1998 Bentley Continental R

This Collection is offered by the family of the late J. Anthony Edwards whose passion for Rolls-Royce and Bentley motorcars spanned decades. With business success in his thirties, Tony as he was universally known, bought a Bentley S1 that started his enthusiasm that led to owning virtually every subsequent model of Rolls and Bentley since. Tony even passed his advanced driving test in a 1996 Bentley Brooklands at the age of 75! At the age of 80 his passion was still undiminished when he exchanged a Phantom Coupé for a new Wraith. The cars that Tony loved to drive remained in the collection, some retained by the family, and these four cars are a testament to his diligent maintenance, each on the button, for the next custodian to enjoy as he did.

Although launched at the Geneva Salon of 1991, many elements of the John Heffernan/Ken Greenley-penned Continental R had been seen at the same event as far back as 1984, when Bentley unveiled their `Project 90' concept car; a suitably enthusiastic reception leading the company to develop the car for production. Clearly, the Sultan of Brunei approved of the end result, as he bought the 1991 show car at the exhibition. The new car was based on the Turbo R floor pan and powered by that model's 6.75-litre turbocharged V8 engine, which was believed (Crewe never quoted horsepower figures back then) to produce in the region of 325bhp fed through the, then new, four-speed GM 4L80-E transmission.

Whatever the power output, it was sufficient to give a top speed of some 150mph and a 0-60mph acceleration time of around 6.6 seconds - no mean feat for a car weighing in at some 2.5 tonnes and the best of any Bentley in its day. Unlike all other Bentleys since the S3 of 1965, its body was unique to the marque and not shared with any model of Rolls-Royce. All Continental Rs were finished and trimmed by Rolls-Royce’s Mulliner Park Ward subsidiary and carried MPW builder’s plates, with the bodies assembled by hand from machine-pressed panels. The Continental R was produced from 1991 to 2003, during which time some 1,292 of these exclusive motor cars found comfortable homes, with just 544 supplied in right-hand drive.

The accompanying factory build-sheets for this 1998 Bentley Continental R confirms the delivery in Brooklands Green with single coachline in Sandstone, matching the Sandstone leather interior and Spruce green top-roll. Supplied by Broughtons of Cheltenham, it was registered to the first of just two former keepers on 1st August 1998. One of the few Bentleys in Tony’s collection, it joined its Crewe stablemates on 24th April 2004. Used often but sparingly, and maintained with the usual diligence, the car is presented today with an odometer reading of 46,058 miles at the time of cataloguing. The history file includes the aforementioned factory build-sheets, bookpacks, service book, V5C and previous MOT Certificates, the most recent of which is advisory free and valid until the 24th September 2023.