Rolls-Royce & Bentley Driver July - August 2022

Here’s to a fine, enjoyable summer after two years of thwarted activity. This issue comes out around the Platinum Jubilee weekend, and we couldn’t allow such an important moment to pass without a close look at the relationship between Rolls-Royce and the Royal Family, starting on page 26. Our cover star is a glorious Bentley S3 Continental Convertible, surely the perfect car for a long summer jaunt. This one has recently emerged from a sensitive but thorough restoration and is about as good as they get; join us behind the wheel on page 12. Throughout the rest of the magazine, we’re offering as much variety as we can pack in, including a Wraith basking in the Australian sun, a blast in the under-rated BMW-engined Bentley Arnage and a day out with…

PHANTOM PHOTOS MARK FAMOUS MEETING On May 4th, Rolls-Royce marked the 118th anniversary of the meeting between Henry Royce and The Hon. C.S. Rolls at the Midland Hotel in Manchester, with a near 100-year history of one model. The company released some superb images of the many generations of Rolls-Royce Phantoms, reflecting on what set the company’s flagship product apart – and what continues to do so. Each generation took the model forwards in one or more ways, starting with the car that had to follow the Silver Ghost. The Phantom family was born in 1925 when Rolls-Royce launched Phantom I. With its massive low-range torque, cutting-edge technology and magic-carpet ride, the new model immediately confirmed the fundamental traits that would define the family for the next 100 years. By 1929, its successor,…

It’s a cool spring day as we leave Edinburgh. Gentle pressure on the accelerator produces a refined thrum from somewhere forward and the big Bentley slips past lesser traffic with no apparent effort. The roof is up, and such is the quality of the material and the neatness of the fit, it’s not far different from being in a fixed-head coupé. Only the lesser glass area gives you a more cocooned feeling, though the view out of the front is still magnificent. It’s soon time to peel off the dual carriageway and go looking for some quieter, prettier roads. Meeting a few bends at speed can be uncomfortable in some cars of this size and age, but here there is no plunge and wallow on tight corners. This S3 remains remarkably…

One of the nicest items in the Convertible’s history file is a small brochure for the S3 Continental models. All S3s were a marginal evolution from the S2, which in turn changed significantly from the S1 only in the engine department, with the arrival of V8 power for the S2. An S3 brought you a lower bonnet line, slightly better legroom and different front seats in the standard saloon, with improved power steering, but the change from two headlamps to four was more obvious. And it was carried over, of course, to the Continental models. The brochure depicts four of them – the Convertible Coupé, as featured in this article, the very similar Two Door Sports Saloon, the Four Door Flying Spur by HJ Mulliner and the Four Door Saloon…

TWO LEGENDS IN ONE SHOWROOM Looking after the sale of the Barnato Hassan Special, one of the most famous racing cars of pre-war years, is quite a boast. Being able to say you also have the very first Bentley Motors Works Le Mans Team car is even more remarkable. The showroom at Vintage Bentley might currently resemble a major museum collection (there are other important competition cars in there too) but you’ll need more than the price of an entry ticket to walk away with either of these – the Barnato Hassan Special invites offers over £4.5m while the 1925 3-litre Team car is asking for offers over £3.5m. Woolf Barnato fancied a return to motor sport in 1933 and commissioned Walter Hassan to build a single-seat racing car with Bentley power…

It’s 70 years since Britain gained a new Queen, with the accession of Elizabeth II to the throne in 1952. As the monarch who has presided over the UK’s modern era, cars as a means of regal transport have played a far greater role in her reign than with any of her predecessors. And the marques most associated with Elizabeth and others in her family are Rolls-Royce and, more recently, Bentley – something that had undoubtedly done the image of the two companies as paradigms of British prestige, luxury and craftsmanship absolutely no harm whatsoever. But how did the long-standing association begin? Originally, Royal patronage was reserved for some of their rivals instead. Although the automobile was born during the late-Victorian era, there is no record of Queen Victoria ever having…