Bentley S1 Sports Saloon

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As the mood continued to change in the mid 1950s and the post-war recovery gathered pace, Bentley unveiled their new S Type 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, and when The 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.

Far 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 while the interior featured all 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.

This early series S1 was first registered SGN 494 in December 1955 to Sir Hugh Dawson of Portman Square, London. Sir Hugh, amongst other things, was Chairman of the well-known ‘Castaways Club’ in the early ‘60s, an exclusive dining group, limited to 120 members, made up of ex-Navy personnel.

Ownership transferred to Frederick Scott, a furniture retailer in Bournmouth, who changed the number to FES 26 which it still wears to this day. He kept the car for 35 years during which time care and maintenance was carried out by Rolls-Royce and Bentley dealers, Arnetts of Bournmouth.

By 1997 the Bentley was in the hands of Grant Hayward who kept it for a further 10 years, the service work during this period being undertaken by Prescote Motor Carriages and Silver Lady Services of Bournemouth, before it was sold via Beaulieu Garage for £30,000 to a new owner who lived on the Isle of Wight.

A copy of the factory build sheet shows that it was built to special order, the steering column being 1" longer than standard and the brake and accelerator pedals moved towards the centre-line of the car. It was shipped straight from the factory to Harold Radford Ltd for conversion, the new owner choosing individual folding rear seats, a removable glass division and the foldaway picnic table and hamper from their extensive list of bespoke options. The car's history file includes a large folder of service invoices, 22 old MOTs and the original owner’s handbook. Although exempt from such things, it has just passed a fresh MOT which expires in Feruary 2016.

This impressive and rare Radford-converted S1 certainly stands out from the rest and it is hard to imagine that cars of this quality can get any better value than they are now.