Bentley Continental

Start with what the Bentley Continental is: a 2-door coupé / 2-door convertible / 4-door Sedan (automobile) / saloon (Flying Spur), built from 1952 to 2003, at the height of the post-war boom. What it meant takes a little longer.

How it came about

Bentley Continental refers to several models of cars produced by Bentley Motors. Originally, it referred to a special chassis for engines more powerful than the usual offering, supplied to a selected number of coachbuilders for the fitting of very light-weight coachwork designed under Rolls-Royce supervision. The model name Continental had already been used by Rolls-Royce for models intended and geared for long-distance, high-speed touring on roads and of a style then only available in continental Europe.

1930s to 1950s advertising for even the Standard Steel Bentley saloons carried the slogan the Silent Sports Car. The Continental model was a lighter, faster, more nimble high-performance version, for high-speed travel in great comfort. The Continental name has since been re-used by Bentley for unrelated automobiles from 1984 onward.

Under the skin

The record carries the shape — a 2-door coupé / 2-door convertible / 4-door Sedan (automobile) / saloon (Flying Spur) — and the layout: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The engine, output and weight have not yet reached the open record, and MotorJury does not guess at them.

Family and rivals

The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Cadillac Eldorado, the Chevrolet Corvette, the Toyota Land Cruiser. Its Bentley stablemates include the Armoured Arnage and the Bentley 3 Litre.

Owning one today

There is no federal ownership record for the Bentley Continental — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.