RE: Bentley R-Type Continental: YKYWT

RE: Bentley R-Type Continental: YKYWT

Thursday 2nd July 2015

Bentley R-Type Continental: YKYWT

The car ordered by Ian Fleming for the real life Felix Leiter heads for the auction in the U.S



The James Bond effect on the value of the Aston Martin DB5 has long been understood, but having a genuine connection to Bond author Ian Fleming can increase the value of almost any car.

Which is why we're expecting this one to go for a very serious amount of money when it's auctioned in the U.S. later this year. It's a 1953 Bentley R-Type Continental that has reportedly been languishing in a garage in Hollywood for more than 30 years. But which was originally bought by Ian Fleming on behalf of Ivar Brice.

Who? Well Brice was an American who worked in intelligence during the Second World War, and who was the inspiration behind Felix Leiter, Bond's friend in the CIA. The car is in unrestored condition and is carrying an estimate of between $1.4m and $1.8m, which the tenuous Bond connection might help it secure.

Standard R-Type had £800-£900K estimate...
Standard R-Type had £800-£900K estimate...
The R-Type Continental Fastback has long been one of the most desirable Bentleys. It was based on the mechanical components of the standard R-Type saloon, a particularly staid model which is relatively plentiful and cheap, but with bespoke bodywork by H. J. Mulliner. Just 200 R-Type Contis were built, the fastback body being lighter and more aerodynamic thanks to aluminium construction. With a 120mph top speed it was marketed as the fastest saloon car in the world at the time of its introduction.

The Continental also got mentioned in two Bond books. 007 buys a crashed example in Thunderball - which "some rich idiot" had crashed into a telegraph pole - and rebuilds it with a more powerful 4.9-litre engine and gets Mulliners to build a unique body for it. In On Her Majesty's Secret Service we learn that he has had it supercharged - against Bentley's wishes - and he uses it to win a race in France against the woman who later becomes Mrs. Bond. Fleming was almost certainly thinking of this car when he wrote about it.

The Bond connection may well help to sell the car, although whoever buys it will have to either pay for a full mechanical restoration or keep it in its current unmolested condition. For some perspective an immaculate 1954 Type-R Continental Fastback failed to sell against a £800,000 - £900,000 estimate in the UK last year.

If you're tempted then phone your bank manager and then book a plane ticket - it will be part of the Gooding & Company auction at Pebble Beach in August.


BENTLEY R-TYPE CONTINENTAL
Price:
$1.4-$1.8 million (auction estimate, £895,000-£1,150,000)
Why you should: A beautiful coachbuilt Bentley with an interesting history
Why you shouldn't: It's a tenuous link and lots of money

Auction link here.

Author
Discussion

Turbobanana

Original Poster:

6,160 posts

200 months

Thursday 2nd July 2015
quotequote all
I had a chance to take a close look at one of these a few years back, and it was gorgeous. Colour-sensitive, though: the white looks awful where "my" car looked fantastic in deep metallic red with a beige interior. Fascinating location of the gearlever too - more or less under your right knee.

Must have looked like a spaceship 60 years ago.

PATTERNPART

693 posts

200 months

Thursday 2nd July 2015
quotequote all
These were continental cruisers par excellence. Stanley Sedgwick (chairman of Bentley Drivers' Club) documented many trips to the south of France at impressive averages and comfort.

soad

32,829 posts

175 months

Thursday 2nd July 2015
quotequote all
These look best in black, I'd say.

MadDog1962

890 posts

161 months

Thursday 2nd July 2015
quotequote all
These are just too big to be any fun to drive outside the USA. There are plenty of wide straight roads there where the waft factor such a vehicle provides can be enjoyed.

j90gta

563 posts

133 months

Thursday 2nd July 2015
quotequote all
Any old boys of Worcester Royal Grammar School in the 1970s remember or even notice the headmaster, Godfrey Brown, had a Continental Fastback? I thought at the time that it was just fabulous. Cannot believe their values today.

Jim AK

4,029 posts

123 months

Thursday 2nd July 2015
quotequote all
MadDog1962 said:
These are just too big to be any fun to drive outside the USA. There are plenty of wide straight roads there where the waft factor such a vehicle provides can be enjoyed.
No way!!

Current Mulsanne is much wider although undoubtedly much wieldier. Agreed the R Type will not do corners.

I'd love to do a back road jaunt to The Cote D Azur in one.

Did motorway to Juan Les Pins in an Anarge a few years ago

PistonBroker

2,406 posts

225 months

Thursday 2nd July 2015
quotequote all
j90gta said:
Any old boys of Worcester Royal Grammar School in the 1970s remember or even notice the headmaster, Godfrey Brown, had a Continental Fastback? I thought at the time that it was just fabulous.
Wow, I bet!

Fast forward to the next decade and 11 miles north along the A449, there I was thinking my headmaster's TR7 was cool!

pSyCoSiS

3,581 posts

204 months

Friday 3rd July 2015
quotequote all
Fantastic looking cars, and still look so streamlined to this day.

RoverP6B

4,338 posts

127 months

Monday 6th July 2015
quotequote all
Jeremy Clarkson learned to drive on one of these as a teenager... any wonder he was bitten by the petrolhead bug!

Think I'd prefer a dark red S3 though.