1996 Bentley Brooklands LWB

Here is an extremely beautiful presenting Bentley Brooklands Long Wheel Base (“LWB”) sedan finished in Wildberry pearl (rich wine-purple colour) with cream Connolly hides and wildberry/burgundy accents to include dash, carpets and seat piping. The twin fine lines to the waist-rails are hand-painted in matching cream.

The Brooklands is powered by a 6.75 litre Rolls-Royce designed V8 engine with the Bosch fuel injecton system which provides ultra smooth idle and touring. Being a Brooklands it has the 4 large round headlamps from the Turbo R and the full length centre console with gear-shifter also from its big brother. The LWB Brooklands is quite rare. Out of the already low production run of some 700 left hand drive Bentley Brooklands made, only some 100 were Long Wheel Base – that’s less than 15%. The Bentley Brooklands model was initially released as a special edition version which basically sported many of the features of the Bentley Turbo R, but without the turbo. It is rather unusual to find a LWB Brooklands in North America with most of the series imported being standard saloons. This is a late 58,000 series SZ so it has many significant upgrades over the 81-95 cars and even the first series Brooklands of 1993, including the very desirable centre console positioned floor shift.

By the 1996 year, Rolls-Royce and Bentley saw all the pertinent design improvements that made these “last of the series” the best. Operationally, the most notable being the transgression to Bosche electronics, eliminating the problematic Lucas electrical (“Prince of Darkness”) system that plagued the earlier series. It also saw a completely revised dash with updated AC system and, along with a host of engineering and technical upgrades, has the full covered engine bay offering an up-to-date design appearance. Cosmetically, the car has the revised and more integrated front and rear bumpers with the more streamlined front grille. This is then set off with the more modern alloy wheels which easily identify the car as 96-and-onwards. With all these significant changes, the car is known as the “50,000 series” model, in technical circles.

This Brooklands is well known to us having been previously owned by a client of ours. The car has recently been through our shop to bring services and maintenance up to date. The car has travelled a very modest 63,000 miles.

The paint on the car is in outstanding condition being completely original without any repaint whatsoever. It is deep in lustre and shine. There are hardly any notable chips and marks other than the most very minor ones here and there, but these are few and only show if one looks hard. Mentioned more out of “open disclosure” than pointing them out. There is a minor ding at the front right wheel arch and front passenger door that we intentionally did not address given the fact the car sports all its original paint. We did not want to change that status. The dent is minor in nature and does not show in the photos. Otherwise, the body and paint presents absolutely beautifully as the photos portray. Rubbers, mouldings, badges and external fittings are all in excellent condition.

The interior of this car is stunning. The cream/Magnolia combination with the rich wildberry/burgundy piping, top-roll and carpets are stupendously beautiful. The Connolly leather shows beautifully and is completely original. It has never been messed with and remains very soft and supple without any signs of even typical wear. Perhaps a little on the driver cushion bolster but certainly nothing objectionable. The wood throughout is excellent and can comfortably be described as near perfect showing almost no lacquer cracks, chips or marks. And, this particular example has a very rich and deep display of grain and knots which only the world’s finest burl walnut can offer.

Carpets, seats, dash, front top-roll, rear parcel shelf and fixtures are truly excellent and I best encourage you to look at all the photos to fully appreciate how nicely the interior presents. I think a full set of carpet matching lambswool moutons would look outstanding in the car so please feel free to enquire of you agree.

The car has the best tyres in the world for this car; the Avon CR227 235/65-16. They are beyond their date code but are in top condition with 70% tread and no dry rot. As these tyres are no longer available, I would stick with them but if you would prefer to have them changed, we can, but the replacements will be a lesser tyre.

As part of Park-Ward’s Predelivery Commissioning program, all electricals and features & functions are inspected and serviced as required so once received by the new owner, everything is operating as it should; windows, seats, mirrors, A/C, heater, lights, wipers, etc. Right down to every light bulb in the dash. This is a true, “take the keys and drive” example with no additional budget needed to attend to any nuances or gremlins.

Being a well-maintained example. It is tight to drive, brakes strong and rides as a Bentley Brooklands should.

When describing a car for sale, we are very careful not to use terms like “perfect” and “flawless” because nothing but a brand new car can be described this way. That said, this Bentley Brooklands is very close to, is of a very high standard and is an easy 10 out of 10 driver rating. She is 100% factory original in specification in every respect.

* Please do understand our Predelivery Commissioning process is very detailed and covers some 3-400 items that we check and attend to as necessary. The process takes several weeks to complete. We are very conscientious in all our work but please also understand, this is a +/- 30 year old Bentley whereby the cars themselves are somewhat idiosyncratic in behaviour and like to misbehave. Sometimes when you least expect it. Some might say, Rolls-Royce & Bentley proved  the term “Murphy’s Law” and no truer words could be spoken. So please, we welcome you to all our cars that we are proud to say are amongst the finest, but do keep an open-mind:

“Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” ………………….

…………………………………………   American aerospace engineer, Edward A. Murphy Jr.