The re-birth of Bentley (part 2)

This is the second part of the editor's recollections of the launch of the Bentley Turbo in the 1980s.

The car was received well at the Geneva motor show, and now for the journalists' driving sessions at the Le Mans Racing Circuit..

Le Mans

By the time we were off to Le Mans in April, we had six cars, all performing superbly. On most days, we would only use five cars, and they would all be readied over night for a gruelling and often high speed 250 mile circuit on a mix of roads. Lunch would be taken in Le Mans and dinner at the chateau with daily menus planned and co-ordinated by the two venues. Before dinner, the Count who owned the chateau, would take us for a relaxing ride on the nearby river – despite him being an ex-captain in the French navy, we found running aground was almost a daily occurrence!

Arriving at the chateau two days before the first journalists, I spotted an immediate problem. Sitting on the terrace with his wife and two colleagues was Lord Carrington, who only days earlier had resigned as Foreign Secretary over the Falklands and war with Argentina just about to break out.

With a deep breath or two, I went out on the terrace and introduced myself and was invited to join them. When I told him the cream of the British media would start to arrive in two days time, he smiled, thanked me for the warning and his party quietly left the following morning. Months later, I found myself sitting next Lord Carrington's daughter – or it may have been daughter-in-law – at a dinner in London who said he had told the story to his family with some delight on his return to England.

As the first group of journalists flew in, I realised just how informal small airports are in France. As our jet landed, each morning I opened the plane's door and helped the six passengers out, introducing myself as customs, passport control and luggage handler, in French naturally, before leading them over to the line of waiting Turbos, a fine sight. With the help of the engineering team, who knew the chosen route well, we managed to give each journalist a good day to find out, and hopefully approve, of everything about the car.

A second discovery was that every day was like waking up feeling like a kamikaze pilot off on what was likely to be one's last mission. The roads were quiet, well surfaced and gave plenty of opportunity for high speeds. Most of the journalists were excellent drivers. But one or two, at the older end of the age range, possibly had been years earlier. One, in particular, needed regular reminders about which side of the road the French normally drove on!

As the weeks passed by, and this was a new experience as it was my first ever car launch, the British were followed by German writers, then French, Italian, Swiss, mixed groups, then South Africans and Americans, it became clear that national stereotyping was uncannily accurate. The Germans peered under the bonnet for seemingly hours with every sentence spoken full of figures and statistics; the Italians are fearsomely fast drivers and take risks undreamt of by an Englishman; the French really do judge the day by the quality of the food and the British do enjoy a drink or three at the end of the day.

The most amusing were the Americans. I had added them to the list of guests even though Bentleys were not sold in the USA. That was pointed out forcefully from back at Crewe where someone must have seen my seeming disregard for budgetary restraint. My riposte that they soon would be proved prescient as the USA market later boomed. (See top photo of an American model with USA headlights)

When the six Americans, all youngish and working for specialist motoring magazines, saw the cars, the phrase that immediately sprang out was: "We are going to burn rubber." And off we went at the most sedate speeds of the whole launch. The day's drive took so long that there was no time for the river cruise. The 55mph limits in the States had obviously had an impact on driving styles.

The one country I did not foresee as a major future market, hardly surprisingly at the time, was Communist China. In 1982, a bicycle was still a luxury there. It's an amazing thought that thirty odd years on, it's a major market for Bentley.

Now, if four weeks away in a glorious chateau, driving the world's most luxurious cars, enjoying the company of witty and entertaining journalists, as well as fine food and wine, seems like the perfect job, I can only say it was the hardest four weeks I have ever worked in my life. Up and out to check the cars soon after six with the service team, off after breakfast to drop of yesterday's group of journalists and start all over again around ten when the plane flew in, driving and talking all day and entertaining over dinner often until 2.00am, a few snatched hours of sleep and then all over again. Saturday afternoon and Sunday we were on our own and keen games of tennis were a welcome relief.

Even more of a relief was the almost unanimous praise in the press for the car. We seemed to have a hit on our hands, and the buyers' enquiries started to come in. Nobody who could afford one appeared concerned that the Turbo's list price was 20% dearer, nearly £10,000 that is, as the car was retailing at £61,000 compared with the Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit at almost £52,000.

Back home for more test drives

Stage four of the media launch was lending the press car, one of the original six, to non-motoring writers and occasionally using it as a demonstrator for potential customers. It was in British Racing Green, in my humble opinion a trifle drab, at least to my taste. And Lady Luck struck again, although it was too near to being a disaster for comfort. On the high speed banking at MIRA's test circuit near Nuneaton, a tyre burst, the car flew through the air, fortunately landing on all four wheels when the driver and three passengers leapt out, very shaken and somewhat stirred.

The car turned out to be repairable but it would take many months. So, I went down into the factory, saw a fabulous red car with cream leather and red piping and red carpets, and ordered a Turbo in a similar style. My PR colleagues thought I'd lost leave of my senses when I described the car but it turned out be an inspired choice.

Every writer who borrowed the car raved about the colour, it was a head turner on a grand scale, people gathered around it wherever it went, and the articles said this was the ultimate motor car. They had liked it in British Racing Green: in red they loved it, raved about it and photos of that one car were everywhere in the press.

One writer I met up with was John Gardner, who had taken over the writing of the James Bond novels at the request of the Ian Fleming estate. I suggested the Bentley Turbo was the ideal Bond car, and was delighted when he agreed. It more than made up for losing Lady Penelope's attachment to her Rolls-Royce at pretty much the same time as I was unable to strike a suitable deal with her creator, Jerry Anderson.

Clearly my disregard of the original budget needed a little defending. The Finance Director collared me on the stairs one morning back at Crewe, observing I'd spent more on wine than the whole launch budget. "But John," I retorted, "think how much I saved by getting all the champagne for free." Even he smiled because thankfully, he had also seen how orders for the Turbo were coming in at a time when car sales generally were really struggling as Britain was in deep recession.

As the years passed, the proportion of Turbos rose and rose until, many years after I had moved on to another job, the 5% pre-launch figure had been transformed into a strong majority of Crewe built cars. Bentley had overtaken Rolls-Royce, an almost unbelievable result and testimony both to the car and its successful launch.

And the rest, as they say, is history...

Fortune favoured the company too as, after a crisis in October 1982, which saw four directors leave in one day, a dynamic sales managing director called Peter Ward joined the company. He immediately saw the way the wind was blowing, pushed through major changes to the Turbo, notably the suspension, and the car's handling soon matched its immense power.

Talking of power, driving with the legendary motoring writer L J K Setright, we had together tried and tried to accelerate to 100mph and brake to a standstill in under 20 seconds but frustratingly just missed by a fraction of a second. Hardly any cars in the Eighties could achieve it either but for a car weighing two and half tons, the performance of those early cars was astounding – 0 to 60 in, if I recall accurately, 6.4 seconds, although that may have been with a following wind. Whatever, Jack Read, the turbo engineer had got all the power he could out of that superb engine.

Today, Crewe is entirely devoted to Bentleys. Rolls-Royce cars are now based from Goodwood in Sussex and both they and Bentley are German owned. At a peak in 1982, we produced 3,500 cars, now Crewe alone builds 15,000 and Bentley has a formidable range of cars, even including a new SUV. They even returned to race at Le Mans successfully.

It's a totally different world from when I was there, but it was that small team that started the Bentley re-birth and now it's a motor car, a world-wide brand, that millions aspire to own.

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