Tabla de contenidos para May - June 2022 en Rolls-Royce & Bentley Driver

Regular readers will know that Rolls-Royce & Bentley Driver’s previous Editor, Paul Guinness, signed off in our last issue and promised to leave the magazine in safe hands. Those hands are mine, and I’ll be doing my utmost to live up to Paul’s expectations. And more importantly, to yours. It’s been 20 years since I started working for classic car magazines and in that time, I’ve been asked one question pretty often: ‘you spend all day thinking about cars, so which is your favourite?’ The answer changes almost daily, but as the years have gone by, I’ve noticed a few themes: high-quality marques, often British, with a reputation for impressive engineering and innovation, sometimes with an aeronautical connection. Bristol, Lancia, Saab, Armstrong-Siddeley, Alvis and always Rolls-Royce and Bentley. So when…

Our brief tenure of the latest generation Flying Spur coincided with our Turbo R project car, which we acquired at the start of 2021. The project initially ran in sister publication Classics Monthly and has also starred in countless videos on the Classics World TV channel (visit youtube.com/ClassicsWorldUK). For someone less accustomed to Bentleys, the Turbo R was a revelation to me. You see its stately home styling and assume it’s going to be a cumbersome slug of a thing, with more roll than roar. However, the Turbo R surprises by just how different it is to the Silver Spirit on which it’s based. Thanks to that brutal Garrett turbocharger and stiffened suspension, it packs a mighty punch. Sure, it’s still a behemoth, but one that surprises you when you…

Yohan Poonawalla is one of India’s leading car collectors, known for his special liking for Rolls-Royces, Bentleys and Ferraris. The billionaire industrialist is the number one collector of Rolls-Royce cars in India. His expansive Rolls-Royce collection includes an eclectic mix of vintage, classic and modern bespoke models, regularly shown at concours events. The Yohan Poonawalla Collection, built passionately by him over many years, is due to take shape as a museum soon and will house some of the most historically significant motor cars in the world, showcasing various marques from all eras. With a keen interest in provenance and pedigree he continues to assemble historically significant motor cars owned and used by a ‘Who’s Who’ from around the world, which includes cars of the Nizams, Maharajas, Nawabs, Sheikhs, Presidents and…

Throughout the 1980s the Bentley marque, for so long overshadowed by its Rolls-Royce parent, enjoyed an unprecedented revival. While Crewe had at least kept the name alive, the Bentley T-series cars of 1965 to 1980 were little more than rebadged Silver Shadows, with virtually nothing to make them distinctive. By 1981, despite the launch of the Silver Spirit and its Bentley Mulsanne equivalent, interest in the Winged B – heirs of the cars that had once been champions at Le Mans – had fallen so low that they represented just five per cent of factory output. A mere 151 Bentleys were sold that year as opposed to 3014 Rolls-Royces. It was woeful figures like this that made Rolls-Royce sit up and realise that something had to change. Traditionally, Bentley had…

Graham Phillips wanted a slice of Old England. Being an Aussie with an English mother and an engineer father, Graham searched for and found the very best on four wheels. As a result, a pristine 1977 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow II now sits on his drive. This drive – and beautiful home – is at Mount Macedon, some 50 miles north of Melbourne in the State of Victoria. And it is here that my wife and I are enjoying Graham’s hospitality with the mountainous scenery as a backdrop. But good as this is, the gleaming Rolls in Nutmeg Brown is giving the Aussie scenery a run for its money. The Rolls looks a million dollars! Graham is telling us the history of how he found the car and it seems the…

One Australian Rolls-Royce club finally celebrated its 2021 Concours in brilliant sunshine under a cloudless sky…in January 2022. RR&BD’s Australian correspondent Richard Holdsworth explained the delays endured by the Victorian Branch of the Rolls-Royce Owners Club of Australia. ‘It’s quite understandable that the event might be postponed because of Covid-19, but it was scarcely creditable that the re-scheduled Rally and Concours could be abandoned on account of a waterlogged venue! This is Australia, isn’t it?’ Nonetheless, both virus and weather intervened, and the entrants had to wait until earlier this year. Concours judging was carried out at the Club’s Technical Centre in Rowville – 12 judges covering every facet of the Rolls and Bentley cars – while the Rally and Presentation was held under the Melbourne sun at the beautiful…

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 ROCK STAR ROLLS-ROYCE? As l have been a chauffeur for the rich and famous for 31 years, I thought it was time I bought a Rolls myself. I have recently bought a Shadow I from a well-known record producer, and he showed me this photo of an interesting project that was done for the cover of an Oasis album back in 1997. It reminded me of the Rolls-Royce used on the cover of the Screaming Lord Sutch album that featured in From the Archives in your last issue, so I thought I’d send it along. I don’t know what happened what to the…

The role of the Rolls-Royce ‘demonstrator’ back in the day, much like today’s demo cars, was to impress the prospective customer. Factory demonstrators or ‘propaganda cars’ were expected to woo the would-be buyers and help generate sales. They exhibited the brand’s mechanical prowess and offered a taste and experience of a vehicle’s performance with the aid of test-drives, often chauffeured of course. They reflected the auto-maker’s ethos, its capabilities and the special features of that particular automobile, so features-laden demonstrators were constructed by the company to showcase what was possible. They were displayed at motor shows and were entered in reliability trials, rallies, hill climbs and endurance races. The majority of Rolls-Royce’s demonstrators have managed to survive in good hands and some have ended up with royalty. Even the most…

It seems hard to believe that next year will mark two decades since the arrival of the Phantom VII, the first Rolls-Royce developed under BMW ownership and produced at the Goodwood facility. The styling was startling to lots of us, especially those with a fondness for the softer outlines of older Rolls-Royces, but as so many other cars grew larger and ever more over-styled in recent years I confess it’s grown on me a great deal. And with so little change for the eighth-generation Phantom in 2017, you can’t argue against its longevity. The Phantom VII ceased being a one-model range in 2007 when first the Phantom Drophead Coupé arrived, and then the Phantom Coupé a year later. The styling originated as the 100EX concept car in 2004 while the…

Clive Morley has deservedly, for the second season in succession, earned the hard-fought BDC Racing Driver of the Year accolade – the first driver to win two crowns since the award was introduced in 2016. Evergreen Clive, who also won the coveted Frank Clement Memorial Trophy for 2020, enjoyed another highly competitive and successful season at the wheel of his pair of trusty Morley family 3/4½ Litres, driving either GSU 757 or NN 9488. Presenting him with his award at the Club’s annual Competitions Day, Club President Duncan Wiltshire said: “Clive has done more towards campaigning Bentleys than anyone else and is still extremely active.” After receiving his coveted prize, a delighted Clive said: “It’s something I really wasn’t expecting having won it last year. It was a really good…

How do you get excited by a car like this as a Nineties kid? Well, as a little boy, I would always see cars with four round headlights and find them somehow attractive. At the time, the car I wanted was a Jaguar XJ from the mid-90s...and when I was older, and in a position to buy something, I initially wanted to find one of those. But when the time finally came, these cars from Crewe took centre stage of my attention. So why not aim for the very best? The only challenge was which Crewe car? To answer that question, I attended the 2018 RREC Annual Rally to gain an impression of the various models produced over the long lifespan of Rolls-Royce and Bentley. After one drive in a…

It’s a simple question: why have you got three of them? The answer, of course, is not simple. Although it hardly needs answering at all if you’re a proper car nut; we all know how these things can happen. You start with one, you find another, you can just about manage the storage space and funds for a third, and it was such a good example it would have been a shame to miss it… Philip Robinson has applied a good deal more logic than that during the assembly of this trio. Before we get to his acquisition of these lovely cars, we need to step back a little way. Right back to Zimbabwe, in fact, where Philip was born and where he lived until he was 13. We note…

Many illustrious coachbuilders have their roots in Italy – think of Pininfarina, Bertone, Giugiaro, Zagato and many others. Another name that belongs in this list is Ghia. Carrozzeria Ghia was founded in Turin by Giacinto Ghia in 1916 and when the founder died in 1944, his wife offered the company to his colleagues Mario Felice Boano and Giorgio Alberti, on the condition that her husband’s name would be preserved. It was. In the early years, Ghia designed special models for marques such as Mercedes-Benz, Jaguar, Volvo, Rolls-Royce and Ferrari, and produced car bodies on a small scale. In total, only two Rolls-Royces were fitted with Ghia bodywork: a Silver Wraith from 1951 (LWOF48) and a Silver Dawn from 1952 (LSHD22). It is this unique Silver Dawn with a Ghia four-door,…

It’s hard to imagine that it’s 40 years since Bentley first strapped a turbocharger to its luxury saloon to create the Mulsanne Turbo. It’s been over 20 years since Bentley became part of the VW family and it’s 16 years since the Flying Spur was introduced, back in 2006. Here we are about to sample the new V8-powered, third generation Flying Spur, a sporting prestige saloon that moves the game on even further. While change can often be unsettling, there is no question the evolution at Crewe has been steady, logical and utterly effective. At £160,000, the Flying Spur is not cheap (our example actually topped out at £201,300 with optional extras) but then you wouldn’t expect it to be. Luxury comes at a price. The aim of the new…

Let’s begin with the latest news – Jonathan, can you tell us about the re-launch of the business and how you became involved? JT: I live locally to RS&E and I was looking for somewhere to store my Bristol, which I ended up doing with them. While I was there I noticed a really exceptional Bentley Turbo RT for sale with only 5000 miles on the clock. My business partner Humaid Masaood had been looking for one so I told him about it. Soon after, I saw they had an Arnage that I liked, so I bought that too. Through all this, I got to know Paul and Patrick and felt they were honest and open, and I eventually learned they’d got to the stage in life where they would…

The beginning of March saw the long-awaited return of our fantastic Technical Seminars at The Hunt House. The subject matter was Rolls-Royce Silver Spirits and their derivatives, including Bentley Turbo Rs and the Mulsanne – expertly lead by specialists Ray Hillier and Nigel Sandell. Some 25 members made their way to The Hunt House in Paulerspury to learn more about their treasured motor cars. They were given the opportunity to put their cars on the ramps in our extensive workshop facility to troubleshoot issues with the instructors, and gain knowledge through learning of other owners’ experiences. Our May Technical Seminars will cover the Rolls-Royce small horsepower and the Silver Cloud & S-Series motor cars. Early booking is essential to avoid disappointment. As well as providing technical support by way of…

It’s been 25 years since Oasis released their third album, Be Here Now. Just as they had for their previous albums, the band engaged the services of photographer Michael Spencer Jones to create the image for the cover. This was to be more involved than a shot of the band together in someone’s flat or walking down a street, with an elaborate visual composition planned around a striking rock n’ roll centrepiece…a Rolls-Royce in a swimming pool. Yes, they really did it, and no, it wasn’t Photoshop. Before you fling the magazine across the room in disgust, we should explain that the car in question was an engineless hulk bound for the scrapyard, purchased for the shoot at a cost of only £1000. What’s more, the car’s starring role on…