Bentley S1

Start with what the Bentley S1 is: a 4-door sedan (car) / saloon / 2-door coupé with 4.9&nbsp, built from 1955 to 1959, at the height of the post-war boom. What it meant takes a little longer.

Where it came from

The Bentley S1 (originally simply "Bentley S") was a luxury car produced by Bentley Motors Limited from 1955 until 1959. The S1 was derived from Rolls-Royce's complete redesign of its standard production car after World War II, the Silver Cloud. Each was its maker's last standard production car with an independent chassis.

The S-series Bentley was given the Rolls-Royce - Bentley L Series V8 engine in late 1959 and named the S2. Twin headlamps and a facelift to the front arrived in late 1962, resulting in the S3. In late 1965, the S3 was replaced by the new unitary construction Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow-derived T series.

Under the skin

The engine is 4.9&nbsp. On the scales it comes to 1924 kg. Drive goes through a 4-speed automatic. The layout matters: 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 wheelbase is 123 in / 127 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.

In context

In the Bentley line-up the Bentley S1 has a clear place: it replaced the R Type; it handed the line to the S2; the factory was Crewe (Bentley Crewe), United Kingdom. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, the Nissan Skyline. Nearby in the Bentley catalogue sit the Armoured Arnage and the Bentley 3 Litre.

Owning one today

MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Bentley S1 has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.