Bentley S1 Saloon LWB

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As the mood continued to change in the mid 1950’s and the post-war recovery gathered pace, Bentley unveiled their imperious new S Type saloon to a hungry audience.

It drew gasps of admiration from the motoring press. “The latest Bentley model offers a degree of safety, comfort and performance that is beyond the experience – and perhaps even the imagination – of the majority of the world’s motorists,” gushed Autocar. When Motor tested it (priced at an eye-watering £3,605), they took the gentleman’s club on wheels to 114mph with 60mph taking just 13.1 seconds from rest.

More contemporary than the outgoing R Type with its sit-up-and-beg looks, the sleek and sumptuous new car was built on an all new cruciform braced box section chassis fitted with the venerable straight-six inlet over exhaust valve unit from its predecessor. Bored out to 4.5” the capacity increased to 4,887cc and its power output was of course ‘adequate’.

The separate chassis lent itself to the work of outside coachbuilders; however, the vast majority of the 3,538 produced were supplied as the Standard Steel Saloon. The beautiful shape of the S1 used the car's length to full advantage whilst the interior featured all of the usual appointments expected from Crewe's finest – indeed the car was exactly the same as the Rolls Royce Silver Cloud, with the exception of the radiator and badging.

However, 35 cars were built with a long wheelbase 127-inch chassis, 12 of them gaining unique coachbuilt bodies, the other 23 having the stretched Standard Steel body, as on this car here. Those four additional inches that were added to the wheelbase were solely for the comfort of the rear passengers, who could luxuriate in one of the most commodious, comfortable and attractive interiors ever provided in a luxury saloon capable of 100mph.

Supplied new by Halls of London (Jack Barclay) to Colonel Bill Whitbread in 1958 – scion of the brewing dynasty founded by Bill’s great, great grandfather, Samuel Whitbread in 1742 – chassis number ALB-21 originally wore the Colonel’s personal registration number, ALE 3. Documentation on file suggests that Colonel Bill sold the car to the Jack Barclay mechanic who maintained it, later taking it to America with him when he was sent out to work for a US Bentley dealer.

At this point the car had covered approximately 21,000 miles and all works carried out by its Bentley-trained and employed mechanic are documented in the back of the original owner’s handbook. Also on file is a period letter from the Bentley Driver’s Club America which refers to the car being regularly seen at Club events.

The S1 was purchased by its previous owner from US vintage car specialist, Hyman Ltd of St Louis, Missouri, returning to the UK in September 2013 and being registered as 677 UYM in August 2015. Being one of the few special order LWB versions, it is particularly generously equipped including an electrically operated glass division, intricately veneered burlwood interior, a brace of folding writing desks, smoker's kit and an accessory console for the rear compartment occupants.

The exterior has recently been refinished in Shell Grey over Tudor Grey, the tan leather interior appears original to the car, showing that delightful patina that only comes from decades of careful use. Equipment includes the standard 4-speed automatic transmission, fog lights and original radio. The boot still contains its original tools and copies of the original build sheets are also present in the history file along with a brace of folders containing historic and recent invoices, photographs of works undertaken, U.S documents and registration certificates.

Since its return to the UK the car has been carefully used and a process of gradual improvement was undertaken by local marque specialist, NRT Motors of Corse Lawn, including repaint, fitment of a fully rebuilt rear diff at a cost of £7,000 alone, new tyres, new exhaust system, new chrome rear bumper, new brake reservoirs, handbrake cable, front and rear windscreen rubbers and a thorough check-over.

Research undertaken by the vendor during his ownership suggests that of the 23 Standard Steel LWB cars built, only 13 were right-hand drive of which only four are known to survive. This particular example was featured in the publication “Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining” with photographs by the distinguished author Davide Bassoli.

S1 prices have certainly been on the move lately, and this rare and beautiful example, with its interesting history, looks exceedingly good value at the suggested guide price, particularly given the recent RR Enthusiasts Club valuation on file for some £55,000 . Just looking at it – one can see why Autocar got so excited at the launch of the model over 60 years ago!