Soldato
(alt. title - "I wish I was rich enough to own one of these....") 
The back-story - last November, a very good friend of mine lost his marbles and bought a Bentley on eBay. I helped him fetch the bloody thing home, and since then I've been contributing to the work needed to fix it. And there's been some stuff to fix....
When he got it home, a quick appraisal showed the following bits wrong:
Drivers seat adjustment and memory (no manual override available either)
Drivers door mirror wouldn't adjust up or down
Drivers seat leather not in great nick
Various paint issues
Bit of rot in one sill
Engine idle speed completely wrong
Fuel mixture richer than a particularly rich thing
Cruise control not working
Headunit and speakers completely knackered
More than a few of the 6,926 relays in the electrical system knackered
Alarm/Immobiliser/remote central locking not working
Suspension issues
And probably a lot more stuff that I've forgotten about
This is what happens when you buy a 6 grand Bentley. You invariably end up with a lot of stuff not working, and what is working is generally a bodge job. Along with with a brilliant mechanic in Burton (who works on my mates other cars and my 'cento) we've spent the last year undoing the bodges, fixing other stuff properly, and generally making the car usable. Well, as usable as any +17ft long 6.75l V8 Bentley could possibly be.
We used the car for the wedding of a couple of friends in August, still with some issues to iron out but with the paintwork looking good and the oily bits working *almost* as they're supposed to. Since then we've been fixing the remaining bits. I picked the car up from him this morning to take it on an extended run to see if we'd got the last of the gremlins ironed out. So here goes with a short review of one of the many examples of why we really used to make the best cars in the world.
1) Engine and Transmission. The 6.75 litre R-R/Bentley warhorse is a pretty slow revving motor. Redline comes up at 4500rpm, at which point most modern petrol motors are just getting into their stride. The thing with the Bentley engine is that it just keeps pulling right from 500rpm all the way to that 4500rpm mark. At 3000rpm it really starts to sing, which is useful given that kickdown from 3rd to 2nd at motorway speeds generally drops you onto that engine speed. The transmission is the good ol' GM Turbo-Hydramatic 3spd auto, set up to blur the changes even more than the Americans would, with the shifter on the steering column rather than the console. It could probably pull another gear if it really wanted to - top speed of the Mulsanne S is about 120mph, maybe a tick under, and the engine feels as though it has plenty in reserve if it could just have another ratio to play with!
2) Handling and ride quality. Imprecise steering (which might just be a peculiarity of this car rather than indicative of the model), tyres not designed with throwing the car around in mind, and the knowledge that this isn't my car mean that I haven't really explored the limits of the chassis. It feels a bit like an older American muscle car in many ways, although the rear is much more stiffly sprung than most muscle cars due to the gas spheres in the design. Brake pedal feel is non-existent, thanks to the use of Citroen hydraulics to completely isolate the driver from the braking effort, and the ride is a bit sensitive to tyre pressures - you do need to get them exactly right (24psi front, 30psi back according to the handbook) for it to behave itself.
3) Build quality. This car is nearly 21 years old, and it shows. If the work that had been done to it over the years had been done right though, it would feel a little tighter than it does now. As it is, there are more than a few squeaks and rattles that we keep chasing around the cabin. Wind noise is a big factor at motorway speeds, the cabin doesn't really insulate you from it very well at all. Does give you a good indication of what speed you're doing though, as unless you keep your eyes glued to the speedometer you'd never know you were in license-losing territory.
4) Comfort. Aside from the aforementioned ride quality issues when you don't have the tyres pressurised correctly, it has to be one of the most supremely comfortable cars ever built. Mercs of the same era might ride a little better, but they'd wallow more than this car does. The seats are supportive, and there's enough adjustment to accommodate most sizes of driver unless you're either extremely tall or short.
5) Cost of ownership. You know the old adage about how with some cars you need to be able to afford to buy two in order to run one? That statement tends to be utter ******** when aired for most cars, but it's dead on for this one. Every single part that you look at and think "oh, a replacement for that won't cost too much" is hideously expensive. Fortunately we've been able to repair parts in many cases rather than replace them (drivers side mirror springs to mind), which meant that cash could be diverted to other jobs where replacing the part was absolutely necessary (like the drivers seat adjustment control unit, a fantastically expensive piece of kit).
Would I dissuade anyone from buying one of these if they wanted one? Nope. It's a fantastic car, and not only is it supremely competent at many things but it has bags of character as well. Ze Germans have never quite managed both competence and character in the same car all that many times, and never in the amounts that the Bentley has IMO. Would I spend my own money on one? Sure, if it was in better nick than this one was when we got it home. But at 6 grand, the price point that this car was at when my mate bought it.....not a chance. For far too long during the semi-restoration period we went through with this car it just kept kicking him square in his bits-and-pieces. I don't think he slept properly for the months leading up to the wedding where we needed the car to function correctly since it was bringing the bride to the ceremony! Every time we fixed something, another bodge made itself known or a weakness was highlighted somewhere else.
Case in point - the engine idled at 1500rpm when we picked it up, and the fuel mixture was very rich. We leaned it out, adjusted the idle to where it should be, and this should have been alright. But the idle and the mixture were set that high to take account of a lovely little problem that occurred when the engine was fully up to temperature - the revs would drop down below 200rpm, the fuel pump would cut off and the car would stall. It would do this when slowing down from motorway speeds to about 20mph, leaving you in the rather unenviable position of having to finish stopping all that car with no assistance on the brakes - actually, brakes that were fighting you never mind not assisting. Turned out to be a split vacuum hose ('repaired' with electrical tape
) on the engine that was causing knock-on effects all over the place.
I'll grab some photos with a digital camera when I can. Already taken a bunch with my camera today, but since it uses film rather than one of these new-fangled memory cards I need to get them developed. I'll also try and find my copy of some of the wedding photos with the car on, since it was a bit cleaner on that day!
For the tl;dr folks - I'm driving a Bentley at the moment, and it's quite good. No real point to the thread, just wanted to let you all know.
The back-story - last November, a very good friend of mine lost his marbles and bought a Bentley on eBay. I helped him fetch the bloody thing home, and since then I've been contributing to the work needed to fix it. And there's been some stuff to fix....
When he got it home, a quick appraisal showed the following bits wrong:
Drivers seat adjustment and memory (no manual override available either)
Drivers door mirror wouldn't adjust up or down
Drivers seat leather not in great nick
Various paint issues
Bit of rot in one sill
Engine idle speed completely wrong
Fuel mixture richer than a particularly rich thing
Cruise control not working
Headunit and speakers completely knackered
More than a few of the 6,926 relays in the electrical system knackered
Alarm/Immobiliser/remote central locking not working
Suspension issues
And probably a lot more stuff that I've forgotten about
This is what happens when you buy a 6 grand Bentley. You invariably end up with a lot of stuff not working, and what is working is generally a bodge job. Along with with a brilliant mechanic in Burton (who works on my mates other cars and my 'cento) we've spent the last year undoing the bodges, fixing other stuff properly, and generally making the car usable. Well, as usable as any +17ft long 6.75l V8 Bentley could possibly be.
We used the car for the wedding of a couple of friends in August, still with some issues to iron out but with the paintwork looking good and the oily bits working *almost* as they're supposed to. Since then we've been fixing the remaining bits. I picked the car up from him this morning to take it on an extended run to see if we'd got the last of the gremlins ironed out. So here goes with a short review of one of the many examples of why we really used to make the best cars in the world.
1) Engine and Transmission. The 6.75 litre R-R/Bentley warhorse is a pretty slow revving motor. Redline comes up at 4500rpm, at which point most modern petrol motors are just getting into their stride. The thing with the Bentley engine is that it just keeps pulling right from 500rpm all the way to that 4500rpm mark. At 3000rpm it really starts to sing, which is useful given that kickdown from 3rd to 2nd at motorway speeds generally drops you onto that engine speed. The transmission is the good ol' GM Turbo-Hydramatic 3spd auto, set up to blur the changes even more than the Americans would, with the shifter on the steering column rather than the console. It could probably pull another gear if it really wanted to - top speed of the Mulsanne S is about 120mph, maybe a tick under, and the engine feels as though it has plenty in reserve if it could just have another ratio to play with!
2) Handling and ride quality. Imprecise steering (which might just be a peculiarity of this car rather than indicative of the model), tyres not designed with throwing the car around in mind, and the knowledge that this isn't my car mean that I haven't really explored the limits of the chassis. It feels a bit like an older American muscle car in many ways, although the rear is much more stiffly sprung than most muscle cars due to the gas spheres in the design. Brake pedal feel is non-existent, thanks to the use of Citroen hydraulics to completely isolate the driver from the braking effort, and the ride is a bit sensitive to tyre pressures - you do need to get them exactly right (24psi front, 30psi back according to the handbook) for it to behave itself.
3) Build quality. This car is nearly 21 years old, and it shows. If the work that had been done to it over the years had been done right though, it would feel a little tighter than it does now. As it is, there are more than a few squeaks and rattles that we keep chasing around the cabin. Wind noise is a big factor at motorway speeds, the cabin doesn't really insulate you from it very well at all. Does give you a good indication of what speed you're doing though, as unless you keep your eyes glued to the speedometer you'd never know you were in license-losing territory.
4) Comfort. Aside from the aforementioned ride quality issues when you don't have the tyres pressurised correctly, it has to be one of the most supremely comfortable cars ever built. Mercs of the same era might ride a little better, but they'd wallow more than this car does. The seats are supportive, and there's enough adjustment to accommodate most sizes of driver unless you're either extremely tall or short.
5) Cost of ownership. You know the old adage about how with some cars you need to be able to afford to buy two in order to run one? That statement tends to be utter ******** when aired for most cars, but it's dead on for this one. Every single part that you look at and think "oh, a replacement for that won't cost too much" is hideously expensive. Fortunately we've been able to repair parts in many cases rather than replace them (drivers side mirror springs to mind), which meant that cash could be diverted to other jobs where replacing the part was absolutely necessary (like the drivers seat adjustment control unit, a fantastically expensive piece of kit).
Would I dissuade anyone from buying one of these if they wanted one? Nope. It's a fantastic car, and not only is it supremely competent at many things but it has bags of character as well. Ze Germans have never quite managed both competence and character in the same car all that many times, and never in the amounts that the Bentley has IMO. Would I spend my own money on one? Sure, if it was in better nick than this one was when we got it home. But at 6 grand, the price point that this car was at when my mate bought it.....not a chance. For far too long during the semi-restoration period we went through with this car it just kept kicking him square in his bits-and-pieces. I don't think he slept properly for the months leading up to the wedding where we needed the car to function correctly since it was bringing the bride to the ceremony! Every time we fixed something, another bodge made itself known or a weakness was highlighted somewhere else.
Case in point - the engine idled at 1500rpm when we picked it up, and the fuel mixture was very rich. We leaned it out, adjusted the idle to where it should be, and this should have been alright. But the idle and the mixture were set that high to take account of a lovely little problem that occurred when the engine was fully up to temperature - the revs would drop down below 200rpm, the fuel pump would cut off and the car would stall. It would do this when slowing down from motorway speeds to about 20mph, leaving you in the rather unenviable position of having to finish stopping all that car with no assistance on the brakes - actually, brakes that were fighting you never mind not assisting. Turned out to be a split vacuum hose ('repaired' with electrical tape
) on the engine that was causing knock-on effects all over the place.I'll grab some photos with a digital camera when I can. Already taken a bunch with my camera today, but since it uses film rather than one of these new-fangled memory cards I need to get them developed. I'll also try and find my copy of some of the wedding photos with the car on, since it was a bit cleaner on that day!
For the tl;dr folks - I'm driving a Bentley at the moment, and it's quite good. No real point to the thread, just wanted to let you all know.
Luckily it all went without any issues whatsoever. The cars owner didn't even get to relax when the Bentley was back at home, since he was driving the groom's parents back to their hotel in one of his other cars (LWB XJ8)!
