Bentley

My Bentley "S2" is probably my pride and joy. I bought her in 1989 from a gentleman in Farnborough. I have spent a lot of its earnings on the car including a new gearbox at £2,800 together with a complete re-spray and re-chrome.

The car was built in 1961 and originally belonged to a Scottish Laird who had it fitted with electric windows to the front but wind up windows to the rear - he did not want his children playing with the windows! It starred in the "Inspector Morse" series in 1990. Locally, I was asked to take that grand old man of Aldershot, Mr. Arthur English, through the Borough when he received the Freedom of the Borough in 1992. I was allowed to parade through the streets of the town with specially made registration plates. Needless to say they read ARTHUR 1 and were presented to Mr. English at the end of the parade.

The car itself was a continuing development of the "S" and "Cloud" motor cars. The need for more power and sophistication by our cousins in the USA resulted in a 6.25 litre V8 engine with a top speed in excess of 120 mph. Her body length is 17' 8" and she has power steering. The official Performance figures for this type of car are as follows:

• Standing quarter mile in 18.2 seconds
• 0 to 50 mph in 8.3 seconds
• 0 to 60 mph in 11.5 seconds
• 0 to 100 mph in 38.5 seconds

It weighs 4,552 lbs - over two tonnes. One disadvantage of the combustion unit was that the spark plugs are under the exhaust manifold. This means that in order to change the plugs you have to remove an under-wing panel and the front wheel on either side of the car. She proceeds at the rate of some 11 miles per gallon and her oil consumption is negligible. The gearbox is American and is described as a Rolls Royce G M Hydramatic four step box. The photographers will tell you that the detail of a white wedding dress is better accentuated using a darker coloured car as the background.

Click here to see the Bentley in action at past weddings.

Click on a picture of any car to see further details: