Rolls-Royce & Bentley Driver

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

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

The annual concours of the Rolls-Royce Owners’ Club of Australia is rotated between States, and this year it was the turn of the South Australian Branch, with State President Michael Henningsen and rally coordinator Rory Poland at the helm. They organised a highly successful event enjoyed by owners and enthusiasts from virtually all corners of this vast country. One of the first to arrive and demonstrate the desire to be involved was part of the Queensland contingent, Brain Carson, who made the 6000-kilometre (3800-mile) round trip in his 1988 Bentley Mulsanne S. There was a mix of cars representing many of the models built by Rolls-Royce and Bentley, the oldest attendee being the 1913 Silver Ghost owned by Julian McNeil right up to the latest Goodwood models courtesy of several…

Fiennes Parts, a crucial source of supply for pre-war Rolls-Royce and Derby Bentley spares, has been rescued from the collapse of the Fiennes Restoration group and will continue trading. The business will carry on under the same name, but will move premises in the hands of three new directors. Emily Anderson will run the business day to day, supported by Paul Dyas and Stephen Owens. Emily’s father, Stuart Anderson, has also been closely involved. They are now setting up new premises and completing the immense task of bagging up, moving and cataloguing the inventory. ‘We’re all from a Derby Bentleyrelated background,’ said Emily. ‘Dad and I have a collection of these cars, some in rebuild and a couple that we compete with, racing and rallying. When news of receivership came,…

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

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