Grotty old Bentley Eight - should I?

[Saabnut]

As an old Bentley owner, I say

RUN AWAY!

If you heard me say away, you are not running fast enough. For ideas, a set of anti roll bar ends (like drop links), there are 4 of them - £300. That is each!

A set of bump stops - £420

Pair of rear load levelling units £3k plus the shock absorbers, about another £2k nothing is cheap. (these prices are for T2 parts which are normally on a par).

Despite what Panhard65 says, these suck up loads of cash without involving specialists. Parts are more than just expensive! However, I still have mine and think they are worth the expense, but it is impossible to run one cheaply. Secondhand parts are also expensive as most breakers are bought by two big marque specialists who have cornered the market.

[Matty]

We're all going to be dead in a month anyhow, what does money matter? GIFB, worst comes to worst you can always get burried in it ?

[Kowalski]

Yeah buy it. These are as reliable as an old Toyota, you don't need any skills to run one on a budget. It will get an easy 35mpg round town, and will never attract any attention in a dodgy part of town I'm sure. Budget motoring at its best.

[Matty]

Sarccy

[eddyramrod]

Have you got it home yet?  When are you bringing it to meet Huggy?

[trigger]

This is all very hypothetical anyway, the car will probably not be for sale and if it is the owner will want £5000 for it or something stupid anyway. 

I'd just see what they want for it first and then sleep on it. 

[Dannyk]

Yeah why not buy it, it Looks alright,

it'l look even better once it's got the cage in and door plate on

*runs and hides*

[Cavcraft]

Just buy it.

[stuboy]

if your refurb budget is 20k  then buy it..

[Zelandeth]

Also beware the brakes.  They are NOT servo assisted - like on old Citroens the brake pedal is simply a valve - the braking pressure is provided by an engine driven pump.  If that fails you will have ZERO brakes.

That is a frankly terrifying experience...even in a huge farm yard when we had finally got an old Shadow started for the first time in a couple of decades and decided to see if it would move.

It did...however we had no braking pressure...and I quickly discovered that it was far more willing to go into drive than to come back out again!  It's astonishing how long it can take to find and turn off the ignition!

Plenty of old cars it's fine to limp around the yard before you've done much with the brakes... don't even think about removing the chocks from the wheels of an old Roller or Bentley unless the brake pressure light is out and staying out.

They're utterly gorgeous things, but can bankrupt you like nothing else.  They make looking after a classic Jag like maintaining a Toyota Aygo!

I'd say get a proper look at it and see what they want for it.  If it's cheap enough you could potentially get it, give it a damn good clean, get it actually running, and then if you think it's beyond your abilities potentially shift it on for a bit of profit.  A good wash and some decent photos can get you quite a bit of profit in cases like this sometimes.

I will own one one day (well, a Silver Spirit is my target)... though it still scares the hell out of me!

[SiC]

Find out if its for sale and how much. If really cheap (i.e. sub 2k) then you can't go that much wrong as it'll break easily for that. Then can fuck around in your own time DIY'ing and searching for cheaper but equivalent parts. 

[inconsistant]

1 hour ago, Cavcraft said:

Just buy it.

And then make it into a pick up. Maybe weld those Vauxhall branded oil drums onto the roof side by side. 

[PiperCub]

You'd be a way braver man than me if you do sir! 

As my old dad said, anyone can afford a luxury car (he was referring to Jags at the time) but very few can afford to run them. 

If it's very cheap (unlikely) then you might make some money breaking it for parts as others have said, not unsurprisingly, bits for this kind of car are off the scale. That's the problem with older luxo-barges, the cars get silly cheap but the parts prices seldom follow. 

[sierraman]

Here’s a plan. Junk the complicated engine and brakes and chuck something like a Perkins Phaser in and the brakes from something like an old Granada. Tape up the rips in the seats with some really obvious looking grey gaffer tape.

Substitute the lifting veneer for some little fillets of plywood then paint with some old varnish you e had in the shed for 15 years. Bodywise id knock the worst of the grot on the arches out then trowel some filler in. Shape doesn’t have to be bob on at this stage. Then drop by ALDI and get some pasta, shit rags and 10 tins of their Direct To Metal paint and paint it white. Fit some transit remoulds and you are good to start a wedding business.

You’ll need the clothes to go with it so I’d suggest a suit jacket, a shirt that’s a bit too tight and some trousers or failing that some joggers you’ve just creosote the shed in. Top it off with a pair of white Hi Tec trainers. Just advertise it as ‘Classic Bentley for Weddins £25 an hour’. 

 

[Skizzer]

Trigger is right - find out whether it’s for sale, how much they want and what’s wrong with it.

If it doesn’t go or stop you’ll have a logistical mess before you even start.

What you actually need is this, which is MOT exempt and just appears to need tyres and possibly a bit of gaffer tape:

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F293508345200

[St.Jude]

I'd buy it.

And if I lost my job, got divorced, and couldn't afford to fix said Bentley, I'd just park it up where I found it and live in it. A la Maggie Smith in Lady In The Van. 

[strangeangel]

A quick glance at eBay tells me that there are no shortage of these, in allegedly working condition, for under ten grand on eBay, starting from £6600. The one you're looking at would need to be pretty much free to make any sense given the amount of work it will undoubtedly need. If it was any good, someone would be driving it around; it's where it is now because it's fucked. And in the years between then and now it won't, as @sierraman says have "improved like a fine wine".

 

It might be worth breaking it for spares, given what everyone says about the price of parts, which is fine if you have the room, and the means to shift this (almost certainly brake-less) 2 and a half ton leviathan back to your crib.

 

I can't see any outcome to owning the POS that wouldn't result in misery, depression, bankrupcy, personal injury and most likely divorce.

 

Get it bought.

 

[Stevebrookman]

I was in Brightwells classic auction in November (and the recent one two weeks ago) and this was there.

Supplied new by Jack Barclay of London in February 1994, this Turbo R is a later fuel-injected model with quad headlamps and desirable floor-change gear shift with Sports mode. Finished in Graphite with magnolia hide upholstery piped in grey, it has heated front seats, rear picnic tables, expensive walnut door cards (a £3,000 option when new), central locking plus all the usual Bentley luxuries that you would expect.

It has had six owners in all, our vendor acquiring it back in 2009 from Royce Sales & Service at a cost of £16,250. Maintained regardless of expense in the current ownership, mainly by RR&B of Bromsgrove, it comes with lots of history from new to warrant the 91,734 miles displayed and was fitted with a new set of Avon Turbospeed tyres in 2014 since when it has only covered around 5,000 miles.

Supplied with its original owner’s handbook and many invoices for upkeep over the years, it also has two sets of keys, remote control radio/CD player, all its original tools and wheel-changing kit, original Bentley umbrella in the boot and an MOT to June 2020 with no advisories recorded. In generally good order throughout, it looks criminally cheap at the modest guide price suggested.

Please note that the private plate shown in the photos is not included and the car has now reverted to its original number, L662 WOT.

Sold for just under £8000 including fees. Was a stunner-good history, immaculate condition. Would I splash £8000 on this? Probably before the latest issues -no, if and when we get through-fucking yes.

 

Steve

 

[BorniteIdentity]

3 hours ago, sierraman said:

Then drop by ALDI and get some pasta

Good one. ?

[Bradders59]

You only live once, and no-one lies on their death bed content that they led a completely sensible life.

If you can get it for next to nothing, sell the reg. number and get your money back. Then have fun, learning as you go, and if your lucky you might even get to drive around in it for a while.

Shouldn't this be in the low cost, high liability thread ? Its close to the ultimate example of that.

If it was round the corner from me, theres a very good chance I would buy it, if the price was right.

[sierraman]

My parents knew someone (this is how long ago it was...) cashed in their endowment to buy the husband a Bentley 8, not dissimilar to this one. Did all the usual to it, put a non dating Irish plate on it, joined the Bentley owners club etc. I see them now and they are mostly old nails running about on the wrong tyres, all the interior bollocksed. I think when they were new they said ‘this person had made it - could be Elton John behind the wheel’. I look at them now and it just looks a bit tragic, someone whose come into £6,000 and spent it all on an 85 B plate Rolls Royce. 

[davocano]

I'm not trying to start a game of "Auction Top Trumps" but here's a fully* functioning and roadworthy Turbo R for well under £8k inclusive of fees; Historics at Brooklands in November 2019.

https://www.historics.co.uk/buying/auctions/2019-11-23/cars/ref-113-1997-bentley-turbo-r/

This lovely example is presented in metallic black paint with an Ivory leather interior in good condition. Luxuriously, the front seats are heated and it comes with climate control, electric windows, electric steering wheel adjustment and automatic headlights. Its mighty 6.7 litre engine is mated to a four speed automatic gearbox and the vendor informs us that, from 1997 to 2003, this Bentley was serviced by Jack Barclay and Rolls-Royce. From 2003 until 2018 it has been serviced by Bentley specialists. This particular British bulldog still looks fabulous in black and represents great value considering its eye watering original sale price.

[xtriple]

Have you not read my thread on my Bentley?

It would sober up anyone. I spent 22000 pounds in three years on maintenance alone. As has been said: nothing is cheap for them and getting the average garage to work on them is a none starter. They say they will, then cry off when they do any reading on them. Front pads alone (mine had the big brake kit) were £450 plus fitting. Rear brake discs are a full day to change, each side and lots of dosh. There are two pumps in the vee of the engine for the brakes and suspension they are cheap enough to re-seal but there is plenty to go wrong with them. The valve for the brakes under the drivers floor always leaks and can fail the MOT if the garage are being arses. Rear suspension spring mounts rot for fun and are about £500 a side to do.

About the only thing cheap with them s the suspension spheres which are the same(ish) as Citroen ones but front struts on them are electronic (if post 90) and are over a thousand quid each for a bare unit. I had the front end on mine rebuilt - £4500 thank you.

Just for a laugh and to dissuede you, go on Flying spares website and look up the prices for anything you think you 'may' need. If after reading that, you still want one then book yourself into a psychiatric unit forthwith

[Kringle]

Naturally I'd buy that and waste copious amounts of time and money replacing the troublesome parts with Toyota components.

So @motorpunk what's it to be?

[Crispian_J_Hotson]

18 hours ago, motorpunk said:

 

ABSOLUTE FECKIN WANT! 

 

(Oh, wait... OMGCOVID19KAOS)

[sierraman]

1 hour ago, The Mighty Quinn said:

A mate bought a Y reg S500 Merc a couple of years ago for £750. It went like a missile and he had a year out of it, racing everything in sight and cruising in a car that was infinitely superior to anything that came out of Crewe. Eventually the MOT came around and it was party over. Broke it to nearly a grand.

 

 

Love that... ‘racing everything in sight...’

[flat4alfa]

Yes

It has been done before

And should be done again.

[motorpunk]

Some great advice here, thanks @xtriple in particular. 
 

It’s practically worthless, I get that, my logic is if I can buy it and have it running for a couple of grand, then scrap it before the next MOT/big bill, then I’d be happy. Better to have loved and lost, as Tennyson once said. 

[MrSchwifty]

A good friend of mine bought an Eight last year. It had over 150k on it, but did have an MOT and ran ok.  He is an extremely competent home mechanic and also not short of a few bob. He spent probably £1k on it and did all of the work on it himself (including welding) but was able to enjoy it for a few months in the summer before flogging it. If he hadn't been able to do the work himself, it would have been a gargantuan money pit for sure. I believe he had a thread on it on the Blue Forum, I will link it if I find it.

If you can't work on these things yourself, and are at the mercy of garages and "specialists", then be prepared to spend big dollar - as has been suggested. As with all specialist things, if you can't do the work and sleuthing yourself then they have you by the short and curlies - and they know it! 

There's also the matter of the fact these cars are crap.  They're enormous, weigh as much as a small moon, have surprisingly little space inside, are slow, appalling on fuel (expect no more than 18mpg) and have a whiff of the Nigel Farage about them.  HOWEVER, my friend adored his and would have another in a heartbeat. There was something glorious about it, despite its myriad faults and frustrations - to quote Clarkson "it's as stupid and wonderful as owning a pet Elephant". 

Is it a good starter classic? NO. HELL NO. RUN AWAY!

 

 

[NorfolkNWeigh]

 

 

If we’re getting poetic, I’d go a couple of years earlier to what Lady Caroline Lamb wrote about her boyfriend ; Mad ,bad and dangerous to know...

Byron would undoubtedly have driven a battered to fuck Turbo R with a Covid exemption MOT,  Old Alfred more likely to have been driven around in a Phaet, erm I mean Spur.

The only downside to this one is that it’s not a Turbo, in my house we don’t talk about the period1995-2005, amongst the many shameful things I did and have since been forgiven* including adultery, bankruptcy and spunking about £15k on running and depreciation on a 1989 Turbo R- paid £21,000 in 1999- sold in 2004 for £8,000. A lot of the bankruptcy ( and adultery) can be laid at the door of that blue moneypit.

Have you bought it yet?