Let’s hope they both reach the £1m

By Craig Ranson
By Craig Ranson

Managing Director – Bridge Classic Cars

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]It’s not everyday you get to see two cars, both with the potential of reaching over £1m.

On Tuesday 12th July Bridge Classic Cars will be attending Barons Connoisseurs Classic Car Collection at Tattersalls in Newmarket.

Check out these incredible entries:

1954 Bentley R-Type Continental Fastback – £750 000 to £1 000 000

1954 Bentley R-Type Continental Fastback

The R-Type Continental was a high-performance version of the R-Type. It was the fastest four-seat car in production at the time. The prototype was developed by a team of designers and engineers from Rolls-Royce Ltd. and H. J. Mulliner & Co. led by Rolls-Royce’s Chief Project Engineer, Ivan Evernden. Rolls-Royce worked with H. J. Mulliner instead of their own coachbuilding subsidiary Park Ward because the former had developed a lightweight body construction system using metal throughout instead of the traditional ash-framed bodies. The styling, finalised by Stanley Watts of H. J. Mulliner, was influenced by aerodynamic testing conducted at Rolls-Royce’s wind tunnel by Evernden’s assistant, Milford Read. The rear fins stabilised the car at speed and made it resistant to changes in direction due to crosswinds. A maximum kerb weight 1,700 kg was specified to keep the tyres within a safe load limit at a top speed of 120 mph.

1954 Bentley R-Type Continental Fastback

Despite its name, the two-door Continental was produced principally for the domestic home market, most of the 207 cars produced were right-hand drive, with 43 left-hand drive examples produced for use abroad. The chassis was produced at the Rolls-Royce Crewe factory and shared many components with the standard R type. R-Type Continentals were delivered as rolling chassis to the coach-builder of choice. Coachwork for most of these cars was completed by H. J. Mulliner & Co. who mainly built them in fastback coupe form. Other coachwork came from Park Ward (London) who built six, later including a drophead coupe version. Franay (Paris) built five, Graber (Wichtrach, Switzerland) built three, one of them later altered by Köng (Basel, Switzerland), and Pininfarina made one. James Young (London) built in 1954 a Sports Saloon for the owner of the company, James Barclay.

1954 Bentley R-Type Continental Fastback

This very original example is in very good order and is used on a regular basis. It retains its 4.6 litre engine, and the car drives very well with both engine and gearbox working as they should which allows the car to operate in modern traffic with ease. Owned by the same family for over Forty years and maintained by their own Dealership in that time.

1954 Bentley R-Type Continental Fastback

1954 Bentley R-Type Continental Fastback

1953 Bentley R Type Continental Fastback – £1 000 000 to £1 300 000

1953 Bentley R Type Continental Fastback

1953 Bentley R Type Continental Fastback[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_gallery type=”image_grid” images=”4835,4836,4837,4838,4839,4840,4841,4842,4843,4844,4845,4846,4847,4848,4849,4850,4851,4852,4853,4854,4855,4856,4857,4858,4859,4860,4861,4862,4863,4864,4829,4828″ title=”View the other entries”][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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