Sitting in this superb classic car streaming along Auckland’s motorway, with one eye on the clock showing a little over 60mph, I reflected on our parallel histories. In 1946 I was a lad, in the Upper Sixth at that very British of schools — Christ’s College in Christchurch. So I take the view that both of us — myself and this car — entered life together, as very young adults reared to believe in our innate superiority.
In our subsequent lives this Bentley has had seven careful owners. I, on the other hand, have been raced, rallied and rolled by two serious owners — five fewer than the Bentley. However, I’ve been loaned out to casual drivers quite a few times, all of whom have been kind in their treatment of me, although all have contributed to my well-used patina. On me it all shows, on the Bentley nothing has changed. This car — chassis number B101LH, engine number B250L — was imported new into New Zealand by Henry Berisford Maunsell of Rathkeale, Masterton. Maunsell was a farmer (Rathkeale Station now being Rathkeale College) and used the car for normal everyday use until he died in 1958. A father and son then owned the car — also farmers of Masterton. In 1978 Dr Graham Cowie of Masterton — a well known General Practitioner and classic car enthusiast — bought it, and at this stage the car had completed 101,389km (63,000 miles).
Doctor Cowie only kept the car for seven months, during which period he did one or two long trips in it as far as Taranaki with no trouble. He commented it was remarkably silent, and the steering was extraordinarily light for such a large car. Dr Cowie lacked the skill to restore the car properly, so it was sold on at 104,900km (65,182 miles) to Howard John and Alan David Jones.
The car features in several sections of Dr Cowie’s book Yesterday’s Motoring. Les Jones, owner number four, was the service agent for Bentley as well as the Morris Agent in Masterton, and had been servicing the car for some time. He knew it well. Les had the car for eight years, during which time he had the upholstery and woodwork restored, small dents removed and a perfect paint job done (eight coats of primer and 17 finishing coats!).
The result of this was that in 1984 the car won the Sir Walter Norwood Trophy for the best restored Rolls-Royce or Bentley in New Zealand. It won this trophy again in 1988 and 1993 in the ownership of Alan Jones (another father-son succession).
Alan kept the car for 17 years until selling it to Arthur Moore in 2005, by which time the car had completed 138,159km (85,848 miles). Arthur Moore, whose partner was the appropriately named Sue Bentley, was the sixth owner. He thought it would be a nice idea to buy a (second) Bentley.
Love affair
The present owner is Rob Carthew who bought it at 139,553km (86,714 miles) in 2005. Like all his predecessors he has had a love affair with this superb classic, and currently the affair is on-going.
Fifty-five years on from its immigration into New Zealand, the car is essentially still original, in perfect condition and demonstrating that it is more than a little superior to most other cars on the road. On the road Rob, a specialist banker, succumbed to his baser instincts, easing his right foot down a little more and I saw the speedo needle quietly pass 70mph (113km).
Cocooned in complete silence in our leather and walnut setting, we cruised effortlessly along the busiest stretch of roading in New Zealand — as to the manner born — with me resisting the urge to gesture graciously to the drivers we were passing, until the banker in Rob took over again and we became legal.
It’s certainly been a Bentley year for me. My experiences with Bentleys of all ages have invariably been very satisfying — and that satisfaction has been with almost every aspect. Perhaps they could look a little more Italian? However, they are British so one must take the whole package — including the rather pompous styling. The fact of the matter is that I’m from Christchurch, with all that that implies, and Bentley is much more natural to me than anything from Italy. This despite my garage full of classic Alfas!
Under Rolls-Royce Ownership
All sorts of dire consequences were predicted once Rolls-Royce took over the bankrupted Bentley marque in 1931 and started producing what came to be called Derby Bentleys. That is, when they weren’t being called Rolls-Bentleys. There have always been purists (a nicer definition than some other possibilities) who expressed disparagement on the grounds that a Rolls-Bentley isn’t a true Bentley. However, I take the view that a Bentley of any kind is a hell of a good car to have if you’re looking for those original criteria as expressed by WO Bentley — silence, smoothness and reliability, not to mention solid performance.
Although the marque is claiming a Diamond Jubilee for one phase of its history, I have a difficulty in separating this period as being distinct since the products bearing the name have always been great cars, and true to the basic philosophy under which they were conceived. This argument is, of course, strengthened by the fact that the original WO Bentleys are, today, invariably very valuable indeed.
Our featured 1946 Bentley doesn’t appear to be an agile car, its styling leads you to expect dowager stateliness, but it’s a lot more easily handled under pressure than you’d expect by its looks. Although, how can you tell on the motorway, where it might look to be a geriatric rocket-ship but actually cruises with incredible authority. Even judged by the modern standards of automobile expectation it matches most other four-door sedans I’ve been in.
This was the first all steel-bodied car built by Rolls-Royce/Bentley and, of course, was the first step leading to the disappearance of the coachbuilders formerly dominant in the marque’s history. Interestingly it was built by Pressed Steel Bodies — later owned by Rootes — which built bodies for many British manufacturers.
Technical details
Motive power is suppied by the, then new, Rolls-Royce 4.5-litre motor — very similar to the previous one, simply having a larger bore. In Britain, including tax, this Bentley would have cost £4473-14-5d — considerably less than an average house. It produces 31.5hp (RAC) from six cylinders which combine to a total capacity of 4566cc. Compression ratio is 6.4 to 1. All-up weight is 1829kg — nearly two tons — and flat chat at 161kph it would take a hell of a lot of stopping. She’s a rather thirsty old girl at 18.8l/100km (15mpg), clearly originating from an era when if you worried about the price of petrol you couldn’t own a Bentley.
The interior is classically conservative. There are detachable armrests on individual front seats, and on the backs of those seats are foldaway tables for your G&T — as befits the owner and his lady; lots and lots of room of course. The dashboard is traditional British, featuring lashings of satin-finished woodwork and the mandatory array of neat businesslike gauges.
For its time it’s both very high-tech and traditional. For instance, the gearchange is on the driver’s right side, a hangover from the much earlier vintage eras — and maybe that was the best place? There are four forward gears but first gear is a crawler and non-synchro, so the owner’s manual advises, “Have your driver start in second.” A clear indication of the market niche this car is built for.
Starting is also a blast from the past. “To start the car, put control on steering wheel to START and hand throttle on steering wheel to about one third open. Press the starter and when the motor has been running for a while move throttle back to zero and choke to RUN.” Now your driver will move off?
The suspension is adjustable, with a ride control lever on the steering wheel, and you can check the engine oil level with a button on the dashboard that uses the fuel gauge. A chassis lubricating system is fitted, there is a lever under the dash which needs to be pushed once every 161km (100 miles). This then sends the oil around the ducted system, from which it drips onto the parts that matter — particularly the kingpins.
There is only one grease nipple, and that’s on the driveshaft. Similarly, there is only one grease cap, and that’s on the distributor. Typically Rolls-Royce, there are two fuel pumps and the braking system has the rear brakes working mechanically directly off rods — so servo failure doesn’t leave you brakeless.
Sixty years later
I’ve had this frustrated love affair with Bentleys for a number of years — triggered off when I had a trip in Richard Izard’s Turbo R between his country estate and the nearby centre of Warkworth. Smooth, silent, fast and on rails on any corner no matter what the speed — not, of course, that Richard would exceed the limit!
I’ve been in vintage examples and adored them, also the fabulous Barclay Bentley at a recent rally, and now the 60 Diamond Jubilee model became mine for an afternoon. I felt like a teenager on a first date with some English siren.
I talked to a mentor from my early years in motorcar mania, Mike Clark, who taught me a great deal about customer relations (he’s a car dealer) in the car game. These days Mike’s one of the head honchos at Independent Prestige — actually Mike is Mr Bentley in New Zealand, which is a bit of a turnaround; for years he was Mr Mercedes.
I asked Mike about this Diamond Jubilee business, and he gave me the booklets detailing the history of the marque at Crewe and the coming developments with this greatest of marques. It’s all about 60 years of Bentleys at Crewe, where they were relocated after Rolls-Royce became a major maker of aero engines. In 1946 Rolls-Royce had decided that the Derby factories should now concentrate entirely on the manufacture of aero engines. Consequently, the Crewe factory and Rolls-Royce engineers could become the focus for the car side of things — now much less important, of course, than the aero engines built by the winners of the air war.
It is possibly ironic that Rolls-Royce is currently owned by BMW and Bentley by Volkswagen, however history does roll on.
In 1946, Crewe’s first car came off the new production line. It was the first car ever to be built completely (including body) by Rolls-Royce, but it was not a Rolls-Royce car, it was the first of our subject cars, the Bentley Mark VI — the first product of the 60 years Bentley is celebrating this year.
In commemorating this event, Bentley has built a run of special Diamond Jubilee two-door coupes with a W-motor deploying 412kW (552hp). Normally, I’m pretty impervious to driving sensations — but I must admit to considerable nervousness behind the wheel of this beautiful exotic as I nervously weaved my way through Auckland’s afternoon traffic. I was especially nervous with the accelerator response — one could sense that you needed to be very cautious. This baby, you could feel, was compressed dynamite — if you get my image.
I wasn’t wrong
A favourite word of the verbally challenged is ‘awesome’ — everything that impresses is labelled with the word. I’ve dodged its use until now, thinking it of a currency only to be used with the extra-extra-special.
However, this car is truly awesome! I only drove it around the city but would love to drive it to Wellington, because it would take a major shake-down trip to appreciate the engineering, build quality and handling of this stunning car.
Currently there are several models, all sharing the same technical specifications. But the car we are comparing our MkVI with is the Bentley Continental GT Diamond Series and, to me, its technical details are quite well in advance of the 1946 Bentley. Powered by a twin-turbocharged W12 engine — which pumps out 412kW at 6100rpm, controlled via a ZF tiptronic transmission — the Diamond GT, despite weighing in at a hefty 2385kg, manages to cover the benchmark 0-100kph sprint in only 4.8 seconds before maxing out at a license-losing 318kph — that’s 197mph for you imperialists.
In my very limited driving time I noticed how incredibly smooth, silent and under-stated the GT was and, to my astonishment, how many people on foot were noticing and pointing. Mind you they could have been querying how that scruffy old bastard got hold of the beautiful Bentley — was he a thief? I was so impressed I reflected on the feasibility of selling property and owning this instead — it costs the same price as an Auckland house, but would be a hell of a lot more status enhancing!
Past and present
Between the MkVI of this story and the commemorative Bentley of 60 years later there is one notable characteristic in common — state-of-the-art perfection.
Both Rolls and Bentley started their careers as apprentices in railway engineering — Rolls from a working class family and Bentley from the privileged classes.
Today they’d both marvel at the international giants that their creations have become. Both companies played hugely significant parts in the two world wars and went on to be owned by companies from the ‘other side’ — both of which have in turn poured in resources, capital and skills to make these the giants of the World’s top-end car builders 60 years later!
BMW and VW (both also highly significant marques) have clearly contributed significantly to both Rolls-Royce and Bentley.
Crewe’s 60 years of Bentleys has now been commemorated by a superb automobile which, in every facet, is a worthy successor to the 5000 MkVI cars built during the first six years of Crewe production. I think they might have one of these Diamond Series GTs left at Independent Prestige — sell your house and go see Mike Clark.
