Why (strangely) I quite like London

The message from Ben Blaney contains these words:

I think that that must have been one of the last of the real Bentleys.

The Derby Bentley website you quoted earlier stated their engine sizes were restricted to 3.5 and 4.25l.

Roger

The OP didn't state that the Bentley next to his office was a Derby. He said it was a 1930s Bentley reputed to be worth 100k. I said that it could be worth twice that. It could.

Give me a week or so - if I can spot the owner when he deigns to visit I'll quiz him...

The message from Ben Blaney contains these words:

If it was a WO Bentley then I would have expected the OP to have called it a 1920s Bentley.

According to adverts in that November issue you can get a pretty good

1920s Bentley for £200,000 so why would anyone want to pay that much for the much less desirable option of a Derby Bentley?

Incidentally that 1931Bentley could well be the one for sale in the Vintage section (POA) at classiccarshop. The limited history seems to match but I am a bit mystified by the reference to it being "Historically this is one of the most important 8 litre Bentleys; it was the first production model ....". I can't remember enough about Bentley production but it does seem odd that the first production model didn't get registered until the year following the collapse of the firm.

FWIW I, together with several friends, tried to buy a 1935 Park Ward

3.5l 40 years ago but we only had £90 between us and the vendor wouldn't shift from £120. That's about £1600 in Wilsonian pounds-in-your-pockets. Would £1600 get you a usable 30 year old Bentley today?

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Roger saying something like:

Look at the prices of ShiteOldShadows for a comparison. Just another disregarded old motor at the moment, largely driven around by spivs who think they're really something "'cos they got a roller". In another 30 years, who knows. It might have been the RR equiv of the Escort, but it's still (imo) a nice car.

The message from Grimly Curmudgeon contains these words:

Following my previous post I finally got round to reading the motoring supplement from todays Independent which contained an article by the proud owner of 3 grands worth of 1968 Shadow. Still a good bit more expensive in real terms than that Park Ward but not I suspect in terms of average incomes, not that I was on anything other than a pittance back in 1963 (about £7 per week IIRC).

I'm telling you - the Silver Shadow's day is coming. Everyone complains about them being high maintenance, but fact is they're a piece of cake compared to modern cars filled with electronic gadgetry that have less class, passenger room and boot space. I'll take a cheap '60s Shadow over a cheap 90s S-Class any day. Emanuel

Judging by that stable, I'd tend to agree with you! I've seen more of the 928's electricials than I care to think about, and things have only gotten worse with 'progress'

cds

I think the 32-valve cars might be the tricky ones. I bought the

928 about 1000 miles from home and did a fly out/drive back with it. The fuel pump relay died on the trip home but I was able to wedge some paper in it to keep the contacts closed and finish the trip. Since then, it has run without a hiccup, electrical or otherwise. Seven grand in US dollars, 72k miles, mint condition - can't beat it. I put more miles on it driving home than the seller had in the previous 2 years, and another 4000 since then (July of this year). Just wish I'd kept waiting for a manual model - switched from the 944 today and kept trying to find that missing clutch pedal :-). Emanuel