It’s understood, the Jaguar XJ is the most beautiful sedan in the world… or not. Because before that, England also gave us another jewel, more unknown, much more confidential – and much more expensive too: I named the most elegant four-door that Bentley has ever built, that is to say the Continental Flying Spur which, in nine years of existence, has profoundly marked the history of the firm. So much so that its only sedan, at present, has taken up the name, if not the spirit... Established on the basis of the ultimate Bentley with a separate chassis, of unsurpassable class and assumed snobbery , this modern-day coach embodies all the British majesty forged on traditions which were then about to die: that of special bodywork, lovingly crafted without much concern for the cost price. This, without a doubt, makes the Flying Spur the last great romantic!
So that Bentley remains Bentley
In April 1955, Rolls-Royce presented two new models responsible, respectively, for taking over from the Silver Dawn and Bentley Type R. Everyone immediately noticed that the new Silver Cloud and Bentley S pushed standardization even further than their predecessors: due to the pencil of John Blatchley, the two “factory” sedans (Standard Saloon) are thus almost entirely identical, grille and logos excepted; even the engines no longer show the slightest difference from one brand to another. The Bentley traditionally costs a little less than the equivalent Rolls-Royce, but this is mainly due to the cost price of the grilles (simply stamped on the S, hand-shaped for the Cloud). In this light, we could rightly consider that Bentley is becoming a sub-brand of Rolls, aimed at the few customers who believe that the R-R grille is really too ostentatious – if the Continental did not exist! Presented in the fall of 1952, the R-Type so named, talentedly bodied by H.J. Mulliner, allowed Bentley to restore vitality to its old slogan, The Silent Sport Car, even if the machine was clearly more silent than sporty ... As sensually designed as the R-Type sedan turns out to be discouragingly stiff, the first Continental wins all the votes of drivers wanting to be able to cross Europe in style, in luxury and at speeds unimaginable for ordinary mortals, then condemned to suffer the prosaism of Ford Popular or Morris Minor. And, quite logically, in the fall of 1955, Bentley presented the Continental version of the new chassis!
The last fires of the aristocracy
We are talking about chassis because, unlike the Standard Saloon, Bentley does not offer any "factory" bodywork for the Continental S. It is up to the customer to choose between several proposals: Mulliner thus offers a coupe called Sports Saloon, Park Ward (owned by Rolls-Royce since 1939) designed another, less sporty looking – everything is relative, isn't it – as well as a Drophead coupe whose elegance, seven decades later, remains unstoppable. More marginal creations were quickly added, signed James Young, Hooper or Franay, who took advantage of the last years of freedom still offered by the chassis sold bare. Because these are the last days of the coachbuilders of the great era, most of whom will not survive the advent of the monocoque. In the mid-1950s, it was therefore still possible to have your Bentley S bodyworked "to order" but, if most Continental enthusiasts ordered coupes or convertibles, it was the sedan unveiled in August 1957 which embodies the climax of this series…
A 4-door coupe before its time
From the outset, the Flying Spur, which takes the wheelbase of the short wheel base "factory" sedan, presents almost overwhelming proportions, bordering on perfection and whose modernity almost cruelly underlines the old school side of its matrix, which, in comparison, seems twenty years late. Without seeming to touch it, the four-door Continental, also due to Mulliner, already announces the fundamentals of the following decade: if the imprint of the rear wings remains very marked – a characteristic that we find in Elsewhere on the current Flying Spur - the silhouette of the car is resolutely "pontoon", bluntly turning its back on the pre-war remugles which the S sedan was unable to renounce. While its height is the same, the Continental Flying Spur is almost like a four-door coupe. Whatever the angle from which one contemplates it, the car exudes a completely different fragrance than the standard saloon, from which it nevertheless takes the mechanics – namely the six-cylinder in-line R-R of 4887 cm3, whose power, according to the tradition, is not disclosed by the manufacturer but which good connoisseurs of the model estimate at around 180 hp. The Flying Spur also inherits the archaisms of the Silver Cloud, whose rear suspension with leaf springs at the rear and the four-wheel drum brakes are seriously starting to date.
The V8 revolution
In 1959, the Bentley S2 succeeded the S – a change practically imperceptible from the outside, because the important thing was under the hood: the venerable “six-legged” was replaced by a V8 which, against all expectations, survived until 2020. Designed by Rolls-Royce engine manufacturers on the basis of an aborted study recovered from General Motors, the new engine, made entirely of aluminum and with a displacement of 6,230 cm3, now powers the Continental range, including the Flying Spur, which like its sisters benefits from increased power, estimated at around 190 hp, as well as power steering fitted as standard. This is the only notable evolution in the history of the model which, like the other Bentleys, will become "S3" in 1962, receiving on this occasion a remodeled bow, equipped with four headlights which already announce the future T sedan then at the time. study. The last S3 Flying Spur left the Mulliner workshops (bought by R-R in 1959) in the spring of 1966 and remained without descendants; the Continental series will disappear with them and it will be necessary to wait until 1991 to see the reappearance of a similarly named coupe based on the same philosophy. Today, the Flying Spur remains highly appreciated by connoisseurs and lovers of the brand, the most desirable version undoubtedly being the S2, which combines the advantages of the V8 with the grace of a design whose classicism will never age again.