridium green

R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 97
FEATURE CAR
1935 ROLLS-ROYCE 20/25
KEEPING
ON TOP
Sometimes an old Rolls-Royce finds an
owner who seems made for it – someone
like Stuart Dobbie, who carefully sticks to
the standards the factory themselves set for
noble machines like his 20/25 limousine
WO R D S: DAV I D WAT T P H OTO G R A P H Y: G R E G O RY OWA I N
‘I
like everything to work,’ says
Stuart Dobbie. ‘If something
was originally fitted to a car
when it was new, then it should
still be working perfectly today.’
This straightforward, no nonsense, no
ifs, no buts philosophy would doubtless
have met with the approval of Sir
Henry Royce himself. And in 2010 it led
to Stuart purchasing this handsome
Rolls-Royce 20/25hp which, at the
time, was not in excellent condition
and came with items on board which
were not functioning as they should.
Take, for example, the trafficators on
BXY 74 which were malfunctioning
on purchase but, after the necessary
attention, soon worked perfectly and
always add such charm to old cars as
well as providing some amusement, I
always find, for younger audiences.
Sensibly, given today’s volume of
traffic, Stuart has added discreet
modern indicators front and rear
as both a safety precaution and a
courtesy to other drivers who could
be forgiven for not noticing the
illuminated arrows appearing from the
B post. But where other owners have
either disconnected the trafficators
(some people call them semaphores)
or just allowed them to seize up over
time inside their housing, Stuart has
98
made sure they glide out smoothly,
illuminated just as they should be, and
perform their noble task in conjunction
with the bumper-level indicators.
It may seem strange to start an
article such as this by writing about
a relatively small detail such as the
trafficators. But, in truth, knowing about
them before actually encountering the
car prepares you for everything else
that follows, especially out on the road
where, cruising at a steady 50mph on
Warwickshire’s A and B roads, there
are absolutely no rattles or squeaks to
be heard or bumps to be felt. Not even
from the glass division screen from
which I normally expect some rattles. In
fact, this car feels factory fresh, and it
is impossible not to feel real admiration
for what Rolls-Royce engineers and
coachbuilders such as Barker were
achieving 90 years ago. Fitted with
original-specification cross-ply tyres,
the ride is nevertheless gloriously
smooth with small road imperfections
being ironed out beautifully, producing
a serene ambience in the cabin spoiled
fractionally only by some – entirely to
be expected - wind noise around the
windows and windscreen. Of course,
constant small corrections from the
helm also feature, just as they do in
my experience with any car fitted »
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 99
FEATURE CAR
1935 ROLLS-ROYCE 20/25

with cross-plys. But this only adds to
the impression that you have been
taken straight back to the 1930s.
This lack of any signs of interior wear
doesn’t just happen. It needs an owner
dedicated to preserving and maintaining
a vehicle in outstanding original
condition. Stuart is just such an owner
but without being in any way ‘over the
top’ about it. ‘I just keep things the way
they should be. It’s not difficult if you
keep on top of it. The most important
thing is to use your car as often as
possible and when issues appear, as they
will, then sort them out straightaway
before they become any worse.’
Stuart and his wife, Denise, reckon
they average between 3 and 4,000 miles
per year in the car which is probably
more than most owners of similar cars
achieve. And talking of keeping on top
of things, Stuart insists on having the
car MOT’d every year without fail by a
specialist. He likes to accompany the
mechanics under the car when it’s on
the ramp to make sure he can see and
understand what is going on and what
may be needing attention in due course.
Mechanically, BXY 74 is just as sound
as the interior. Moving off in second
is the usual procedure in these cars
(except on steep hills when first is
needed), you are immediately struck

BARKING UP THE RIGHT TREE

Barker & Co. Ltd was already 195 years old when it showed
the Hon. Charles Rolls an example of its work in 1905, just
as he began his association with Henry Royce. Whether or
not he really did announce that ‘all Rolls-Royce cars will be
fitted with Barker bodies’ is probably lost to legend now,
but Barker’s position as the semi-official coachbuilder
to Rolls-Royce lasted until the end of the 1920s. Though
many other makers got their hands on Rolls-Royce chassis
and did excellent work, it was Barker, with their Royal
Warrant, who could claim to have created the roi-des-
belges body for that 1907 40/50hp finished in aluminium
paint and registered AX 201 – the original Silver Ghost.
They also (probably) came up with the sporting and
attractive barrel-sided tourer body seen on later Silver
Ghosts and much copied across many marques. Their like Park Ward, and business from Rolls-Royce dwindled.
showrooms in South Audley Street, Mayfair, became a They were bought in 1938 by a rival, Hooper & Co,
prestigious outlet for Rolls-Royces in its own right. who in turn were consumed by BSA (Daimler’s owner)
So what went wrong? Though their top-rank quality during the war. Moved to Coventry, the Barker name
never dropped, it seems that Rolls-Royce began to see faded away after a brief association with Lanchester
them as less flexible and forward-looking than others and Daimler products that lasted to the early 1950s.

10 0 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
by the torque which is more than
adequate and is another unmissable and
impressive feature of the Rolls-Royce
20/25hp engine. Taking Stuart’s advice
to change up and down at precisely
the correct speed for each gear, you
are never short of the required power
to perform the task in hand. And
talking of gears, the floor mounted
gear lever – to the right of the driver’s
seat as is normal for the model – has
a delightfully smooth, mechanical feel,
a firm and unhurried action from the
driver allowing the lever to slot into
position with well-engineered precision.
Double declutching in first and second
is a must but becomes unnecessary in
third and top which have the benefit Barker - amongst
of synchromesh. From speeds as low the very best to body
as 15mph, top gear can be engaged Rolls-Royce chassis
with confidence in the knowledge that »

Satisfying right-
hand operation
of gears and
handbrake

Clock away for repairs, but

Bakelite ashtray still intact

Stuart Dobbie,
enjoying his
Rolls-Royce as
much as ever

Fixed division means

no adjustment
for driving seat

R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 101

FEATURE CAR
1935 ROLLS-ROYCE 20/25

the abundant torque will carry the car

forwards without hesitation. The rule Clean, functional and in regular
of thumb with these cars is ‘get it into use - just how we like 'em
top as soon as you can and just leave it
there.’ Then it’s just a question of sitting
back and enjoying the open road.
Now for a bit of history. The records
show that Rolls-Royce supplied the
chassis (no. GPG36) to the famous
coachbuilders Barker & Co on 23rd
March 1935 where it was fitted with
a four-door enclosed limousine
body (Barker design no. 6391). For
some months, Barker used the car
as a demonstrator before selling it in
November that year to Sir John Carew-
Pole and his wife who lived at Anthony
House, Torpoint in Cornwall (now a
National Trust property). For the next 24
years, the car was driven and maintained
by the Carew-Poles’ chauffeur, Reginald
Boyce. In 1950, it was used to carry
Princess Margaret on an official visit to
Cornwall accompanying her parents, officer, Lt. P.J. Chynoweth in July 1960. BXY 74 found itself en route to work
Their Majesties King George VI and Thereafter, the trail goes cold until 1992 for another wedding hire company, this
Queen Elizabeth. In August 1959, when the car appears in the ownership time in Scotland. In October 2010, Stuart
the car was sold to RAF Capt John of Ian Holdsworth of Charnock Richard spotted the car for sale and decided to
Browning of Swindon who kept it for 11 in Lancashire where it saw service as a treat himself to a retirement present,
months before selling it to a fellow RAF wedding hire car. In September 2004, becoming the owner on 8th November. »

Note tidy placement of huge hub spanner within engine bay

102 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D

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FEATURE CAR
1935 ROLLS-ROYCE 20/25
Probably trimmed in cloth when new, the soft, pale hide is just as luxurious
Wind-tone horns and central spotlamp
add interest to a handsome front end
Originally supplied with all-black
bodywork, at some point Rolls-Royce
ivory paint was added to the lower
body panels, making for a very striking
appearance. When he acquired the car,
Stuart decided to have her resprayed
in the same colour scheme. He had the
job done to the highest standards, the
car remaining in immaculate condition
today. All the chrome is similarly
magnificent, causing me to pause for
a few moments in quiet admiration.
The leather clad exterior trunk at the
rear adds a distinctive period feature
to the vehicle and is, of course, in first
class condition. It is adorned with large
chrome interlocking Rs making the
famous Rolls-Royce logo. I suspect
these may be a later addition.
It comes as no surprise to find the
interior is also most beautifully cared for
by Stuart. An early task he set himself
10 4
Neatly-contoured trunk
provides significant stowage
was to replace the black leather on
the front seats, being careful to keep
all the original seat frameworks and
springs except where they absolutely
had to be renewed. At the same time,
all the carpets were replaced in the
same colour as when he purchased the
car. All the woodwork is original and in
the condition Stuart inherited. All that
is required, he says, is to keep it clean
and give it a good beeswax polish from
time to time. It’s lovely. The creamy
beige leather on the commodious rear
seats was in a good condition so the
seats were left as they were apart
from a very good clean. This may not
be the original colour scheme, but the
end result has created a warm, inviting
and sumptuous interior which must
surely be the envy of many classic car
owners. Certainly this writer! The twin
fold-away occasional seats, covered in
Even the chromed hinge mechanism
of the jump seats is a joy to behold
the same leather, fold forwards neatly
into the back of the front seats, being
almost invisible when not in use. Above
them, the glass division is manually
operated, the two separate panes of
glass able to slide in either direction.
On taking up position in the driver’s
seat and taking in all the controls at the
helm, one glaring omission is obvious.
There’s a large hole to the left of the
dashboard where a clock should be.
Turns out that the clock – the Smith’s
original, of course - had recently
stopped working and so Stuart, true to
his ‘everything must work’ philosophy,
has had it sent off to a specialist for
repair. In my experience, these clocks
are only rarely to be found in working
condition these days (don’t shoot me
down in flames, kind readers!), so it’s
good to meet somebody taking the
trouble and expense to have it put right.
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
 “...once the engine is warmed through,
move the choke back to 6 o’clock.
The whole thing takes about five
minutes and is pure theatre.”

To the right of the clock aperture is

the usual Rolls-Royce cluster of four Sliding the glass open,
we can speak to the
gauges for fuel, water temperature, proud owner-driver
voltage and oil pressure. To the right
of those sits the speedometer. Various
controls sit either side of the steering
column including the chrome starter
button, choke, a pull-out switch for the
windscreen wipers and a button which
operates the spotlight placed centrally
in front of the radiator. On the far right
of the dashboard is the traditional
Rolls-Royce roundel containing the
switch for the lights and the ignition
on/off lever. On the wooden rail above
the dashboard, two knobs operate the
opening windscreen. The fact that
this mechanism wasn’t working, due to
the windscreen having been sealed up
at some point in the car’s history, was
quickly spotted by Stuart on inspecting
the car. It became one of the first »

R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 10 5
FEATURE CAR
1935 ROLLS-ROYCE 20/25
Coachlining adds
a subtle but
ornate touch
remedial jobs he undertook once the
car was his, requiring the removal of the
windscreen and renewal of the rubber
seals, and now it works beautifully.
The large steering wheel features the
usual controls at its centre: throttle,
ride settings and advance/retard
ignition. No need to ask if they are all
in perfect working condition! On the
floor sits the headlamp dip button to
the left of the normal clutch/brake/
accelerator arrangement. People were
generally smaller in those days - and the
smaller the better, as far as chauffeurs
We've found a pretty spot - did
anyone remember the picnic?
10 6
were concerned because the driver’s
seat, being restricted by the glass
division and the rear occasional seats,
has no fore and aft adjustment and
is far from ideal for the taller body.
Stuart’s grandchildren enjoy the
spectacle of the start-up procedure
which could not be more different from
their parents’ modern conveyances.
Knowledge of a clock face helps. First
turn the petrol supply on by turning
a lever on the passenger side of the
bulkhead. Then check the car is in
neutral. Turn the throttle control to
the 10 o’clock position and the ignition
lever to 5 o’clock. Set the choke lever
to 9 o’clock. Turn the ignition lever to
the ‘on’ position and check the ignition
bulb is illuminated in the middle of the
dash. Press the starter button and,
assuming she starts (she always does),
immediately move the choke back to
7 o’clock. Now move the ignition lever
up to 2 o’clock and the throttle back
to its normal tickover position (about
8 o’clock). Finally, once the engine is
warmed through, move the choke
back to 6 o’clock. The whole thing
takes about five minutes and is pure
theatre. And the open road awaits.
‘I get the most enormous sense of
pride from owning this car,’ says Stuart,
‘and it gives pleasure to other people,
too, judging by the waves and smiles we
always get from onlookers. It’s a glimpse
into a bygone era and everybody
likes a bit of nostalgia, don’t they?’
Recently, while out on a run, an AA
man in a modern van saluted as Stuart
passed by. ‘It was like going back sixty,
seventy years!’ Stuart’s three daughters
used the car for their weddings, and
nothing gives him greater pleasure than
taking the family out for runs in the
countryside. Especially if a pub lunch
is on the itinerary. ‘It’s a real family car
that needs using,’ concludes Stuart. And
that is exactly the role it enjoys in the
hands of this genuine enthusiast. Q
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
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PERSONAL CHOICE
GUY ROLFE
PERSONAL CHOICE
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON
Guy Rolfe tells us a tale of life-long ownership, a shared passion
for Rolls-Royce and Bentley cars across two generations, and some
surprisingly supernatural aspect to car storage!
WORDS & PICTURES: GUY ROLFE, PAUL ROLFE
I
’d like to share with you a story of
how I became the custodian of a
Bentley, following in the footsteps
of my father, who has owned his
Rolls-Royce 20hp for 64 years.
I grew up as young lad in the 1980s
with a father who had a 1927 ‘Twenty’
Park Ward limousine which he acquired
in the late Fifties at the age of 21. It was
acquired in barn-find condition and my
father restored it, getting it back on
the road, at least for a few years. Like
most young lads I was absolutely mad
about cars so I’m sure you’ll appreciate
how frustrated I was at having never
seen it – the car had been laid up in a
barn somewhere all my life. All I had
The Twenty as my Dad found it when he
bought it back in the late 1950’s. This
is the first time it was to be discovered
as a barn find and rescued.
10 8
seen were photos, and by the time I
became a teenager I was beginning
to wonder if it even existed! That was
until one morning in the Nineties when
my father received a phone call out
of the blue from his uncle, the owner
of the barn, asking if he would come
and collect the Rolls as he wanted
to rent out the barn and adjacent
field to a lady for her horses. As you
might imagine I was ecstatic about
this, as it confirmed the car definitely
existed and even more excitingly it
meant I was finally going to see it!
I had just finished university, and with
no job to go to, we decided I should
go the next day to check the state
This is a really early photo of my
father not long after he had acquired
the vehicle. Date unknown but
somewhere between 1958 – 1960.
of the vehicle and measure it so we
could ascertain how easy it would be
to move, and to find the car a suitable
new home. I was really excited to see
it for the first time and didn’t get
much sleep that night. When morning
finally arrived, I set off for the farm,
which was only a few miles away. I was
greeted by my great uncle who drove
us across the fields to the barn in his
farm-worn early Series Land Rover.
The barn was rather dilapidated and
made of corrugated metal – I couldn’t
believe this is where my father had been
hiding a Rolls-Royce for near 25 years!
SPECTRAL SECURITY
I soon discovered there was a back
story to why my great uncle had let
my father store the car here for so
long rent free. Many years back, he
was working nearby and had seen a
man walking across the field near the
barn. When he approached him to find
out what he was up to, he realised it
was a ghost! This had disturbed him
so much he subsequently refused to
visit the area or even talk of it again,
leaving the field to go fallow and
letting my father have use of the barn.
Travelling with him in his old Land
Rover was the first time he’d been
back to the area for years and he
didn’t waste any time opening the
padlocked door and telling me to get
on with it so we can get out of here. I
managed to snap a quick photo on an
old camera I had taken along, but in
the rush of it all I got the wrong angle,
and it didn’t develop very well - this
was long before we had mobile phones
with a camera! The car was filthy as you
would expect but remarkably it looked
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
 My father’s RR Twenty Park Ward Limousine This is probably the last time the Twenty was on the road – the
at the RREC Blenheim Palace in 1967. sticker in screen is for the RREC rally at Blenheim in 1967.

pretty sound. It was dry with no sign

of rodents, hadn’t been vandalised and
was in one piece. I could see my father
had lifted the car off the ground with
bricks under the axles which really
helped. No sooner had we arrived, I was
told to hurry up with the measuring
so we can get back to the house.
Once home, we checked the
dimensions and felt confident it should
just about fit in our garage, so we
made a plan to tow the vehicle home
early on the coming Sunday morning.
This was going to be even more
exciting than seeing the car for the
first time and the day couldn’t come
soon enough. Amazingly ‘operation
retrieval’ went without any hiccups The Twenty as I found it in 1996 This is how she looks today. This is
and the car rolled on its old wheels when I saw it for the very first where she’s sat for the last 25-plus
and semi-inflated tyres for the first time - it was a barn find for years and is on her way to becoming
the second time in its life. a barn find for a third time!
time in two and half decades. It fitted
perfectly into its new home where it’s
been resting for the last 25 years.
and the extra power really appealed. Aid charity, who passed away in
It’s brought me a huge amount of May 2022 at the great age of 98.
THE NEXT GENERATION pleasure and I still pinch myself when I The only thing I haven’t enjoyed
Fast forward to the present day and get in it. I was surprised just how much about the ownership experience is
I’m now the proud custodian of my of a talking point it has been with the impact it’s had on my wallet! I’ve
own vehicle. I fondly remember as strangers at petrol pumps who want to easily spent thrice what I paid for it on
a 12year-old boy riding my bike to know what’s it like and just how thirsty remedial works and to all those who
school and being regularly passed by it is. To which I can say it’s not as bad say you can run a vehicle like this on a
a Silver Spirit. It was so graceful and as you’d expect and certainly not as sensible budget – b****** can you! But
exuberant, I would dream to myself bad as my supercharged Range Rover! nobody wants to be the richest man
of having one of my own one day. In It has had a colourful history, the in the graveyard and this is a damn
2015 that day came, and I was really first owner I believe was a close good way to ensure that doesn’t
fortunate to realise that dream and relative of the disgraced media tycoon happen. After all, it’s been worth it for
acquire a Bentley Turbo RT. Although Robert Maxwell, while a later owner the happiness it has given me and the
it was a Rolls-Royce I always coveted, was the much more respectable fulfilment of a schoolboy dream. I’m
I decided to go for the Bentley version philanthropist Paul Zetter CBE of hoping this year to reap the rewards of
as it’s more of an owner-driver car, Zetter football pools and the Sports all work that has been done and enjoy a »

R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 10 9
PERSONAL CHOICE
GUY ROLFE
tour of France visiting some vineyards.
Coincidentally, during my early
custodianship this car was also stored
in a notoriously haunted location – to
be more precise, in a sandstone cave
on the outskirts of Warwick with use
dating back to the 5th Century, just
because it was too long to fit in a
regular garage. I’m pleased to say it’s
not there any more, and now resides
in a much more appropriate place!
Summer 2021 - RR&B have done a
fantastic job of cutting out the corrosion
and bringing the bodywork back to
new (off side front wheel sill).
My Bentley RT at the RREC
Burghley House show July 2022.
11 0
What news of the Twenty?
My father is still very much alive
and kicking and after 65 years of
ownership (and counting) he still
has his Twenty sitting in the garage,
though it hasn’t yet returned to the
road. Do you think this might qualify
for the longest continuous duration
of ownership of a Rolls-Royce by one
(ordinary) person? I’d love to know
whether anyone has owned their
I managed to find a set of original
Bentley main dealer showroom
number plates which look great on
the vehicle when attending shows.
Oct 2021 - The RT goes to RR&B to
have its head gaskets replaced – ouch!
My 1997 Bentley Turbo RT.
Rolls-Royce or Bentley for longer!
As my father is reaching the age
where he’s considering passing the
car onto me, my ambition is to get
the car running and back on the road
for its 100th anniversary in 2027 and
I very much hope my father is still
around to see it. Unfortunately, all we
know of its early history is that the
first owner is believed to have been a
Doctor who lived on the south coast.
You might also be interested to read
that I recently discovered my father
was one of the very early members of
the RREC back in the late Fifties. He
tells me if his memory serves correctly
it was set up by an Oxford-based
surgeon for likeminded enthusiasts who
shared a passion for keeping these old
cars on the road. The early meet-ups
were apparently held at a farm near
Woodstock and when numbers grew
they had to move to a bigger location
– and they don’t come much bigger
than Blenheim Palace! I’ve managed to
find a photo of my father’s car at the
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
 The ancient haunted
cave where the RT
used to live over
winter. Winter 2016

The RT at home. Summer 2021

RREC annual rally in 1967 at Blenheim.
You can see from the number of people
in the background just how popular
an event it was and how quickly the
club had grown. My father was one of
(if not the) youngest member when
he joined which might also qualify him
as one of the earliest surviving club
members. If there’s anyone reading this
who was also an early member from
the late Fifties and early Sixties, and
remembers my father (Paul Rolfe from
Kineton), I’d love to hear from you. Sixty
years later and now I am about to join
the RREC too. Happy motoring! Q

Jan 2022 - The RT in glamourous company at RR&B Garages

in Worcestershire who look after it for me and have done
a huge amount of work on the car since I’ve had it.

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STAFF CARS
SILVER SHADOW PROJECT

ACTING ON
THE ACTUATOR
We continue to puzzle out a long-term fault by focussing on the
mysterious gearbox actuator, one complex component that sums
up the Silver Shadow’s design philosophy
WORDS & PHOTOS: NIGEL BOOTHMAN

I
t would be tricky to count all the
cars built with General Motors’
Turbo Hydramatic transmission
and its close relatives. They would
number in the tens if not hundreds
of millions, even if you counted only
those variants made between its
introduction in 1964 and the year
Rolls-Royce switched over to the
electronically-controlled successor, the
4L80-E, in 1992. Yet it’s only those
installed by Rolls-Royce (unless you
know different?) that were operated
by a separate electro-mechanical
device called an actuator. Everyone
else made do with a Bowden cable
and a bracket, as indeed did Rolls-
Royce for previous automatic
transmissions in the Silver Cloud family.
A cable, however, can call for a bit
of effort with the gear selector. This
matters less when it’s mounted on a
centre-console, as you’re obliged to
take a hand off the wheel to move it
anyway, but for a column-shift, Rolls-
Royce felt it would be nice to create a
light but positive feel for the selector
lever that could be operated with a
finger-tip touch. The extra expense
and complication in achieving this was
significant, but the end justified the
means in Crewe’s opinion, which says a
lot about their ambitions for the overall
experience of driving a Silver Shadow.
In the Silver Shadow, then, the gear
selector on the steering column would
do no more than move a little spade
piece across electrical contracts – it
becomes a switch, in other words. The
switch sends a signal down a many-
stranded loom that passes through the
toeboard via a multi-pin socket, then on
down to another multi-pin plug on the
actuator itself. This is a box mounted
aft of the transmission, containing
gears driven by an electric stepper
motor and controlled by a series of
microswitches. This mechanism serves
to move a rod, which it turn pushes
and pulls the transmission’s selector
lever through its various positions.
TESTING…IN SITU?
We’ve been lucky to have a bit of
help from John Creasy, Flying Spares’
technical advisor, at various stages.

11 4 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D

A common
posture for JUD
1D at the moment
loom connection could
After our last few sessions, first
cleaning the contacts at the steering
column switch and checking for
continuity, then dismantling the
blower motor housing under the
bonnet to get at the toe-board
sockets and cleaning them, we
proved only that none of this seemed
to be helping. As before, we could
select every position apart from
Park. John suggested ensuring the
transmission itself wasn’t faulty, by
disconnecting the actuator and moving
the selector lever by hand, which we
duly did, and found all to be well.
That seemed to tip suspicion towards
the actuator, especially as we heard
one theory from a friend about how
a mistaken back-to-front connection
of the battery could cause a problem.
This may or may not have happened
and quite what the fault would
have been wasn’t clear to me, but it
seemed worthwhile plunging forward
with some checks to the actuator
itself. John sent a daunting exploded
diagram (reproduced here) and advised
removing the side cover to check
the function of the microswitches.
I blithely assumed this could be done
in situ, and it wasn’t until the car’s
R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3
SUPPORTED BY
+44 (0) 1455 292949
www.flyingspares.com
The actuator
and its mounting
bracket, attached
via the side cover
Multi-pin socket for
harbour corrosion
Ross McLeod's test pins
for bench-checking
the actuator
co-owner Findlay and I were lying
underneath and plying the spanners
that we realised this would be
impractical, if not impossible – the
side cover also mounts the sturdy
brackets that hold this hefty
device onto the car. To test it
in situ would mean supporting
the body of the actuator on
something else, perhaps
a jack, and hoping it
didn’t tip up and empty
its complexity all over the
garage floor. I tried phoning
Flying Spares to see if John
intended the testing job to
be done on the bench rather
than on the car, but managed
to catch him on a day off, so I
called Ross McLeod of our local
Rolls-Royce & Bentley specialist,
Mulsanne Motors in Dalkeith.
Ross suggested we carry on with
the removal job and bring it round
to him – it seems he’s well used to
testing them and said he should be
able to isolate any faults pretty rapidly.
So we did just that, and I dropped the sure enough when I was able to collect
actuator off with Ross before close of it on the Monday, Ross explained how
play on a Friday. He texted me the next he’d had the side cover off, tested the
day to say it all checked out fine, and microswitches and then used some »
11 5
STAFF CARS SUPPORTED BY
+44 (0) 1455 292949
SILVER SHADOW PROJECT www.flyingspares.com

With the top cover removed ..it's easy to see how each wire takes
from the steering column... a signal from each switch contact

Lifting the actuator into Choke flap slowly opens

place with a jack was as engine warms but
the only way to re-fit system is not well set-up
the mounting bolts

Two brand names that should not

be associated, but for the time
being it's sometimes required

test pins to check the multi-pin socket
as well. It was all doing what it should.
FIXED OR NIXED
Eager to find out whether we now
had a fully functional transmission
system (and keen to make the car
mobile again), I went straight round to
the storage unit and re-fitted it. The
car started with its usual reluctance –
more on that later – and then selected
every gear perfectly…except Park.
No, wait! That was Park. Can I get it
to select again? After a few tries and
some slow trundling around the yard,
we had Park about one try in every
three. Better, but not yet fixed. Why?
My guess goes like this: the actuator
was always okay. Removing, testing
and re-fitting it involved cleaning its
connections. This may have reduced the
resistance in the one wire that’s been
reluctant to transmit the signal from
the Park position, to the point where it
sometimes overcomes whatever other
corrosion it’s suffering and consents to
allow a bit of current through. I notice
that Flying Spares sell a replacement
actuator loom, or will re-manufacture
the one you send them. The listing
on the website says ‘as this loom
is beneath the car and open to the
elements, it is very common for
water ingress to cause corrosion of
the wires, often causing intermittent
faults with the gear selection.’
That does have a plausible ring about
it. What next? Hope the fault recedes »

11 6 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
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• SUITABLE FOR ALL YEAR ROUND – ANTI-FREEZE / COOLANT

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STAFF CARS
SILVER SHADOW PROJECT
with a bit of use or unplug that section
of loom and give it a forensic going-
over? Before that, though, we have
a couple of other pressing issues.
AGE-RELATED
WEAKNESS
As mentioned in the previous report, it
was time to bite the bullet and renew
the tyres. After much head-scratching
and comparing of specifications and
prices we decided to go with the
factory-specified Avon Textile 205R15.
Nothing else is exactly the right size
and though there are some tempting
options, notably the Maxxis 215/75 R15,
they are not dimensionally identical
and they have a narrow white band,
which wasn’t what I wanted for this
11 8
SUPPORTED BY
car. Flying Spares is supplied with
Avons by Vintage Tyres in Beaulieu,
and it was they who were able to
confirm the age of the tyres on the
car, both by the three-digit code
and by the antiquated layout of the
sidewall information, which changed
some time ago. In short, they were
all from between 1983 and 1987 –
practically antique and a total no-no
for proper road use with a two-ton,
6.75-litre car. A friend of a friend
has a tyre machine – dare I try to fit
and balance them myself? Probably
not! But by the next issue, I hope to
able to describe how the car looks
and feels on fresh, supple tyres.
If we’re rolling at all, that is. On one
of the test-drives Fin and I undertook
while trying to get the transmission
+44 (0) 1455 292949
www.flyingspares.com
to behave, I thought the brake pedal
felt odd and the car seemed a little
sluggish. I put the latter fault down
to poor carburettor set-up, a rather
involved job we still haven’t tackled
properly since the carbs were in bits,
and which probably contributes to
the reluctant starting and refusal to
idle properly when cold. But when we
got back to the garage, I noticed the
car wasn’t rolling nicely, so I checked
each wheel for heat. Sure enough, the
offside front was cooking – we have
one seized brake caliper. It freed off a
little after a couple of days but clearly
needs rebuilding. When I closed the
driver’s door in frustration, a long piece
of lacquer jumped off the door cap
and landed on the seat. Yes, there’s
plenty that still needs seeing to. Q
M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
Even better on the right rubber
The best classic car experience is just a new set of tyres away. We stock new
tyres in period-correct patterns for cars from the 1890s through to the 1990s.
HgkhZ]%h__&khZ]%kZeerbg`hkkZ\bg`bml^o^g[^mm^khgma^kb`amkn[[^kZg]
maZmlZeep^l^eeZmObgmZ`^Mrk^l'
Branches at Beaulieu and Bicester Heritage.

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FROM THE ARCHIVES
AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY

FROM THE ARCHIVES

We take a look at samples of Rolls-Royce and Bentley brochures from the SZ generation,
here including the Silver Spirit, Turbo R and Corniche II, as they were in 1988.
WORDS: NIGEL BOOTHMAN

The images we see here are

from a fold-out brochure
on shiny card, printed on
both sides and expanding to
reveal a magnificent four-
panel spread. It’s one of a
large number of marketing
materials provided by the
company to a now-defunct
dealer in Edinburgh,
Rossleigh Ltd, and later
collected by a gentleman
who worked there. With
The first inside page introduces the three models. We can conclude from
storage no longer available,
the cars featured that this publication originates in the late 1980s, probably
his collection saw the
1987-’89, as the Silver Spirit is a Series 1 (superceded by the Silver Spirit II in
light of day again and has
1990) and the Corniche is a Corniche II, with chrome wheelarch trims and a
now found a new home.
third brake lamp on the bootlid. This opening page makes much of the hand-
built approach and the time it takes to build a car – up to three months.

12 0 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
 The brochure expands to give a gatefold view of
the back seats of the Silver Spur – the place where
the extra legroom over the Silver Spirit becomes
apparent, along with the standard fold-down
picnic tables. The view of the dashboard is almost
a token; here’s what your chauffeur might see!
Here we see the same car as on Page 2, plus a Silver
Spur to the right and a different Spirit above. In
all three cases, the cars’ clean, modern lines are
contrasted with reassuringly ancient, mellowed
buildings. Our cars may look sharp and new, Rolls-
Royce is suggesting, but we still appreciate tradition.
R R & B D M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3
Like the Silver Spur, this Corniche is left-hand drive
and probably bound for the American market, judging
from the shape and size of its numberplate. Notice that
after the introductory page, Rolls-Royce is happy to
let the pictures do the talking: sumptuous full colour,
produced larger than A3 size to a very high standard.
The data table on the back is too small to read here,
so you’ll have to believe us when we tell you it contains
some surprising errors. The body style information for
the Silver Spirit and Corniche have been swapped, so
the latter is described as a 2-door convertible. Also,
none of the models have a boot capacity larger than
0.55cm3, barely enough for a baked bean. Perhaps
metric measurements were still a puzzle in Crewe.
12 1
FROM THE ARCHIVES
AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY

Now we’re into Bentley territory with this fold-out

promotional piece for the 1989 model-year Turbo R. It
takes a similar form to a magazine drive story, only with
sky-high production values: full-goss card (difficult to
reproduce here!) at something larger than A4, which
expands to the spectacular triple-page spread below.
The shoot was conducted in the Austrian and Italian
Alps, and judging from the text, was an exciting trip.
Red is the colour – 1989 saw the most overtly
sporting Turbo R yet, with a red ‘B’ badge, deeper
front air dam, rear skirts and steel sill extensions.
Bosch KE-Jetronic, introduced a couple of seasons
before, made it a more modern, dependable
machine and gave 328bhp, a useful 30bhp more
than the carburettor-fed Turbo Bentleys.

‘Now, the road to Zollmat Brenner and the Austro-Italian border is temptingly fast, littered with long
swooping bends. At something above 130mph and below 4500rpm, with the sun about to pour over the the
mountains and into the valley, the car dismissed them out of hand.’ See what we mean? It’s intended to evoke
a yearning to experience the same trip in your own new Turbo R, and it’s doing a tremendous job.

12 2 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
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APRIL 2023 FEBRUARY 2023 DECEMBER 2022 OCTOBER 2022
O Silver Shadow & 20hp compared O Bentley Continental S fastback O Speed Six Bentley Restoration O One-off Wraith limousine

O Arnage Buying Guide ORolls-Royce 20-25 Boat Tail OAnatomy Of…SZ Generation O Anatomy Of…Mk VI & Silver Dawn
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20HP SIX LIGHT FOUR DOOR BENTLEY CONTINENTAL BENTLEY 4¼ VDP STYLE
SALOON BY LITCHFIELD ‘HONEYSUCKLE’ OPEN TOURER

1923 20hp Six Light Four Door Saloon by £53,950. 1998 S Bentley Continental R Handsome, very accurate, well built body
Litchfield. 1class 62H2. Once part of the Sword Chatsworth Limited Edition. Number 7 of only 10 constructed in early 1970s. Well maintained, very
collection, sold in 1962 – we had the car in 2006 numbered models. This extremely rare car, with
numerous Chatsworth features, is finished in appealingly matured, lovely green leather, runs/
since when it has had about £53k spent. Sweet
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little thing, lovely mature brown leather int. & 100 hide and Beluga secondary hide, with contrasting
years old! £35,000. carpets. Only 52,000 miles with Full Service 01248 602 649
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117344
BENTLEY MKVI HJ MULLINER
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01248 602 649
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Originally a pre-production prototype, handsome
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‘body off’ restoration finished in 1990 recorded
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BENTLEY EIGHT
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ROLLS-ROYCE SILVER SERAPH
£45,250. 1998 S Rolls Royce Silver Seraph.
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BENTLEY 4¼ OFFORD DESIGN 4
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1953 SILVER DAWN AUTOMATIC 4
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BENTLEY CONTINENTAL GTC
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Please call 02085 679729, Greater London. (T)
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ROLLS-ROYCE 20HP
1923, £42,500. Simply Magnificent 1923 Rolls-
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THE FINAL PAGE

NIGEL BOOTHMAN
The SZ generation gave rise to more exciting models and more
happy twists of fate than any of its designers could have foreseen,
but which one would you pick as a favourite?

or something that

F
started life as little
more than a re-body
of the Silver Shadow II,
the SZ in both Rolls-
Royce and Bentley
form took the company on some wild
adventures. There were fascinating
side-alleys like the stretched limousines
that Marinus Rijkers has researched in
this issue (see p.66), and technological
changes and facelifts galore to keep
the car vaguely contemporary into
the late 1990s. See our accounts of
the arrival of the Arnage and Silver
Seraph (starting on p.88) for views
on that. The biggest, most influential A glorious anachronism
and still under-appreciated
move of all was without doubt the - the Camargue
introduction of turbocharging.
As we’ve covered in previous issues,
the sudden injection of performance
credibility rescued the Bentley brand ‘If I was really picking one to own, it
from a near-death experience. It
allowed Rolls-Royce Motors to stun would be a Continental R – the looks,
the world (or at least the Geneva show)
in 1991 with the Continental R, a true
presence and power are uniquely
successor to the R-type Continental intoxicating. Or so I thought…’
and the first Bentley offered with no
body-sharing Rolls-Royce equivalent
for more than 30 years. This model
helped to keep the company’s finances little chance Ferdinand Piech would cars, don’t think of 1980s styling and
alive long enough to develop the have thought it a wise solution to cram bargain prices, think of the cars that
Arnage and Silver Seraph, which in turn one into the Arnage in place of BMW’s redefined Bentley and Rolls-Royce,
made the Crewe factory sufficiently powerful 4.4-litre twin-turbo motor. and allowed the survival of both.
attractive for VW to swoop in and In doing that, he unwittingly extended So to a favourite. I’m charmed
purchase the business in 1998. the life of the old engine, and hence by the classic appeal and relative
Yet the influence of that little the direct connection to Crewe’s past, rarity of early Bentley Mulsanne
exhaust-driven blower didn’t end there. all the way to the L-series’ swansong Turbos, with their rectangular lamps,
If there had been no muscular turbo in the Bentley Mulsanne in 2020. So body-coloured radiator shell and
version of the old L-series V8, there’s next time you think of SZ generation steel wheels, and if I can sneak a
1980s Camargue into the choice I’ll
claim that fascinating machine as a
favourite SZ car. But if I was really
picking one to own, it would be a
Continental R. The looks, presence
and power are uniquely intoxicating…
or so I thought until I went for a spin
in Nigel Sandell’s Silver Spur, uprated
to become a 420bhp muscle machine
(see p.12). To be fair, a good Bentley
Turbo RL should have the same
advantages – all that potent pace
Early Mulsanne Turbo may be flawed, but I'll take my Continental R on the standard in such comfort…and with cocktail
has much charm wheelbase and a restrained colour, please kits in the seat backs! That’ll do. Q

13 0 M AY/ J U N E 2 0 2 3 R R & B D
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