Bentley Hooper Empress II Market Wrap
Economics. Concepts like supply and demand. Market value. Asking prices, selling prices. With that lame introduction it should be very obvious that I am not an economist.
But if you are into making purchases it is good to know what is on the market. Specifically if you are buying something rare with limited market appeal which previously had a very high asking price. Like the Bentley Hooper Empress II.
Here is the scenario. You are cleaning out the back shed and you come across and old copy of The Californian Executive magazine.
It is from the early 1990's and you open it up to this page, and read the article about a car which is the 'ultimate in coach class'. It also was the most expensive car to buy at the time. Contemplation.
You decide that you want to get one of those, so you check out the market with a litle research.
Believing everything in the advertisements is not always correct as they want to sell you it, and somehow used car salesmen have a reputation.
A total of six Bentley Hooper Empress II were made, and four examples are known to Bentleyspotting. Please sent in information if you know the whereabouts of the other two cars. My guess is in Japan or the Middle East.
What is currently unusual in the market, is that out of the six manufactured, three currently are actively for sale seeking buyers.
The first is chassis number SCBZR03D2LCX32776 from 1990 with a navy blue exterior that has traveled 12354 miles.
It is currently for auction on ebay item number: 270248075462.
It was imported to the USA from Japan and has previous been on the block on ebay before here.
As with the previous auction the opening bit is for US $150,000.00 with a Buy it Now price of US $200,000.00.
Now this is just a bit special. It is presumed by the colour that the picture below is of this car under construction at Hooper in 1990.
Not something you see everyday on the internet.
The second car currently for sale also in California is SCBZR03D8MCX34842. This one is a 1991 car and has traveled 5,075 miles.
A previous article about this car is here, with also gives links to all eight Bentley Hooper Empress II posts on bentleyspotting.
It is not known what the asking price of SCBZR03D8MCX34842 is.
Thank you to Berverly Hills Motor Cars for supplying these high resolution photographs of the car, where it currently is for sale.
The third Bentley Hooper Empress II for sale is in France. It is a 1990 version that has traveled 4660 miles.
The VIN number is not known, and a previous article about this car is here.
It is currently for sale at Autodrome and has an asking price of € 180.000.00
It interestingly enough had an initial asking price of € 130.000, and I wrote that it was a sound investment at that price. Sorry to the sod who was thinking of buying it.
Now to the forth Bentley Hooper Empress II known to bentleyspotting. VIN number SCBZSOT00FCH13832 a 1985 chassis that was coahcbuilt by Hooper in 1988, and is referred to at auction as a 1988 car. The current milage is unknown, but it does get around as it have been photographed a few times here and here, with more to come.
This car has sold twice in the last 4 years.
First it was for auction at the Automobiles de Collection incluant une collection privée Christies, Le Circuit des 24 Heures, Le Mans Classic on the 23rd July 2004.
It had an estimated value of €40000-€60000 and sold €64625.
Here is a write up, noting the incorrect number of cars built.
Then it was sold again a year later at the Exceptional Motor Cars And Automobilia Christies, The Jack Barclay Showroom on the 19th April 2005.
It had an estimated value of £35000-£45000 and sold for £37600.
There could be a reason why the three cars currently for sale have been so for quite a while. Asking price maybe?
Now for some school boy calculations.
1990 SCBZR03D2LCX32776 Navy blue - 12354 miles
1991 SCBZR03D8MCX34842 Red - 5075 miles
1990 unknown Black - 4600 miles
Thats a combined distance of 22029 miles, and a combines age of 53 years, or 19345 days.
So on average a Bentley Hooper Empress II currently for sale travels a total distance of 1.14 miles a day.
They all must live bloody close to the shops.
It is lucky Bentley Spotters can rely on SCBZSOT00FCH13832 who's mileage is unknown from its 2004 figure of 14827.
Look! A Bentley Hooper Empress II owner has remembered to drive it!
Nice spotting CARLOS62.
Pictures (CARLOS62, Berverly Hills Motor Cars, ebayer sklove43, Autodrome, Colin Hyams owner of Hooper & Co. (Coachbuilders) Ltd from 1981, Christies & Darvani)
Labels: Bentley, bentley spotting, coachbuilt, hooper, turbo r
8 Comments:
Hi
The Arnold Clark Motor Group in Scotland is selling a blue Hooper Empress 2 (also with low mileage bu a bit tatty) which is the personal property of Sir Arnold Clark. I saw it in one of there garages a year ago. Not sure of current reg number.
Does anyone know where there is a Hooper Trubo R Coupe for sale - the last one you featured had already gone!
the original name for the empress 2was going to be la rochele but the owner of hooper (colin hyams) changed his mind after his wife tried to damage the finished car with a hammer !!
the reason why i know this sort of information was that i worked for the company as an apprentice/sheet metal worker way back in the 1980's i have in my posesion a lot of unseen photograph's and press release's, of all of the differnt cars that we produced.
if you are interested please inform me through you excellant web site...
neil
Gday Neil, Thanks for your great comment and information! I would love to be able to post more information about Hooper from your days working there. There are often email about numbers of 2 door Turbo R's made and the like, and more pictures would be great! Pleace email me at bentleyspotting@gmail.com or through comments is fine. Thanks again for your comments, and really looking forward to hearing from you! Kind regards, Jordan
e336 cgn was the very first empress 2 to be produced and was shown at the geneva motor show. the small tv screen next to the centre console was in fact a rear veiw camera that never worked(it came out of an f14 tomcat plane)the car body's were all aluminium.the front doors were streched by 8 1/2 inches.the front lights were from a ford mondeo.
neil
beleive me or not but here are two pictures of e336 cgn.
[IMG]http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd206/sirneil/scan0027.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG]http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd206/sirneil/scan0028.jpg[/IMG]
the original car was going to have a fibre optic carpet wich when you opened the front doors the carpet started to show tiny little colours from the fibres that were woven into the carpet.
[IMG]http://i227.photobucket.com/albums/dd206/sirneil/scan0029.jpg[/IMG]
i was told this carpet was priced in the region of £15000.00 and was never used.
Wow, I've always said the coachbuilders deliver what people want a head of time, then the car company realises its a good idea and pinches it. Fibre optic carpet? Yep it came out this year with the headlining of the Rolls Royce fixed head coupe. Hooper planed it in the 1980's. Great to hear Neil!
I was looking at used car listings in San Diego and ran across this one today:
http://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/ctd/981488585.html
1991 Bentley Hooper Empress II (SAN DIEGO CA)
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Reply to: sale-981488585@craigslist.org [?]
Date: 2009-01-05, 2:03PM PST
Extremely Rare Collectible. This car is based on a 1987 Bentley Turbo R, Six were produced and the cost was 400,000 pounds. The coachwork was built in all alloy by Hooper in 1990. The Bentley Hooper Empress II is a coach built Bentley Turbo R with a coupe body, by Hooper & Co. The car was one of Hooper's last complete coach built bodies before the company ceased to trade. Aerodynamic body, each of the vehicle panels having been individually and painstakingly handcrafted from light weight alluminium alloys Coachbuilt smaller rear window, Fixed solar protective glass panel above the drivers compartment, Remote control alarm system, Stainless steel sills and wheel arch surrounds compliment the chrome wheels designed to suit the cars high performance tyres, Mirror finished stainless steel infills to tail lights, Hooper polished stainless steel tread plates and "By Appointment" plates, Hooper badge fitted to rear of bootlid, Electronic suspension system for improved handling. Please inquire for more information AND PRICE. (619) 232-6864
Location: SAN DIEGO CA
it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
PostingID: 981488585
I think I remember you Neil, I was in the trim shop in the 80s
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