Striking cars’s often have striking owners. If you order a Bentley Continental in Vermillion Red with a white interior, you are probably not a wallflower. The first owner of this car certainly was not. The car was ordered by the flamboyant dealer owner Fred Smith. He was the owner of the Bentley Dealer in Rancho Mirage, California, in the United States. He had started the dealership only a year before and decided to give himself a Bentley Continental as a gift. The car was ordered on September 12, 1989 and finally landed in the United States on May 24, 1991. By then the car had traveled a tremendous distance from the factory in England, across the Atlantic, through the Panama Canal and then up towards Californiaë. The car remained in stock for several months and was sold around the end of 1991. The car had traveled about’10,000 miles around 1995 and surfaced in Florida in 2005 with 48,000 miles on the odometer. The car then went to its last owner: Ernie Boch, an American billionaire and passionate car collector. The car then had only 54,000 miles on the odometer.The last owner took exceptional care of the car. Although he did not drive the car much, he did make sure that a number of small things were fixed to perfection. He had the technical aspects fully serviced, the roof clamps were replaced preventively, the hydraulic hoses were renewed, the car received a major service and the engine mounts were replaced. The car had to be in tip-top shape and of course it was when the Bentley and Rolls-Royce specialist had taken care of it for several months. Of course, it is not that the work took so much time but especially the waiting for parts took a longer part of the time.We bought the car from the collection and could not be happier with it. What a beautiful Bentley Contintental. The Bentley Continental is based on the Rolls-Royce Corniche III that was built can 1989 to 1993. However, the Bentley Continental was a lot rarer than the Corniche. For model year 1991, Bentley built only 91 Continentals for the entire world. It is said that one third of the entire production disappeared into the collection of the Sultan of Brunei. This example is therefore a car that was ééone of only 50 delivered to the United States during the four-year production period. The Bentley Continental was a very rare and especially desirable car when it was for sale new and it is no different today. The Bentley comes with a beautiful report prepared by the party that repaired the car. In particular, ééone of the last passages sums up the condition of the car beautifully: “A hundred other little details tightened up an smoothed this car to the point where it drives as the Crewe Engineers intended thirty years ago.”The quality of the car is therefore superb. The body looks beautiful. The sheet metal is beautifully even throughout with wonderful fits. With Continental ’s and Corniche’s of this generation it sometimes happens that the doors do not close properly. Because of the enormous weight of the doors, an enormous weight rests on the hinges. They have been replaced and the doors close beautifully. The Vermillion Red paint is in very good condition and looks to be in a good condition. What strikes us immediately is that the grille is also executed in Vermillion Red, this nice quirk was ordered by the first owner. We suspect that the car is completely in its first paint, given the condition the paint is still in. The Everflex hood is still in beautiful condition and is of course electrically operated and insulates beautifully. The hood closes naturally well. The car is on the original wheels that have good tires in the correct sizes. The pinstripe over the side of the car is still in very good condition.The interior of the Bentley is exactly as you would expect. The leather is top quality and wonderfully supple.
The interior of the Bentley looks like the car has only just left the factory gates in Crewe. The white leather has a beautiful red biping that perfectly matches the red exterior. The car is further, needless to say, equipped with every luxury with beautiful burr walnut inlays, air conditioning and beautiful leather on every surface you can touch. The carpets are also in very good condition and look to be in a good condition. The lambswool mats also look beautiful and are still original. The center console is also in beautiful condition. The instruments and controls obviously all function as they should and also look beautiful.The technology is as previously described in perfect condition. The 6.75 push rod V8 is a gem of an engine that excels in its wonderful smooth running and tremendous amount of torque from low rpm. Such vulgarities as engine power were not specified by Bentley and Rolls-Royce at the time. Therefore, we cannot but conclude that the Bentley Continental is adequately motorized. The engine is mated to a three-speed automatic transmission. The suspension is hydraulic and provides an unprecedented comfortable ride. The suspension on this particular specimen has been completely taken in hand and is functioning excellently. Almost all gaskets have been replaced. The gaskets of the valve cover were at the time of the work still the original ones of cork. Of course, the gaskets had not been fluid-tight for some time and have been replaced with rubber gaskets. The hand brakes were even completely renewed. It is even for a specialist a huge job to replace and adjust these parts but again the work is top notch.The entire history of the car is beautifully written out and present with the car. In addition, all work is fantastically documented by means of an extensive photo series that is present with the car. In addition, the board map is present. In short, a beautiful and especially very rare 1991 Bentley Continental with demonstrably low mileage in a beautiful color combination and in superb condition.
