The man on the other end of the phone seemed quite adamant, “You really can’t fully appreciate the complete history of the Bentley Motor Car Company without driving our new R420.” Well… who am I to argue with sound logic like that?
About two weeks later, a man knocked on my door, handed me a clipboard and asked me to sign on the bottom line. I signed the proffered piece of paper and he in turn handed me a set of keys and disappeared into a waiting car. The only thing he left behind to show he’d been there was one of the world’s fastest and most exclusive luxury cars, the Bentley Continental R420. Painted in a dark metallic green, the car looked big and menacing, with big, fat tires, stainless steel mesh grilles and a pair of chrome tail pipes, big enough to irrigate a cotton field. Make no mistake, this is not your grandpa Rockefeller’s Bentley. While sleek and stylish, with the expected amenities like supple Connelly leather, wood dash and deep sheepskin rugs, under the skin this Bentley boasts a 6.75-liter, turbocharged V-8 with 420 bhp and a brainstem crushing 645 lbs./ft of torque! I won’t mention all the performance details here, you can read about them in a new companion to the Racecar Profile section that we call “Blood Lines.” In future issues, where appropriate, we will continue to look at and test drive some of the “spritual descendants” of our featured racecars. While I found this month’s Bentley a truly remarkable car, what was almost as remarkable was the effect the car had on other people.
