#bentleyeight

Chod or not chod? #bentleyeight #bentley #eight #luxurycar #luxurycars (at Bury St Edmunds) https://www.instagram.com/p/Br5WFykFOBB/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=zp41buuc5d5p

Compared to how things used to be, Bentleys are basically everywhere nowadays - they sell 10K+ a year now. That the modern iteration of #Bentley exists is down to the #Mulsanne, the #Brooklands, and the #TurboR - and in hindsight it’s a minor miracle that they got built at all. In 1971, Rolls-Royce LTD’s difficulties developing the RB211 Jet engine (used on the Boeing 747 and Lockheed L-1011 jets) led to nationalization of the company, which nearly collapsed - and in the spinoff off Rolls-Royce cars as a separate company. Rolls, which owned Bentley, got listed on the London Stock Exchange as a car company just in time for the Opec crisis. What limited resources Rolls-Royce had were devoted to the Silver Shadow, and after Opec 1 began to recede, Silver Shadow sales boomed in the late 70s, but Bentley’s version, the T-series, was all but ignored - less than 2,500 T1s and T2s were made from 1965 to #1980 and the make was on death’s door. But the cash brought in by the Shadow enabled Rolls to develop a new platform for the #eighties - the SZ, which would underpin most RR/Bentley products for the next 20 years, and with exterior styling by Fritz Feller. The Rolls version became the Silver Spirit, the Bentley version the Mulsanne, and both debuted around the time Rolls Cars became part of Vickers LTD, a merger necessitated by another oil crisis and the U.K.’s own economic troubles. Now with a cash infusion, Thatcher-era Rolls was prepared to devote more attention to Bentley, and in 1982 it added a #Turbo to the Mulsanne to produce a very unique super sedan - it was hard to believe something so big and heavy could be so #fast - followed by the even faster Turbo R in 1985. These cars sold like no Bentley before, and established such a legend that Bentley also offered a non-turbo lower-spec model, the #BentleyEight - which later became the Brooklands - from a distance it was hard to tell which was a Turbo and which wasn’t - by design. By #1990, Bentley sales had taken off, and the company continued to refine the Turbo, culminating in the run-out Turbo RT in 1997/8.  #britishcars #BentleyBrooklands #BentleyTurboR #1990s #bigblackcar #ig_autoshow #BentleyMulsanne #80s