Title: 1958 Bentley S1 4 door saloon by James Young

Once again we have another lovely series 1 Bentley for sale, this a series B coachbuilt by James Young, one of 28 produced. How do we do it?

Our car is affectionately known as Aly, and shall be referred to that way hereafter.

Aly's chassis was delivered to James Young Ltd on 7th March 1956 where her coachwork was completed before being delivered to her first Owner, Lord W.G.H. Mullens, on 26th September 1958.

The original chassis card, still present in the file, shows that the registration number allocated to Aly when new was ALY 31 hence “Aly” and rather pleasingly she still wears the number proudly today.

Supplied new by Jack Barclays Lord Mullens specified Aly very highly as you would expect.

She originally presented in midnight blue.

Aly lived life happily in the UK, mostly chauffeur driven & Mullens her only keeper until 1974, she was then exported to the USA and bought by a Dr Ronald Li of Ohio.

At the time Aly had covered roughly 80,000 miles, you could say therefore she was well used by the Lord during his 16 years of ownership but not exhaustively so.

Dr Li, the second owner and first US owner, kept Aly for five years during which time she was looked after by his local Rolls-Royce and Bentley agents Adams & Oliver Ltd.

Adams & Oliver were of course members of the MAA (Motor Agents Association) in America, so well qualified to look after our Aly.

By 1979 Dr Li had relocated to upstate New York where he sold Aly, now having covered roughly 85,000 miles, to her third owner Roger Milgrim of Montague Terrace New York City.

At this point Aly entered the exclusive club of New York cities elite. Infamous for being an expensive circle to mix in Aly didn't disappoint.

During Milgrim's five year ownership he spent nearly $25,000 on servicing her with New York's Rolls-Royce and Bentley agents.

The last service of Milgrim's time was carried out on 3rd September 1985 at 91,250 miles.

Aly, clearly having made a name for herself in all the right places, took an upgrade in ownership when Richard Nazarian of Number 4 Park Avenue took her on.

He too didn't shy away from taking care of her properly, using the very same service department Milgrim had during his time of ownership.

Nazarian's last service saw Aly at 99,254 miles in August 1989.

Nazarian kept Aly for five years himself before our friend Peter Fischer repatriated her to the UK. Shipping out of NYC on Friday the 23rd of February 1990.

How very nice for Aly to have spent 15 years on an American adventure before returning home with a complete history of her time away.

Once Aly arrived at Fischer's Rolls-Royce & Bentley dealership in April 1990 she was given a mechanical overhaul; engine, exhaust, brakes, tyres, gearbox, suspension & steering were all recommissioned and she was resprayed in Shell Grey over Light Tudor Grey.

Every MoT since 1990 remains in the file, validating the mileage continuing from where it left off in America.

In the period 1990 - 2009 Aly only covered circa 6000 miles, meaning when our current and most recent owner bought her in 2009 she had covered a total of 106,000 miles.

Before purchasing, Aly was given a full inspection report by RR&B Garages who cleared her as a fine example but suggested a few things be attended to following the purchase.

Following this a bill of £11,624.24 was issued by RR&B for which they carried out a full 20,000 mile service as well as…..

Renewing all coolant hoses, fuel pipes, vacuum hoses, brakes, wheel & master cylinders, tightened all PAS hoses, waxoyled the car, renewed gearbox link bushes & parking brakes, some minor electrical repairs, replaced suspension bump stops, replaced rear lamps and converted front to halogen, replaced the picnic tables glass, set up auto choke & brightened the dash lights.

After a few years of careful use, our owner decided in 2011 to overhaul the gearbox too.

Thereafter Aly has been used for some fantastic touring of home and abroad. Two summer trips to the South of Spain and Portugal stand out. Of course, never a beat was missed on all these journeys.

In 2012 she was treated to a retrim of her headlining and sunvisors, new parcel shelf, new soundproofing &; a retrimmed draught excluder all in woolcloth as well as re-padding the seats.

It was decided in October 2016 to strip Aly for a full respray choosing, very wisely we think, the Antelope over Buttermilk combination we see today. The opportunity was also taken to restore the wood.

Maintenance has been shared between two or three specialists during the time of Aly's most recent keeper with the latest bill from Royce Engineering in 2018.

Aly is a lovely car to drive & be around, she looks splendid in her new colours and has such a fantastic history to boot.