BENTLEY SPOTTING

It's the Rolls-Royce of Bentley websites.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Robert Jankel Azur in Japan



It's a Azur not an Azure. Turbo R style.

Bentley Spotting reader AJ who sent in photographs of a Bentley Limousine by Jankel pointed out that many of the coachbuilt Bentley and Rolls Royce cars built in the 1980's and 1990's were actually were sold to Japanese customers.

They do pop up for sale occasionally.

Here is an example. A few years ago this Rolls Royce Azur by Jankel was for sale in Japan.



Yeah its a drop top Spirit. Not that standard by all means!



A previous article with more pictures of this model, including a coupe version by Jankel is here.

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Bentley Hooper Empress II



The Bentley Hooper Empress II has been featured on Bentley Spotting previously here, when one car was photographed in Monaco.



Six cars were manufactured by Hooper using the Bentley Turbo R chassis from 1986 to 1990 with a completely redesigned coupe body.

There it is in the Hooper book.



Now was it happens, one is currently for sale in France!

It is for sale by Autodrome for € 130.000.

One needs to consider that the car cost £400.000 new from Hooper, and its status as a total collector piece. It ticks all the boxes.



Click on the images for full high resolution images of this magnificent car.



The car is moving art.



It is a sound investment given Hooper's significant history, the rarity of the model and the massive initial purchase price.



The rear looks amazing.





It is certainly not a wreck.



I would have preferred to pay the price that one did at the 'Automobiles de Collection incluant une collection privée', held by Christies on the 23rd July 2004 for Bentley Turbo R Empress II chassis number SCBZSOT00FCH13832 of €64625.00 That would have been a bargain.



I wonder if a pre 1989 right hand drive model exists, so I can import it to Australia and use it for my daily driver.

Pictures (Autodrome)

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Continental Trucking



Here is a sight you do not see everyday.





A dime a dozen, I'll take four.





I would get the camera out.

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The New Chinese Eyes



The first 5 new Chinese Eye Rolls Royces were delivered this month.

Well that's what I am going to call them. It is a bit politically incorrect, but the 1960's cars are still referred to as Chinese Eye cars, and this simply is the new one.

They now even sell Chinese Eye Rolls Royces in China. Try that in the 1960's.



It does look fantastic on the road.





Now lets do a comparsion.

The old Chinese Eye, in this case a Bentley S3.





Its a match.

Now after having some ginseng.



These are the first five cars that were delivered to customers this month.



Back in Beijing.



Pictures (Rolls Royce, Wikipedia)

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Friday, July 27, 2007

The Bentley Buccaneer

The name really is cool. Aarrh me hearties ahoy its a Bentley!

The term Buccaneer was used in the later 17th century in the Caribbean Islands to refer to pirates who attacked Spanish shipping.

In 1996 it was used to name this Bentley.



The Bentley Buccaneer was built for the Royal Family of Brunei Darussalam, and a large article on The Sultan of Brunei Darussalam's Different Bentleys is here.

As a side note, the Straits of Malacca near Brunei has the most modern piracy in the world today. An appropriate name.

Six were built and here are the VIN numbers and their Brunei registration plate numbers are as follows:

SCBZH16C3TCH00434 Bentley Buccaneer BM 1154
SCBZH16C5TCH00435 Bentley Buccaneer BP 2121
SCBZH16C7TCH00436 Bentley Buccaneer KF 9998
SCBZH16C9TCH00437 Bentley Buccaneer KF 9997
SCBZH16C0TCH00438 Bentley Buccaneer BQ 1122
SCBZH16C2TCH00439 Bentley Buccaneer BP 9191

To learn how to decode Bentley VIN numbers read about it here.

The Bentley was built in Crewe in 1996, has dual airbags, features a 6.75 Litre V8, single Garrett turbocharger, non-catalyst engine is right hand drive and is built on the special "ZH" chassis, like many of the other Sultan cars.

That's all fact.

Now here comes some guess work.

I reckon that this Bentley is designed by Zagato.

Take a look. See it? Its very curvy, it flows, its smooth, it budges, it looks Milan. Very Zagato style. Think on the Aston Martins by Zagato, and look again. See it?

The Sultan commissioned Bertone, Pininfarina, Mulliner Park Ward and Jankel for his Rolls Royce and Bentley cars, and many many other coacbuilders for all his different marques, so Zagato would definitely been on the shopping list.

Now a second picture has surfaced on how the Bentley Buccaneer looks.



And a close up of the front.



If I was betting man, cash would be on a Bentley Buccaneer by Zagato.

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Saturday, July 21, 2007

Robert Jankel Design Bentley Limousine II



The Design.



Out the front of the Factory.



Spotted in Japan by a bentleyspotting reader AJ.







More to come.

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Thursday, July 19, 2007

Venting Graham



A Bentleyspotting reader Graham has a very nice 1996 Bentley Turbo R with some slight modifications. Take a look.



You can tell its a late model Turbo R because of the rear view mirrors. There was previously a debate to keep the vains or go to mesh and the mesh won.

Now look at the headlights. The clear indicators are go! It does make the car quite sleek and updated. Not that you can update a 1996 that much.



A careful observer would of noticed the colour coded headlight surrounds. Again the modification does update the car, and simply makes it cooler.

Now there is thought to put mesh in the under bumper like the Turbo RT.



So lets pull out photoshop and have a look how it would look!



I would do it! Click to see the larger image, it looks better.

Now to the title of this post. Venting Graham.

This is the Turbo R's front fender. It does not yet contain any vents. Vents, as posted earlier here do make the car much more sportier, sleeker and shows off a bit of the massive power under the bonnet.



So which vents should Graham put on?

The first obvious choice are the Mulliner vents from the Bentley Turbo RT Mulliner.



They also are on the Bentley Continental R Mulliner and the Bentley Azure Mulliner.



So lets put the vent on Grahams' car and have a look.



Vents make the car so much more visually powerful.

But this is Graham, he has clear indicators. So he is a forward thinker. That vent would be too normal. Lets think to the future. What is going to happen next year?

Well the 2008 Bentley Brooklands is going to be released. Lets take a look at the Brooklands vent.



The Brooklands vents are actually the same that the 2007 Arnage.



And as you guessed it, lets put the Brooklands vent on Grahams' Turbo R.



It certainly updates the car!

Now previously to the Brooklands was another version of the Arnage Mulliner vents. It was predominant on the Bentley Arnage T24 limited edition. They looked like this.





Stuck on to the Turbo R. Looks jolly good.



Now we have to think realistically here.

It is my understanding that it is not like you can simply called up Mulliner and say, "Orr, umm, Gday mate, I wanna get some Brooklands vents to stickon ma old Turbo R, thanks mate. No worries yeah?"

You probably could, but my guess is that the reply would be, "Yes sir, that will be 5000 pounds." Then its like, "But mate, it's just a bit of chicken wire and some plastic." "With a 500 pound delivery fee."

So where do you turn? Ebay or course!

And what vents are sold on ebay you may ask? Well, the new vents from the Range Rover Sport!

It was Grahams' idea, so lets stick them on his car!

Firstly low down, to keep with the modern Bentley vent look. I have to admit I am not 100% on the scale of these vents, they could be a little bigger or smaller than the visual representation here.

They would fool most people that they were not factory.



Now a look at the vent higher up, so you can keep the badges, and the Range Rover Sport vent was designed to be higher up.



It's my one line summation, and I think I'm going to fence sit. I actually can't decide which one is better.

I am thinking now I want to design my own vents. That is definitely a future project!

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Monday, July 16, 2007

Japanese Mags



Lets go on a quick tour of some Japanese used cars yards.



The Bentleys stand out a bit.



All of these Bentleys have aftermarket wheels, or rims or mags.





Most pictures come from Yahoo.jp car auctions. I just look at the pictures.



The fashion is not just with the Bentley Turbo R, but also with the Arnage.





There are even some actions just for Bentley wheels like here.



What I think would be cool is a 20" version of the standard light alloy Bentley Turbo R wheels. They would really look good.

So what happens with pretty much most Japanese second hand cars? Well they get exported to other markets of course, and end up in the classifieds.

Just like this autotrader ad.







The B is a nice touch.

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