Teenage love for Bentleys and Rollers

"AMC/Renauledge" (n2skylark) 04/26/2019 at 12:43 • Filed to: None

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The rare 1999 Bentley Continental SC.

I’ve been inspired to reflect on my teen years since I saw !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . I was an arty, deeply closeted but obviously gay teenager who wore polyester ‘70s 3-piece suits to class to live out my Barney Miller TV Land fantasies. I didn’t have posters of F355's or Diablos or Vipers on my walls. Although I did lust after the Ferrari 456GT.

The glorious 1994 Rolls-Royce Corniche IV

Instead, I had inkjet-printed 8 1/2 x 11 dialup-downloaded photos of the Rolls-Royce Corniche IV, Jaguar XJS 6.0, and Bentley Continental R, T, and the extremely rare SC. (And Buick Roadmasters and Cadillac Fleetwoods, but that’s another story.)

Burgundy Bentleys like this Azure are fantastic.

When the Arnage, Silver Seraph, and especially the Corniche V (which was actually a rebodied Azure rather than a convertible Seraph) first broke cover, literally every single car I drew in my extensive free time was inspired by their raised prows and gently tapering rear fenderlines which met their stately rooflines in a classic bustleback form. They were fantastic to me. Especially in an age when large coupes and convertibles were disappearing so rapidly, where big cars with V8s and RWD seemed permanently endangered, and every manufacturer embraced advanced cab-forward design. I longed for elegant stateliness, and the crew from Crewe provided ever-improved examples for me to lust over.

The Continental R/S/T/SC and Azure series is one of my absolute favorite designs. It makes me unbelievably happy to look at. The graceful coke-bottle haunches, simple, elegant taillights, imposing grille, bold quad round headlights, and upright greenhouses treated with the most delicate chrome surrounds... They stood with such presence. I devoured every article about them that I could find, and I can still vaguely recall what C/D and Autoweek wrote in their reviews of these cars back in the late 1990s.

They were wonderful. And they deserve more credit for revitalizing Bentley than we give them.

fintail > AMC/Renauledge 04/26/2019 at 13:21

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I never printed pics, but I have always enjoyed these cars, too. It started even longer in the past for me, as I remember admiring the Corniche in “Sixteen Candles” and the blue Spur in “Cannonball Run II”.  (also a 456 admirer, never as much into real wild supercars, and usually just fixating on workaday MB sedans and vintage cars).

Those 90s models have a presence and quiet elegance just not seen in the 21st century versions, the current styles seem like garish parodies in comparison. And don’t get me started on the SC with that targa top, such a combination of cool and unnecessary.

Here’s one on the market right now, not cheap, but not exactly easy to find:

http://www.gallery-aaldering.com/collection/bentley-continental-sc-one-of-only-48-lhd-made-en-5/

RPM esq. > AMC/Renauledge 04/26/2019 at 13:59

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I remember using that same picture of the Continental SC as a desktop background on my school computer in about 2000.

RT > AMC/Renauledge 04/26/2019 at 13:59

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They were always a little too unworldly for me. You could get a far sleeker car for a fraction of the price, and that detail never left my mind. That being said, having excess of four hundred horsepower in a two tonne car sounds wild. These will always be cool.

I do love the concept of them too , it’s why I’m such a shameless Jag XJ-S fan.

AMC/Renauledge > fintail 04/26/2019 at 14:49

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The SC was indeed over-the-top. It oozed audacity as easily as it oozed elegance. And it really brought to mind the coachbuilding zenith of the 1930's.

AMC/Renauledge > RT 04/26/2019 at 14:51

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See, sleekness was quite nice to me, as well. I loved the XJS, BMW 8-Series, and Mercedes-Benz SEC/original CL, too.

But as a deeply self-conscious teenager, the absolute confidence, the total audacity of the upright, stately Continental/Azure series, appealed to me in a way the sleeker cars couldn’t match. The presence these cars had was incomparable.

AMC/Renauledge > AMC/Renauledge 04/26/2019 at 14:56

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I might also add that this was at the end of the era when Bentley/Rolls was far too proud to advertise anything so vulgar as its evergreen 6.75L V8's horsepower and torque figures. For the longest time, when asked, the company would simply state that the cars’ power was “sufficient” or “more than adequate.” I LOVED that.

Also, the fact that Rolls was still building the Corniche IV in 1995 , a car that had launched way back in 1967 with bodywork from 1965, and didn’t even get a glass backlight until 1993... it just awed me. While we were achieving peak Mercedes-Benz SL timelessness, Rolls-Royce was giving us the eternal in the Corniche IV.

AMC/Renauledge > fintail 04/26/2019 at 15:07

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For me, it was the Corniche II in “Troop Beverly Hills” that made me fall in love as a young kiddo. I also recall seeing them in various episodes of LA Law, Matlock, and Dallas.