PBS actually had a special on how Bentleys are built. They spent some of it going through the process of creating the wood laminates for the interior. There’s far more involved than I ever dreamed. It’s true craftsmanship.
I like Lexus. But oh, that Bentley is gorgeous! {;-)
AT the car show this year in Boston…they had a Lime Green Bentley. Gorgeous is NOT the word I’d describe that Bentley.
If I had all the money in the world…Bentley would be right near the top of my list for my next car purchase. Although I’m not too sure about the lime green one.
@the_same_mountainbike, I share your love of Bentley motor cars. Is your drophead the Arnage? The only convertible offered new is the Continental GT. My favorite among the current models is the Mulsanne. Exceptional comfort and what a drivetrain: 6.75L twin turbo with 530 hp and 774 ft lb torque. I believe your Arnage uses the same engine.
BTW, if you want a cheap (to buy) alternative,consider the VW Phaeton. While only imported for a short time, some are available. It is built on the same platform as the Bentley Continental and used the same drive trains as the A8. You can get one from a dealer for about $15,000. Compare that to about $70,000 for the Continental GT coupe or $18,000 for a comparable A8. They certainly aren’t everyday cars, but as a retiree,you might like a well earned toy.
Jt, if you got the impression that I actually owned a Bentley, I’m highly flattered. I only DREAM of owning one. Being on a budget, I’d be foolish to actually buy one.
But sincere thanks for the thought. Maybe I’ll win the lottery. One never knows.
When i said “your” I meant “your dream” car. I mentioned the Phaeton as an alternative because I didn’t think you could afford a late model Bentley. IIRC, you drive a Scion tC. I can’t afford a late model Bentley either. No harm in dreaming, though, as long as it’s remains toy we can take off the shelf occasionally.
LOL, nope, I can’t afford either. But I AM saving up for new tires on my tC!! {
Dreaming is perfectly healthy as long as you don’t get it confused with reality.
TMZ recently had video of a lesser-known rapper’s Bentley being repossessed outside of a Hollywood nightclub. He was jumping up and down screaming “but I MADE the payment!”. He apparently got his dreams confused with his reality.
Well, today is “dreaming day” for me, guys.
I am going to visit The Mall at Short Hills, where there is always either a Rolls-Royce or a Bentley on display. And, if the esteemed governor of NJ has not already shut down the Tesla showroom there, I will drop into that establishment as well.
If we can’t own these cars, at least we can dream and fantasize about them…
Your a VIP @ VDCdriver. They’ll actually let you into Short Hills.
If we’re dreaming, why stop at a Bentley. I’ll take a Hinkley.
@dagosa
Oh my! Talk about yacht luxury. My mother would have died to sail something like that. In her teens and twenties, she was a competitive wind sailor. In fact, she tried out for the 1948 Olympic sailing team, placing third place from Michigan, one slot short of advancing to the national tryouts. Of course, she was sailing much smaller boats. For the Olympic tryouts she was competing in a Star boat if I remember correctly. But she also sailed a Lolly 110, a National, and several other classes of sailboats, many meant for a single sailor to handle and others normally requiring two people, although she figured out how to handle one of those two person sailboats single handedly.
That’s great. Have been a competitive sailor for 35 years. Though never at that level, I can appreciate the work that goes into it. It has to become part of your life. The Star class is a great keel boat. Very traditional but very dependent of good crew work. Have raced everything from Lightnings to Lasers to Dart 18.
My fav boat for over twenty years is a two person JY15 which I single hand in races. It’s a handful but an extra long tiller extension is the key to handling two person boats yourself in windy weather. A friend of mine, an engineer who likes cars too, is a fiddler and we have added controls ( illegal of course) like whisker poles, self tacking furling jib, six to one vang purchase and altered hiking straps to bring these things down to earth for one person. But, we always capsize at some point so , foaming the mast and getting on the board before it turtles is critical…wet but fun !
“Your a VIP @ VDCdriver…They’ll actually let you into Short Hills.”
Nah…They will let anyone in.
Of course, paying for most of the merchandise at that mall is a different issue.
In addition to haunting the Tesla showroom, I was able to gaze adoringly at a jet black Rolls-Royce Ghost. With some options, it was $316K! The Porsche Panamera on display nearby was…IIRC…$167k, which makes the Tesla seem like a bargain by comparison. Then there is the reality that the Tesla is better-looking than the Panamera–IMHO.
Window shopping is fun, and it doesn’t cost anything!
@dagosa, a beautiful yacht. Can I go for a day sail when your ship comes in? I’ll drive us to the pier in my Mulsanne. Yeah, that’s the ticket!
@VDCdriver, a college friend lived in Short Hills. He said the town police knew everyone and their cars. If they saw a car they didn’t recognize, they would stop it and see what the occupants were doing there. If they didn’t have a good story, they were escorted out of town. I’m sure the mall is not in a residential area and not subject to the same rules. Rich folks have privileges, and Short Hills residents are about as rich as it gets.
@jtsanders
Regarding Short Hills . . .
That is shameful behaviour on the part of the police, in my opinion
I don’t think I want to visit anyplace where I’m pulled over just because my car and I aren’t familiar
This may be a stretch, but I believe it’s known as profiling
For that matter, I don’t even care where Short Hills is. It sounds like a bunch of snobs that want to keep the “unwashed masses” out of town
And that’s not anywhere I care to be
I like clean and safe, but not if it means treating anybody that’s not part of the club like a filthy criminal
Sounds like LOTS of good fun. It’s always a privilege when one gets to pursue such a sport and/or hobby that you truly enjoy like that.
Believe it or not, I’ve never been sailing. When my parents married my mom gave up sailing because they lived in in dry country away from sailing opportunities and also they just didn’t have the money. But when my mom and I visited family in the San Francisco area in 1991, the Russian Navy’s training tall ship was in port and offering onboard dockside tours. By then age 71 my mom still positively glowed from the moment the ship came into view and the whole time we were onboard. She spent some time looking over the rigging and ended up somehow communicating with one of the Russian officers who spoke no English but they still ended up understanding each other through improvised sign and body language. I think I had more fun witnessing her joy at being on a tall ship than anything else.
We also got to see quite a few tall ships in New York in 1976. We lived in New Jersey at the time of the 1976 tall ship parade of ships for July 4. Dad drove us into the city and we spent a full day touring every one of the international tall ships open for tours. She pointed out to me the difference between weathering wear and tear versus sloppy maintenance. And, again, she could figure out all the rigging and tell us what it meant in terms of how a ship would handle.
Although all her sailing had been at Detroit in Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River, she had the benefit of being taught to sail by a Danish gentleman whose father had been the captain of the Danish Royal Yacht in the late 1800’s and who, himself, had crewed on masted merchant ships, including have sailed around the Horn on a merchant tall ship.
@Marnet
Sailing is one of those activities that bond people who do it. Generally, it is an activity that draws people with like personality traits. When two people meet for the first time and find each sails, they immediately know they have a lot of shared experiences. Golf doesn’t do it the same way. There is a built in trust factor when you ocean sail and race especially and your personal safety in everything you do depends upon someone else you may never have met before. Motor boat people don’t get it. Just turning the key on a power boat doesn’t developed the same set of skills and teamwork and trust needed to move a boat using mother nature alone. I throw stuff on my motr boats just for the heck of it some times. On my sailboats, it’s totally different. Nothing is on there that doesn’t have a well defined purpose and everything you do do has consequences.
@dagaso:
Mom always called motorboats “stink boats”. She used to carry some old rope onboard for the purpose of tossing across the brow of motor boats that deliberately zoomed too close just to swamp her sailboat with huge wakes. Of course, the rope would foul the propellers and cause the idiots playing such dangerous games time and aggravation clearing the propellers. To her stunned amazement, one time she did that the motorboat literally split in two and sank. She was horrified. A Coast Guard boat that had been responding to complaints about that motorboat witnessed the incident and fished the guy out of the water before Mom could come about to do so herself. Mom wasn’t in trouble as the Coast Guard determined she was within her rights to protect her boat that way. And, it turns out the idiot with the motorboat had replaced the sheer pins with pins that wouldn’t sheer so he could run the engine at higher rpms. So when the propellers fouled at such high rpms and the pins couldn’t sheer, the torque literally split the boat asunder. The idiot was fished out and promptly arrested by the Coast Guard. The CG made sure Mom and her boat were safe and okay, given a verbal pat on the back and sent on her way.
@VDCdriver; I have a friend who has one of those Porsche Panamera’s; he let me take it for a ride around a curvy road and floor it all I want. This was in a deserted area. That car was real fun to drive and throw around the curves. But I think even if I could afford one, my life would be cut very short driving it. The kid in me is still hiding somewhere.
I’d love to have a chance to drive something like the Porsche. Underneath my usually staid driving habits lurks the heart of a teenager who simply wants to fly down the road piloting a high performance car. I’ve always envied that my mom learned to drive on the Packard Motor Car proving grounds instructed by one of the Packard professional test drivers. Back in 1936 she got to drive log roads at 60 mph, hit oil slicks at 80 mph, and eventually drive the vertical track at over 100 mph, all of it in a specially roll reinforced car with roll bars, three point harnesses, etc. for safety.
Wildest I’ve ever gotten to fly was briefly at 98 mph in parents’ 1965 Olds 98 with its big 8 cylinder while working my way away from some big rigs busy trying to box in and scare me on the NJ turnpike. Mom was riding shotgun and told me to go for it; she knew I was able to handle it by then and she kept an eye on the starboard side semi so I could concentrate on what was to my port and ahead. I ended up flying past a NJ state trooper who, for whatever reason, didn’t pull me over. Instead I read in the news the next day that troopers had set up a rolling roadblock a bit farther down the turnpike about that time to pull over and ticket a group of truckers for bullying tactics. Mind you, the speed limt at the time was 55 mph. I can only imagine what the fine would have been if I’d been pulled over doing 98 mph!
You’ve had such an interesting life @Marnet. And your mother sounds like an amazing person. Like a Fitzgerald character, one of the nice ones, not the airheads.