Minneapolis Street Sighting: Bentley S2

I have a passion for British cars, classic and contemporary; moreso, the classic, and of those, I tend to favor the small, lithe, roadsters and of course open-wheeled sports cars and track cars. But I will not hesitate to turn down a proper British luxury motorcar no matter the stature--as long as I wasn't going to be held responsible for ownership costs.

As far as the twin British marques go, I tend to favor Bentley as opposed to Rolls Royce, even when the two marques looked damn near identical. Plus, saying the word "Bentley" just sounds cool. It's a shame that the brand name has been diluted in recent years and applied to boring, staid-looking vehicles that could easily pass for either bodykitted Chrysler 300s, generic luxury cars from an overseas insurance commercial.

Bentley didn't start out building boring-looking cars (or maybe they did depending on your sector of automotive interest), and I think the past is a great indication of that. While the current crop of Bentley motorcars is far more common (by common, I mean the number of cars produced is more than four digits long), the classic vehicles produced by Bentley were far less so. Case in point; the S2.

After looking at wikipedia and various Bentley fan sites, I can say that the S2 is by far the rarest as a long wheelbase with six made altogether; the more standard version (which I would assume this one is) had a production run of just over 1860 cars; not mega-rare, but not exactly common either, making this one a rather special spotting.

 What struck me first about this clean classic British sedan is the fact that the steering wheel is on the proper side. The license plates were proper, too, suggesting that this example had been recently imported. And it looked to be in wonderful shape, right down to the non-scuffed white-walls.

Paint was gleamy but no overly shiny, and I think the two-tone played a big favor in my decision to shoot the car (aside from the obvious traits of left-alone-Britness; I am a sucker for two-tone cars when done right, and I have never seen an old Bentley in two-tone, so this was a pretty good spot for me.

I enjoyed shooting this, and I have never seen it since, so I'm glad I shot it; I would love to find more classic Bentleys, but living in the rustbelt, I doubt that will happen anytime soon (at least till summer rolls around again.)

Minneapolis Street Sighting: Bentley Turbo R

I can't help it; I love finding rare and off-the-wall stuff. I usually expect to see pre-1960s Bentleys--because, well, they're collector cars more than anything. Post 1980s Bentleys are fairly rare here, unless the Bentley is a Continental or any of its derivatives. Even then, Bentleys are far and few between here. So I was stunned when I spotted this out of the corner of my eye.

I got closer, and realized that not all is what it at first seemed; shiny, the paint was not. Chrome, the trim--again--was not. And not all the centercaps were present, either. Surely, this once-noble motorcar has seen better days--and hopefully it will return to those better days.

As I mentioned above, spotting this one was a real treat; I hardly ever see these, much less in dilapidated condition, but hey--a Bentley is still a Bentley, and I will shoot accordingly. With weathered paint, and dull chrome--and godawful US spec headlights, this Bentley is far from a collector's car; and it has every right to be. Even as an enthusiast of British cars, I think these leave a little to be desired. I'm sure they're great luxury cars, but--like their newer counterparts--the styling doesn't leave anyone filled with very much emotion.

The rolling stock can't decide whether it wants to be sporty or luxurious, either. I'd rather a set of nice (but not generic) 5 spokes than these factory turds; sure, they look period--and I do mean period. This style of fat face and not much spokage was quite popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and even Bentley was immune. I guess shallow spokes and big surface meant classy? I mean, c'mon, in 2003, the Lexus SC430 had that basic style of wheel, and we all know what a classy car that was.

I would gladly drive this thing; first, I'd make sure all the maintenance is up to snuff, and give it a good Sunday wax, but I would still sport it. And for under $30k, an old Turbo R makes for a pretty nice budget Bentley, too.