Vehicle Description
West Coast Classics are proud to present a very rare and absolutely
exceptional and exquisite example of this 1953 Bentley R-Type 4
Door LHD 4 1/2 litre 'Big Bore' sedan with factory optional 4 speed
automatic transmission and 1 of only some 2,323 built in it's three
year production run between 1952-55 and a very rare Left Hand drive
example.Following World War II, a more global approach to luxury
car-building was needed and it was this realization that would lead
Bentley to start production of their 'standard steel' models which
started for the first time in 1946 with the Mark VI. These were the
first models to have a standard body built in-house by Bentley
which were made entirely out of steel. The idea was that for the
first time customers who otherwise would not have been in the
position to commission a coachbuilding firm would be able to buy a
complete car outright from Bentley instead, something which was far
from the norm for luxury cars before WWII. Bentley would obviously
still supply a chassis to a coachbuilder should the customer be in
a position to request it.Enter then, in 1946, the Bentley MkVI. The
first cars were delivered in September and the order books quickly
filled, leading to a three-year waiting list. The dignified shape
was derived from prototype bodywork seen on the pre-war Mk V and it
was the first production Royce or Bentley with faired-in
headlights. Running 16in steel wheels on a 10ft wheelbase, the
riveted, channel-section rationalised chassis was a shorter version
of the frame found under the Silver Wraith, the grander cousin of
the MkVI, which was exclusively coachbuilt in wood and aluminium.
It was the first Bentley to be assembled and constructed fully
in-house at Crewe for painting and fitting out with traditional
wood and leather. The Bentley Mark VI was the first Bentley factory
finished car, reflecting a change in Rolls-Royce policy from
strictly hand-built cars to 'standardized' bodies that could be
produced in greater numbers at the firm's new factory at Crewe and
was named the Mark VI and was produced from 1946 to 1952.Like
pre-war Bentley's they were large, stately and impressive and
featured rear hinged 'suicide' doors at the front with concealed
hinges, a sliding sunroof, a permanently closed windscreen with an
electric defrosting and demisting unit hidden in the scuttle and a
second heater that made use of the coolant and was fitted with an
electric fan beneath the left front seat. Twin screen window wipers
were fitted and provision was made for the fitting of a radio with
a short and flexibly mounted aerial that could be swung up above
the center of the screen. The rugged steel-bodied standard cars
proved to have an immediately strong appeal to the increased
market. The Mark VI was an enormous success, comparatively
speaking, with 5,200 cars sold between 1946 and 1952, a huge amount
of car's for the prestigious Bentley/Rolls Royce marque, and a
further 2,300 R Types were sold between 1952 and 1955. Numbers like
these could never have been achieved without the standard steel
bodies, although it's important to remember that Bentley still
managed to continue to offer the coachbuilt cars, as before
although in obviously rarer numbers.It's true that these Bentley
models were very similar in almost every way to their sister model
offered by Rolls Royce, the Silver Dawn amp; Silver Wraith, but the
Bentley's cars were actually far better-selling than those of its
parent company. These post war Bentley's were to have their first
real success under RR ownership with the Mark VI and later the
R-Type and these cars would serve as the paramount example of what
was to later define a postwar luxury car.The 1953 R-Type was
essentially the same car as the Mark VI, but with a larger trunk,
which prompted Bentley to change the name to R Type, although they
are essentially the same car. There would prove to be no shortage
of customers. New cars of every kind were in short supply yet there
was still plenty of money about in certain sectors after the war
ended: the flipside to the grim measures of the time was that there
were still lots of wealthy customers for these cars who far from
being crushed and exhausted by the war had actually been able to
still thrive financially. These tycoons, across the UK and the
still-existing colonies, as well as here in the States, were more
than willing to spend the exorbitant cost of it's day for the
ultimate luxury saloon, and the Bentley cars with their legendary
racing heritage were understood to have benefited by not being as
much of a class divider and status symbol as the Rolls Royce.
Remember too that Rolls-Royce was well aware of the sensitivities
around its name in an era of socialist rule, Clement Atlees Labour
had just won the 1945 election, and it was considered wise by the
parent company to focus attention, at least initially, on a Bentley
version of their new post-war models.The Mk VI became the R-type in
1952; logically, it should have been the Mk VII but Crewe did not
want to share its nomenclature with Jaguar. With the long boot
treatment and extended rear wings (less spats), the R-type had a
more graceful profile than its predecessor, with a liftup aluminium
bootlid giving access to the significantly increased luggage space,
up from 6 to 10cu ft. Its styling modifications were attributed to
John Blatchley, later responsible for the Silver Cloud and the
Silver Shadow. The car rode on a massive separate chassis using
leaf springs at the rear and featuring independent coil springing
at the front, quite an impressive advance for the marque in this
period. A control on the steering wheel center adjusts the hardness
of the rear springing by hydraulically adjusting the rear dampers.
This is achieved via opening a check valve that provides pressure
by diverting transmission oil to the dampers. A pedal-operated
central lubrication system type 'Bijur-Girling' allows oil to be
applied to moving parts of the suspension from a central reservoir
by using a foot pedalIn the fashion that was typical of Bentley in
the day, the engine displacement was expressed in fractions, and
the company refused to disclose horsepower ratings, saying simply
that it was "adequate". Crewe did not quote an output figure for
the Bentley version, but on twin SU carbs and a highlift,
helical-gear-driven camshaft, the power is thought to have been
146bhp at 4000rpm. It was produced with silky refinement thanks to
a meticulously balanced crankshaft and deployed through a
right-handed manual gearchange that set new standards of
refinement. Early models had a 4 1/4 -liter inline-six engine,
which was upgraded to a 4 1/2 -liter unit in 1951, which would
carry over into the R Type. It was initially available only with a
four-speed manual transmission, and the rear suspension was
adjustable, not exactly the norm for luxury cars. These long-tailed
versions tend to be associated with the introduction of the big
bore 4-litre engine with its full-flow oil filter and siamesed 3in
bores but this 156bhp unit had been fitted since July 1951, pushing
the MkVIs performance into the 100mph class and lopping 1.4 secs
off the 0-60mph time. The 4.6 L (280 cu in) is known as the 4 1
#8260;2 L and features a twin exhaust. The oil filler cap is
another way to identify engine type; a plastic cap is typical of a
"small bore" engine, a metal cap of a 'large bore' engine. The
4.6-litre, factory bodied car tested by 'The Motor Magazine' in
1951 had a top speed of 100 mph (160 km/h) and could accelerate
from 0-60 mph (97 km/h) in 15.0 seconds, quite remarkable
performance for any 4 door sedan at any time let alone in
1952!Those who asked where their money had been spent did not have
to look far on the Mk VI. Even if t...for more information please
contact the seller.
