I MUST have died and gone to petrol head heaven… I am in a room with around 30 historic Bentleys worth many millions of pounds.
Where I actually am is at the newly created Bentley collection building at their iconic 1930s factory in Nantwich near Crewe – which boasts almost every significant model the luxury car maker has produced – including the second car ever made (see picture) which alone is valued at around £24 million.
As well as celebrating their best ever year for sales in 2022 Bentley also brought together its historic collection of some 40 cars – many they already owned and others more recently acquired – into a mobile ‘museum’.
I say mobile because the aim is for every single car in the collection to be on the road to be used for promotional or corporate events… and they are even threatening to let motoring hacks like yours truly get behind some very historic steering wheels.
Bentley’s Director of Communications Wayne Bruce explained that many of the cars were just stashed away in corners of old factory buildings with some, sadly, rotting away.
He said: “We decided to rescue those worth saving and also to try and assemble one of every significant model we have produced going back to the 1920s.
“Some we had more that one of and so the duplicates were sold to fund the renovation or acquisition of others and we are nearly there now – just a couple more to find and the line-up will be complete.
“We don’t want them to be just museum exhibits but functioning vehicles to be used and enjoyed so every single one will be started up and run at least once a month – perhaps even loaned out to the motoring press on occasions.”
The unveiling of their historic collection comes at the same time as Bentley reported its best ever year for sales (despite the world’s current economic woes) with over 15,000 cars delivered to customer’s world-wide in 2022. The USA and China are still their biggest markets but ten per cent of Bentleys are now sold here in the UK.
And with prices from £130,000 up to £2 million for some special order limited production models their order books are bulging, however, if you are interested in one of the limited edition £2m specials then forget it as all are already sold.
Also on display are peeks into the future like the latest EXP 100 GT concept car (see picture) boasting sports car style ‘scissor’ doors, a space age interior and, of course, electric power.
And the factory itself is evolving and growing already boasting a huge covered car park with solar power panel clad roofing and rainwater capture systems helping grow Bentley’s green credentials.
A tour of the factory showed how its hundreds of workers produce the very best in car craftsmanship with almost everything that goes into one of these luxury vehicles being created on site from sumptuous wood and leather interiors to bespoke colour schemes and a dizzying choice of options – no two cars leave the workshop exactly the same.
Factory tours and visits to the historic car collection are available to groups of visitors as well as prospective owners – for more information see www.bentleymotors.com
By Motoring Editor Steve Howarth