1992 Bentley Continental R: Setting a New Course

From the archive: Ta-ta to shared sheetmetal—and back doors, too. Mike Valente|Car and DriverFrom the March 1992 issue of Car and Driver. You should already be aware of the revival of Bentley. Maybe not by actually owning one yourself—prices start at $118,700—but at least through the pages of Car and Driver. Three years ago, our editor used a Bentley Turbo R to race the Orient Express across Europe—and won. It isn't a very fast train, but William Jeanes reported that the winged-"B" chariot was faster and better than a car that weighs nearly as much as a locomotive has any right to be. Peter Ward, the youthful chief executive of Rolls-Royce Motors, is the architect of the new Bentley strategy. It calls for every Bentley to be discreet and understated where a Rolls-Royce is ostentatious and imposing. Bentleys are also more sporting, reflecting a heritage of five Le Mans wins 60 years ago. The turbocharged version of the venerable 6.7-liter Rolls-Royce V-8 comes only with a Bentley badge. See all results for used 1992 Bentley Continental for sale near 400072 The plan has worked. Production of Bentleys now exceeds Rolls-Royces. In Britain, the ratio of sales is three to two. In the next generation of cars, Ward promises that each marque will have its own body style. To make a start in this direction, he commissioned the Bentley Continental R. The Continental R's launch at the Geneva show early last year made quite an impact. Geneva 1991 was Mercedes' show: all eyes were focused on the new S-class. If that German car seemed a touch too large, heavy, and extravagant for the cautious 1990s, the surprise unveiling of the new Bentley upstaged it on every count. It was revealed as a shapely twodoor—which, in the tradition of coupes, means less room for more money—and it is actually longer than the Turbo R sedan on which it is based. Rolls-Royce said production would be limited: 70 cars a year for each of its four main markets. The price was set at $250,000 without taxes, and potential customers were advised to order early to avoid disappointment. See all results for used 1992 Bentley Continental for sale near 400072 Which they did. Nine months later, as Continental R assembly was beginning at Rolls-Royce's Crewe works, deposits had been collected on two years' worth of production. One client, the Sultan of Brunei, couldn't wait. He persuaded Rolls to sell him the garish red Geneva-show prototype, a privilege accorded because, as the company says, "He is a very good customer." The price has since risen and is now $271,780 in the U.S., but we will say no more about that. If you have to worry about the odd $20,000, you can't afford to be thinking about this car in the first place. Those who can are mostly Rolls or Bentley owners already. The attraction for them is something new. The Continental is the company's first new body style in ten years and the first Bentley that doesn't share Rolls sheetmetal since the R- and S-type Continentals of the 1950s and 1960s. The 1952 R-type Continental's long, flowing tail was the inspiration for the new model. The job of clothing a Turbo R with a modern coupe body went to the freelance design partnership of John Heffernan and Ken Greenley, whose last work was the Aston Martin Virage. The starting point was their 1984 concept study called Project 90, which bore an uncomfortable similarity to the Mark VII from a certain Yankee manufacturer. The new sporting Bentley would need a more delicate styling treatment. Compared with the slab-sided Bentley sedan, the coupe is a Michelangelo sculpture. The famous grille still dominates, but here it leans backward slightly instead of forward as on the sedans. The sides have a Coke-bottle curvature, the door tops overlap the roof, the bumpers are integral and soft-faced, and the trunk lid is subtly raised to provide a vestigial spoiler and increase luggage space. This is the first Rolls or Bentley in memory without front quarter windows. Sixteen-inch-diameter aluminum-alloy wheels wearing Avon Turbospeed 60-series tires (a lower profile is deemed unsuitable for a Bentley) give the Continental R an aggressive, ready-to-go look. Go, it certainly does. Just like the Turbo R, in fact, which means manufacturer claims of a maximum speed restricted to 145 mph and 0 to 60 mph in 6.6 seconds (the last Turbo R we tested—in November 1990—could not reach these numbers). So far, we've driven only a pre-production prototype and only on public roads in the south of England. Once again, however, we were surprised and impressed to find how quickly such a big, heavy car could cover ground. It needs only a gentle touch, yet the turbocharged engine packs plenty of punch. Rolls, of course, does not deign to talk in blacksmith's language about such things as horsepower. It used to say simply that the V-8's output was "adequate." When the first turbocharged Bentley appeared, the company line changed to "more than adequate." We gather that

1992 Bentley Continental R: Setting a New Course

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