Seriously?

[Moomoo]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

They've been on my radar for 15-20 years Andrew, never thought i'd see one for sale in the UK though. Only made for 3 years in their native Australia but share many components with the P6 and/or SD1 so shouldn't be too hard to keep on the road.

Then there's that 4.4L version of the Rover V8, enough to persuade me to start with!

You’ll have to go under the mattress bud!😁

[Existential Crisis]

Originally Posted by Othen

I followed up on the white Bentley S1, the answer is the eBay auction only got to £11,100 before it ran out of puff, not meeting the seller's expectations. We may see it again on eBay - or perhaps that isn't a good place to sell a 1956 Bentley?

The auction was perhaps a good bell-weather for 1950s Bentley prices (notwithstanding the eBay issue), as public auctions generally are. Once I'm settled in 'Vegas I may cast around for a motor car like this one - with no intention of restoring it, or even making it 'nice', but rather run it as I do GAM.

Interesting

A man after my own heart. I'd love a scruffy but sound old Bentley like that!!

[Steve 940]

Oh dear, a slippery slope……

Just oof interest of course, I registered with Matthewsons just in case the Amazon was going for a reasonable sum. I reckon it will go well above the low estimates, and probably more than I want to pay

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showt...75#post2938875

Bit of a faff having to send copy ID etc, but this afternoon had email saying it’s all sorted and a £20k bid limit…..

Cheers
Steve

[Steve 940]

Well Alan,

You were indeed correct in your assumption the Bentley has indeed been relisted.

Ta Da…..

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404844984...QAAOSw3oBl3OJp

£2006 currently nearly 6 days to run

Cheers
Steve

[ITSv40]

Originally Posted by Steve 940

Well Alan,

You were indeed correct in your assumption the. Engle’s might be resisted

Ta Da…..

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404844984...QAAOSw3oBl3OJp

£2006 currently nearly 6 days to run

Cheers
Steve

Only the wedding trade want white ones.

[Existential Crisis]

Originally Posted by Steve 940

Well Alan,

You were indeed correct in your assumption the Bentley has indeed been relisted.

Ta Da…..

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/404844984...QAAOSw3oBl3OJp

£2006 currently nearly 6 days to run

Cheers
Steve

Is it the big six pot in that Bentley? Not much to go wrong if it is!

[ITSv40]

Originally Posted by Existential Crisis

Is it the big six pot in that Bentley? Not much to go wrong if it is!

Yes, straight six 4.9lt in the S1 and Silver Cloud1. It originally started as a 4.25lt in 1946 as fitted to the Bentley MKVI and Rolls Silver Wraith. It then went to 4.5lt in the Bentley R Type and Silver Wraith and Silver Dawn. The 4.9lt was introduced for the R type Continental chassis and standardised in the S type and Silver Cloud in 1956. The S2 and Silver Cloud II were the first models to have the 6.25lt V8 in 1959.

The straight six really is a silky smooth engine, but I must admit I preferred the V8 burble and increased power which made for effortless driving, although tickover was not as quiet as the six. The Rolls V8 enjoyed the second longest production run, I think coming behind the Chevvy V8.

Edit:
Fuel consumption was mentioned earlier in the thread. My MKVI, 4.25lt manual, regularly returned 16mpg seemingly regardless of traffic conditions. The Silver Cloud III, 6.25lt auto, varied immensely depending on traffic. We took it up to Scotland and toured the west coast on Honeymoon. Motorway speeds from Northampton to the Scottish border, then pootling around and Motorway back home. It averaged 15mpg. In town traffic, the gauge could be visibly seen returning to zero. Both cars had 18 gallon tanks.

[Existential Crisis]

Originally Posted by ITSv40

Yes, straight six 4.9lt in the S1 and Silver Cloud1. It originally started as a 4.25lt in 1946 as fitted to the Bentley MKVI and Rolls Silver Wraith. It then went to 4.5lt in the Bentley R Type and Silver Wraith and Silver Dawn. The 4.9lt was introduced for the R type Continental chassis and standardised in the S type and Silver Cloud in 1956. The S2 and Silver Cloud II were the first models to have the 6.25lt V8 in 1959.

The straight six really is a silky smooth engine, but I must admit I preferred the V8 burble and increased power which made for effortless driving, although tickover was not as quiet as the six. The Rolls V8 enjoyed the second longest production run, I think coming behind the Chevvy V8.

Edit:
Fuel consumption was mentioned earlier in the thread. My MKVI, 4.25lt manual, regularly returned 16mpg seemingly regardless of traffic conditions. The Silver Cloud III, 6.25lt auto, varied immensely depending on traffic. We took it up to Scotland and toured the west coast on Honeymoon. Motorway speeds from Northampton to the Scottish border, then pootling around and Motorway back home. It averaged 15mpg. In town traffic, the gauge could be visibly seen returning to zero. Both cars had 18 gallon tanks.

What a fantastic post, thank you. Like I said earler, I'd love a suitably scruffy 'smoker' to use a few days a week for my commute. My 60mpg mini would offset the 16mpg for three of the days!! I'm sure my pupils wouldn't bat an eyelid, they already think I'm a bit bat****..

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by ITSv40

Yes, straight six 4.9lt in the S1 and Silver Cloud1. It originally started as a 4.25lt in 1946 as fitted to the Bentley MKVI and Rolls Silver Wraith. It then went to 4.5lt in the Bentley R Type and Silver Wraith and Silver Dawn. The 4.9lt was introduced for the R type Continental chassis and standardised in the S type and Silver Cloud in 1956. The S2 and Silver Cloud II were the first models to have the 6.25lt V8 in 1959.

The straight six really is a silky smooth engine, but I must admit I preferred the V8 burble and increased power which made for effortless driving, although tickover was not as quiet as the six. The Rolls V8 enjoyed the second longest production run, I think coming behind the Chevvy V8.

Edit:
Fuel consumption was mentioned earlier in the thread. My MKVI, 4.25lt manual, regularly returned 16mpg seemingly regardless of traffic conditions. The Silver Cloud III, 6.25lt auto, varied immensely depending on traffic. We took it up to Scotland and toured the west coast on Honeymoon. Motorway speeds from Northampton to the Scottish border, then pootling around and Motorway back home. It averaged 15mpg. In town traffic, the gauge could be visibly seen returning to zero. Both cars had 18 gallon tanks.

Is the 4.5L version the one that was supercharged to create the "Bentley Blower" and caused W O Bentley to utter the immortal phrase "There's no replacement for displacement" due to the struggle he had getting the supercharged engine to run correctly?

Also thanks for the info on fuel consumption, it was me that suggested ~10mpg, based mainly on the fact modern RRs and Bentleys barely managed much more than that (by modern i mean 1970s-1990s) and they were allegedly more efficient with fuel injection, higher final drives etc.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

I suspect the seller needs to manage their expectations more realistically Alan.

We can all sit here and say "If i win the lottery, i'd buy that for £15k" but to be honest, if it was a big enough win, the interest while the decision was made would pay the difference. At least some of the difference and with that amount of money, the odd grand or three wouldn't make much difference.

However, when we sit here and say i've got £X to see me through retirement or whatever else, those few grand start to make a bigger difference. Most would say it's a years worth of petrol, based on petrol being ~£7/gallon, take a figure of £3500 as the difference between achieved and expected sale price and that equates to 500 gallons.
Assume 10mpg (probably not that far out for a car like that) and that's 5000 miles or the average years classic driving.

That said, there's a beautiful Leyland P76 on ebay for ~£15k at the moment, my lottery winnings will be buying that!

Now where did i park my fleet of flying pigs..........................

I suspect you are right about the seller’s expectations Dave. It is likely that he/she has spent some tens of thousands on purchasing and renovating the Bentley over the years, and would like to recoup much of the cost. The world of old vehicles isn’t much like that though - the value of something is just what someone else will pay for it of course. The market for 1950s Bentleys will be minuscule: they can’t be used as daily drivers, they need to be garaged to prevent prevent rapid deterioration but not many folk have sufficient storage space.

Cars like this one aren’t special enough to be show winners, but too good for the banger racing oval, so what market is left? I suppose it is more or less folk like me that are just curious about older things and willing to chance a bit of cash on owning something interesting but very impractical. I agree with you about the lotto winnings bit, if I suddenly had £50 million I wouldn’t bother looking at this one.

It is interesting that 1950s motor car prices seem to be falling off the cliff like pre-war cars did, exactly for the reasons we have already discussed. I may well look around for a motor car like the white S1 once I’m settled in ‘Vegas, it looks like 10 grand or so might be enough for something interesting to drive down to the beach on a Wednesday evening and round the Lincolnshire Wolds on a Sunday morning.

Alan