1997 Bentley Turbo RT
Discussion
Wow, this car is a blast from the past. I've mentioned several times in my writing on PH that I worked as a Bentley salesman back in the day. That dealer was Hadley Green Garage, which used to be the franchise Bentley and Roll-Royce dealer in Barnet. We sold this RT to its current owner, but I can’t for the life of me remember if it was our demonstrator originally or a part exchange.
The guy who owns it, and has owned it for basically all of its life, lived locally. He is a true gentleman and was always a pleasure to deal with. And he had a long history of buying Rolls-Royces, Bentleys and Jaguars (we also had a Jaguar franchise) from us and loved his cars; he maintained them properly, and you’d never see him driving any of his cars when they were looking anything less than immaculate.
Hadley Green Garage was one of a dying breed of privately owned dealerships, and lovely to work at because its father-and-son owners treated their staff and customers very well. I started out working for the company in 1994; back then I was a Jaguar apprentice technician. At the same time I began my apprenticeship, a similarly youthful fella called Craig started his apprenticeship, but in the Rolls/Bentley shop. We went to college together, became mates, and we’ve been mates ever since.
Sadly, after more than 100 years of trading, Hadley Green Garage closed down around a decade ago (the exact chronologically eludes me) and Craig, who by then was a Bentley Master Technician, ended up working for Wraith Motors, which was the local Rolls/ Bentley specialist.
When I spotted this car in the PH Auction listing, I messaged Craig because I knew he’d be interested to know about it. He said it’s his name in the service book for the last 20 years. I made the obvious joke, of course, ‘Well, that’s wiped £10k off its value, then,’ but the truth is, these days Craig knows all there is to know about working on Crewe's SZ cars; he’s spent his whole career fixing and serving them.
It’s amazing the memories that come flooding back when you spot a car from back in the day. Even though I haven’t seen this car myself recently, beyond spotting it out and about on the odd occasion, knowing who its owner is means it’s likely to be in beautiful condition today – and very likely to be one of the best Bentley Turbo RTs out there.
It feels odd describing cars I knew when they were new as ‘classic’ because it makes me feel so old, but whoever buys this RT is, I’m pretty certain, going to enjoy a very well-sorted and beautiful classic Bentley.
The guy who owns it, and has owned it for basically all of its life, lived locally. He is a true gentleman and was always a pleasure to deal with. And he had a long history of buying Rolls-Royces, Bentleys and Jaguars (we also had a Jaguar franchise) from us and loved his cars; he maintained them properly, and you’d never see him driving any of his cars when they were looking anything less than immaculate.
Hadley Green Garage was one of a dying breed of privately owned dealerships, and lovely to work at because its father-and-son owners treated their staff and customers very well. I started out working for the company in 1994; back then I was a Jaguar apprentice technician. At the same time I began my apprenticeship, a similarly youthful fella called Craig started his apprenticeship, but in the Rolls/Bentley shop. We went to college together, became mates, and we’ve been mates ever since.
Sadly, after more than 100 years of trading, Hadley Green Garage closed down around a decade ago (the exact chronologically eludes me) and Craig, who by then was a Bentley Master Technician, ended up working for Wraith Motors, which was the local Rolls/ Bentley specialist.
When I spotted this car in the PH Auction listing, I messaged Craig because I knew he’d be interested to know about it. He said it’s his name in the service book for the last 20 years. I made the obvious joke, of course, ‘Well, that’s wiped £10k off its value, then,’ but the truth is, these days Craig knows all there is to know about working on Crewe's SZ cars; he’s spent his whole career fixing and serving them.
It’s amazing the memories that come flooding back when you spot a car from back in the day. Even though I haven’t seen this car myself recently, beyond spotting it out and about on the odd occasion, knowing who its owner is means it’s likely to be in beautiful condition today – and very likely to be one of the best Bentley Turbo RTs out there.
It feels odd describing cars I knew when they were new as ‘classic’ because it makes me feel so old, but whoever buys this RT is, I’m pretty certain, going to enjoy a very well-sorted and beautiful classic Bentley.
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