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Bentley Turbo R total shite! Now, Brooklands 'R' turbo shite....


xtriple

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It seems to me a little like Citroen SM ownership. Fabulous hand built cars with the occasional heart attack inducing bill. So it’s better to have a friend who owns one than have to pay for it yourself.

 

Although, it seems a lot of your expense has been the “modern” electronics. Also you can never tell what the previous cheapskate owners have ignored.

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Yes they can be expensive but really 3 k in servicing is taking the piss. They are well engineered but still just a car at the end of the day. Prices have firmed right up though 2 to 3 k will get you a runner but it will be a far from perfect car. Parts don't need to be expensive if you can get the cross references from the Austrailian club. Ball joint gaiters at 18 quid from the specialists or buy an assorted bag of gaiters for a fiver and get 4 of them. Central locking micro switches the specialists want 100 quid for a used lock or a quid from maplins. Don't be scared of a cheap Benley or Rolls if you have got a big trolley jack they are an easy diy car to work on. The fittings are well made and I have never rounded or snapped a bolt on one yet even if they have sat in a hedge for years.

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Indeed. A lot of my initial expense was down to previous owners who hadn't used it so didn't bother to service it! These sods don't like being sat around (the hydraulics play up if ot excercised regularly) and s a lot of maintenance had been 'deferred' :( 

 

When these came out in 1980 (based on te Shadow which came out in 1966!) there was naff all electronics and they were relatively simple cars, as the years went on and the cars, while looking the same, changed dramatically under the skin the electronics became more and more complex - hellfire, the wiring is enough to give an Italian past maker nightmares! There are fuses and relays hidden everywhere even mounted on tatty wood panels in the boot (behind posh covers obviously :)   )  and just because one relay is sipposed to do a job, it doesn't mean there aren't another 6 elsewhere , just helping out!

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Yes they can be expensive but really 3 k in servicing is taking the piss. They are well engineered but still just a car at the end of the day. Prices have firmed right up though 2 to 3 k will get you a runner but it will be a far from perfect car. Parts don't need to be expensive if you can get the cross references from the Austrailian club. Ball joint gaiters at 18 quid from the specialists or buy an assorted bag of gaiters for a fiver and get 4 of them. Central locking micro switches the specialists want 100 quid for a used lock or a quid from maplins. Don't be scared of a cheap Benley or Rolls if you have got a big trolley jack they are an easy diy car to work on. The fittings are well made and I have never rounded or snapped a bolt on one yet even if they have sat in a hedge for years.

You can get a lot of the cross reference parts for the early cars, but sweet FA for the late ones. Even the ever helpful Aussies dispair! So if you want to DIY then the early cars are a better bet, just do not EVER touch an early Mulsanne Turbo they are worthless and for a very good reason: they don't run properly! They didn't run properly all that often when they were new for Gods sake :)

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Not in the same league, but I can’t even get anyone to fix the balljoint on my merc. It’s three months now, and only my Citroen garage has helped. It’s ok for now thanks to them, but needs replacing. Can I even get the merc dealer to call me back? No! Of course I could buy another car for the cost of a Bentley bill :-)

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Love these old beasts - owning a Silver Spirit is very much on my list. For me it's one of the last "early" cars - late enough to have fuel injection and ABS, but before they fiddled around with the dash. Never liked the later dash with all the buttons down by the gear lever...

 

Just personal preference though! Driven a mate's one a bunch of times, and there's nothing like them...even if you do really have to recalibrate your perception of what constitutes a viable parking space!

 

They can't be any more finicky to maintain than a Xantia Activa surely...

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The same 'Clocker Willson', who had his Wikipedia page tweaked to remove mention of his conviction at Coalville magistrates court, as I recall someone in the trade in leicester once telling me?

This?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:MobileDiff/413022280

 

Wikipedia keeps history of all edits.

 

Edit: A quick bit of googling found this on PH - http://thumbsnap.com/0VptO5DE

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The wing vents are functional and let HOT air out which is good as these do trap an enormous amount of heat under the bonnet, don't overheat (I so hope!) but get hot enough to fry eggs on the bonnet! They were standard on the last Turbo RT (and RL) Mulliners and Brooklands 'R' Mulliners and optional on the standard versions of those two cars.

 

A £5K option when new!!!! In fairness, RR did put a return on the edge which mne hasn't got, I feel hard done by :)

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I quite agree, but, a lot depends on the car you buy in the first place, how well it has been maintained and how complex the version you want is. I still think the 'sweet spot' is a series 2 car (with ABS. injection and active ride) but not too many electronics.The active ride is worth having even though it is expensive when it goes wrong but it does transform the cars handling/ride. As a bonus, the series 2 were better built than the last series 4 cars, they were at the end of their life (long past the end of their life - the model was only ever a 'stopgap' and was supposed to be replaced within 8 year of launch!) and the Arnarge/Seriph was already in the wings with all its BMW input.

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I totally, totally get this car and the ownership regime.   As somebody who spends more than any of my vehicles are worth on keeping them on the road I can only wince at the actual level of expenditure - but not the theory.  

 

These Bentleys, and companion Royces, really do feel like the end of the line and to see one preserved in use so enthusiastically is A Really Good Thing.

I know that there hasn't been a "real" Bentley since 1931 but these are every inch as worthy as a 4.5 litre Vanden Plas - and almost certainly more original than 95 percent of those.   Good work, XTriple, the world will thank you. 

 

Finally - Fuck VW, Fuck BMW and fuck the whole set of circumstances that caused such a thing to happen to a fine company.   A little piece of every Englishman died when that happened, whether or not we felt it or noticed it.

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Mr Mercrocker, I salute you sir!

 

I am told I can be quite a bore on the shameful subject of  VW and BMWs takeover of our fine company, but to be honest it was all down to Vickers (the owners at the time) being absolute c**ts and just trying to screw everybody for as much cash as possible. They bled RRandB dry for 18 years as the company made a profit every year but Vickers took it all to pay dividends.

 

The one that actually got screwed in the end was VW as they didn't do their 'due diligence' and thought they'd bought RRandB but they didn't did they! :)

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I totally, totally get this car and the ownership regime.   As somebody who spends more than any of my vehicles are worth on keeping them on the road I can only wince at the actual level of expenditure - but not the theory.  

 

These Bentleys, and companion Royces, really do feel like the end of the line and to see one preserved in use so enthusiastically is A Really Good Thing.

I know that there hasn't been a "real" Bentley since 1931 but these are every inch as worthy as a 4.5 litre Vanden Plas - and almost certainly more original than 95 percent of those.   Good work, XTriple, the world will thank you. 

 

Finally - Fuck VW, Fuck BMW and fuck the whole set of circumstances that caused such a thing to happen to a fine company.   A little piece of every Englishman died when that happened, whether or not we felt it or noticed it.

 

 

Compared to the horrid Silver Syphilis and the Bentley Carnage, these things still look brutal. They were the last of the real ones. 

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