Bentley Turbo R casual drive May 2025

Описание: Short drive in the mighty 1989 Bentley Turbo R around Sausalito, CA

When I started collecting car brochures, some of the earliest and most treasured were 1980s Rolls Royce and Bentley. Back in those days, Bentley was a badge-engineered car. In the mid 1980s I worked for an exotic car dealer and we went to pick up a black Silver Spirit that had reportedly been once owned by the figure skater Dorothy Hamill. The big British saloon cars have always fascinated me and they coddle like nothing else.

The Bentley Turbo R evolved from the Mulsanne Turbo. The 6.75-liter V8 engine sports a massive Garrett turbocharger with handling upgrades to match. This is an example of a 2XXXX-serial number Turbo R (SZ chassis) with the older style dash layout; it has only two of the circular dash vents (instead of 4) and it retains the circular ignition and headlamp control panel which is a carry-over from the Silver Shadow/T-series SY-chassis but was changed on later models of the SZ series from 1990 and newer. This is an absolutely massive car to get behind the wheel of, but it will seriously get up and go if you give it some beans. The fuel-injected cars had a slight power increase to about 330hp, with torque in the mid 400 ft/lb range. Acceleration is always stately and dignified. Composure is guaranteed.