Rolls-Royce & Bentley Day 2010

Just stumbled across video of the 2010 Rolls-Royce & Bentley Owners Club Japan's annual Rolls-Royce & Bentley Day at the historic Red Brick warehouses in Yokohama.



Otherwise known as ロールス・ロイス＆ベントレーDAY2010.



Always is a good turnout.



This year's summary is here.

XUW218 Arisen

Something RR&B was going on last night on King Street West in Toronto.

I wasn't there but my spy Karim took these street shots:

A couple of Silver Shadows.

And a pair of Bentley S / Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud series cars.

Here's one of those cars I photographed almost 33 years ago as a classic car on display at the 1981 Toronto Autoshow:

The colour scheme has changed.

(Posted by David Irvine- thanks to Karim)

Night Drive with the Classic Car Club of London

This is certainly a fun way to spend an evening.



Driving around London in classic cars.

Terribly British Day, Canberra 2013

Here is my entrance to the Terribly British Day 2013, a British car show held every year in Canberra, Australia.



Yep, I've still got my yellow wheels. To the video.



And I totally wore this shirt.

Post by Bentley Motors.

Bentley T James Young 2 door

Check out this barn find Bentley full of moss.

Look closely at it.



Have you noticed it yet? Yeah, it's modern coachbuilding.

That's right, the car is a Bentley T 2 door saloon by James Young Ltd.



The long doors are a dead give away.



The name plate is in order. The story goes that Jack Barclay encouraged James Young to continue coach building even though the cars had become monocoque.



Those rear seats are certainly a rare spot to be in.



Number SY28. Nice.



From the front.



Now the back.



Have you been thinking, why on earth is there so much moss on the car?

Check it out.



Well durr, of course the previously owner used it in his flower display at the Hampton Court Flower show.

It was his first flower show showing, and he won best in show!



Lets put the Bentley on a stick and have flowers grow out of it.



Good idea mate. Yeah, do it to a super rare coachbuild car, it will not annoy anyone at all.



It seems that these James Young 2 door cars have hard lives. 35 Rolls-Royce versions were built and 15 Bentley versions.

Another one was found in a barn after Hurricane Katrina here. A worse for ware one has been spotted in California here and one has even ended up in the bottom of the ocean as a dive feature here.

It is for sale on ebay here.

Beauty Rings Debate

Most Silver Clouds, Phantoms, Silver Shadows and Silver Spirits have something called a 'Beauty Ring'.

It's that coloured and striped metal ring on the hubcap - sorry, maybe I should say 'wheel cover'...



In the late 1990s Rolls-Royce deleted them from the all alloy wheels of the Silver Spirit/Spur.



Well, I have late 1990 Silver Spirit 16" alloys on my Silver Shadow and I am going ahead with putting Beauty Rings on them.

Is this an upgrade or update? Or is it an update with a downdate feature? It is hard to describe.

I think it will be unique, but still in appripriate Rolls-Royce style.

Here is the demonstration. I think it looks good!



Could this be a first?

I do still have the original caps and 15" steel wheels should anybody be concerned about abuse.

(Posted by David Irvine - and thanks Rodd)

James Young Silver Shadow 2 door

In the words of Marinus Rijkers of the excellent site www.rrsilvershadow.com, "There are not many pictures available of the James Young models. The car is too rare for that. The total production was 50 cars, 35 of them being a Rolls-Royce and 15 a Bentley."



A previous post of January 17th 2008 on Bentley Spotting stated "In the late 1960's the RR&B dealer Jack Barclay persuaded coachbuilder James Young to make a 2 door Silver Shadow/Bentley T. He did, and a total of 50 cars were produced. There were 35 Silver Shadow and 15 Bentley T variants."



"It certainly is one collectible body type, and the rarest of the Silver Shadow Bentley T type cars that were produced in conjunction with the factory."



Well this James Young Silver Shadow 2 Door has turned up for sale currently on Ebay, chassis number CRH1264.



It has been modified - not distastefully, but not correct for that model. This car now sports 'modern' Silver Shadow II bumpers, vented wheel covers and a deeper Shadow II grille. The one off Pininfarina Bentley T had the same modification in later years, so it's no unheard of - simply upgrading.



I wouldn't do such a thing to such a rare car, but whoever did it might as well have gone all the way and given it the late model flared wheel arches. The rubber bumpers don't look right on non-flared cars - as in the 1973 American cars.



But I still like it.



Buy it here if you want to.

(Posted by David Irvine)

Rolls-Royce Camargue Limited

Here is the Rolls Royce Camargue Limited.



It is limited, not only because it says it on the badge, but it is a limited or special edition run of just 12 cars.



Why you may ask? Well luckily the plaque tells me so.

"The Camargue Limited Edition is one of 12 special motor cars built ro celebrate the 80th anniversary of the first sale of a Rolls-Royce in the United States."



It actually does say 'Limited' on the badge which is slightly unusual.

Usually limited or special cars have a different coloured badge, not something else written on them.



All 12 cars are to the same specification. White with red and white interior, colour coded bumpers and alloys.

Of the 12, not all have ended up staying in the United States. One has been spotted in Monaco here, one has come up for sale in Japan, and is pictured below.



One was even made into a hard top convertible, but that is another story.

Practice Makes Perfect?

The controversial Rolls-Royce Camargue designed by Pinninfarina and was release in 1975.





In fact it was designed in 1970 at Pininfarina not by Sergio, but by Paolo Martin. These are his actual design sketches.





And also his renderings dated 1970.







It is a car that I, personally, really like, and spotted many in the 1980's here with this as an example.



It does seem however, that Paolo Martin at Pininfarina did a bit of a University standard, and handed in the same assignment for multiple classes, with just a little tweeking, to try and confuse the professors.

Let's take a look at the 1969 Fiat 130 coupe.



And the 1976 Ferrari 365GT 2+2 / 400GT.



Get the picture?

Now also there is a lesser known example, it must have been a minor class at University or some detention homework for re-submitting his work multiple times.

It is a 1969 Mercedes-Benz 300SEL 6.3.



Only one was made.



I hope Rolls-Royce got a good deal on an updated old design.

Ferrari definitely got the left overs in 1976.

(posted by David Irvine)

Very Lowflying Spares

Always keep a spare in the car in case you need it.



Hey, you might get into a fender bender.



Just have a mig welder ready, a power supply and some superglue in the back too...



And you can only crash the front right hand side on this trip



Thanks to Rodd Sala again for the pics.

(posted by David Irvine)