[ITSv40]

Alan, no one is knocking your desire to enter the realms of R-R/Bentley ownership. Reading your post above, you do seem to be approaching it with the right frame of mind. It is a little like having a flutter on the horses, only invest money you can afford to lose and win or lose, you have had some fun in the process.

The Bentley 8 is a perfect example of a cheap car that will need much more expenditure. There is a thousand pounds worth of parts to repair for the mot, but, and this is the big but, brake and suspension repairs needs specialist input, it is not work to be carried out on a drive way when the sun is shining. Factor in recovery with a trailer, professional repair costs and parts and you have quite easily spent five grand + on getting an mot ticket. Then there will be the myriad of other things that need doing - apart from the mot items - which will be expensive to resolve.

Shadow's and later cars are definitely not DIY cars and maintenance costs will be horrific as the Bentley 8 owner has found out.

At the very bottom end of the market, originality doesn't matter, but once you move up to the market similar to your cousin's car then originality is all important. The R-R/Bentley scene is very much driven by originality, originality, originality.

I do sincerely hope you find a nice example and can enjoy some fun with it - like the Harrods slogan, 'it is a different world'.