Bentley Continental-R

2018 update

October 2018

After another season of Bentley motoring, largely associated with BDC Western Region events, I decided that the time had come to have various coachwork issues attended to, following the annual service and MoT. Accordingly, after Paul Mascard (Specialist Cars (South West) in Exeter) had attended to the mechanical work of servicing and obtaining another MoT certificate, he delivered the car to Adrian Jeffrey at Cofton Motors in Starcross for attention to the rear wheel arches, driver's door and bonnet, which suffers from the inevitable stone chips and an overall polish to remove the swirls that accumulate - also inevitably - on a car that does not spend its entire life in a garage, being polished.

The tyres have now covered nearly 16,000 miles, so they are to be replaced as soon as Paul gets the car back from the body shop. He has located a set of Michelin boots that are less expensive than the Avons and offer a more compliant ride, according to some of Paul's customers who have used them. I hope to report on this in next year's update. I note that the current tyres were replaced in 2012 and had served about the same mileage. It will be interesting to see how the Michelins compare as to longevity.

I have noticed some surge and judder under braking, which we have traced to the rear discs. It seems that these do not have a long life, though it may be that this is attributable to the fact that the car is not used daily, leading to some corrosion beneath the pads when it stands for several days at a time.

I have SORNed the car during the coachwork, which is likely to take several weeks, so do not expect a further update this year.

October 2018