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Easirider Company Ltd Unit G1 Nene Centre, Freehold Street, Northampton NN2 6EF +44 (0)1604 714103 mail@easirider.com www.easirider.com

The highly-trained staff of The Beaconsfield Workshop boast countless years’ experience of the prestigious Bentley and Rolls-Royce marques. Operating from state-of-the-art new premises set in rolling countryside, yet just minutes from the Beaconsfield mainline station and M40 motorway, they are proud to offer the following services for both modern and classic examples of the breed:

SERVICING AND MAINTENANCE | RESTORATION BODY REPAIRS | REPAINTING | DETAILING

Workshop 1, Hall Barn Estate, Windsor End Beaconsfield, Bucks, HP9 2SG

Tel: +44 (0)1494 675211

Email: tara@thebeaconsfieldworkshop.co.uk www.thebeaconsfieldworkshop.co.uk

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2017

Flying Spur 4.0 V8 S. With Two tone Beluga and Porpoise interior, picnic tables, champagne cool box and many other throughout Offered at only £75,850

Walnut veneers with Bentley emblems to the waist rails. Lots of options including retractable £66,950

2002/51 Rolls Royce Silver Seraph Last Of Line over Silver Tempest with electric sunshine roof and chrome door mirrors. Portland interior with leather / veneered steering wheel and picnic tables. Immaculate .............. Only £66,950

2012

2013 Model Bentley GTC 4.0 V8 Mulliner plus Launch Spec. Including Sports Spec. in Charcoal hood. Beluga interior stitched in aluminium dash and fascia. Totally immaculate, £55,950

2008/58

Mulliner. Walnut veneers including door inlays. Known to us for 5 years and maintained regardless of throughout....................................... Only £39,995 veneers and French miles with history. Immaculate condition throughout, must be seen. £22,950

OVER 60 ROLLS-ROYCE & BENTLEY IN STOCK

All vehicles have a full 20,000 mile service plus a 100 point check and 1 year MoT, together with a 24 month 5 star warranty (parts and labour)

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A Near Costly Disaster

I wondered if an experience of mine would interest others. We all enjoy checking under the bonnet of our prized and much-loved motor cars, especially before going for a run out somewhere. Well, this was the case last summer when I had planned to take the car for a run from my home near the Yorkshire coast and diverting towards Bridlington. So, bonnet up. First job: check oil level, then brake fluid, carbs, power steering, coolant and more. With the check complete (or so I thought at the time) I was about to close the bonnet when my phone rang. As the phone was on the work bench at the other side of the garage I left closing the bonnet and proceeded to answer the phone. After the call, which lasted about three minutes, I returned to the car, shut the bonnet, jumped in and drove off. I drove about eight to ten miles, eventually heading for Bridlington and then back home to Bempton. I was just passing our parish church, which is a two-minute walk from where I live, when I heard this loud bang from under the bonnet. Being so close to home I carried on home. With the car parked up on the drive, to my horror I saw the coolant cap lodged as pictured in the photo. I couldn't believe it, I remembered putting it back on around the time my phone rang and yes, you’ve guessed it, I hadn't tightened it down. So of course while I was driving along, it eventually unscrewed itself completely and blew off, hitting the top of the pulley on the air conditioning compressor and coming to rest on top of the pipe.

I couldn't believe my luck. If it had dropped down between the fan blades and radiator it would have been a disaster. I was very fortunate that it happened when I was so close to home, as well – phew! What have I learned from this experience? Well, let the phone ring and finish the job in hand. They can always ring back!

Chris Wardlow East Yorkshire

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!

(The letter below reached us many months after it was sent, having disappeared first into Royal Mail’s system and then into our publisher’s post room, which directed it incorrectly. Apologies to Mr Robertson – Ed) Further to the story on the Ravishing Wraith (RR&BD, Sep / Oct 2022 issue), can I supply further information? Mrs Wordie, the owner of the car who died in 1946 aged 77 was the widow of Peter Wordie whom she married at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh in 1902. She appears earlier in the RollsRoyce story when she purchased a Rolls-Royce Phantom II No 364. GY by H.J. Mulliner, according to Lawrence Dalton in ‘The Derby Phantoms’. The Wraith would appear to be its replacement.

With reference to Lady McEasham (there is a hand-written line in the coachbuilder’s instructions for the unusual sliding, rotating chair in the rear compartment that we believed said ‘As for Lady McEasham’ – Ed) I would suggest this to be Lady McEacharn, the widow of Sir Malcolm McEacharn, Mayor of Melbourne, Australia. A millionaire shipping magnate, he left Australia in a huff having lost his mayorship. He bought Galloway House in Wigtownshire from the Earl of Galloway in 1906 and settled in Scotland, where he had been born. He died, however, two years later.

Lady McEacharn also bought a Rolls-Royce Phantom II, according to Dalton. This may be the car in which the ‘chair’ was installed – or in a later replacement Wraith. Their son, Captain Neil McEacharn, inherited Galloway House and became a prolific purchaser of Rolls-Royce Phantoms. He sold Galloway House in 1930 to Lady Forteviot of the Dewar whisky family. Captain McEacharn acquired a villa at Lago Maggiore in Italy where he established the worldfamous ‘Giardini Botanici’ gardens. I hope this information proves helpful.

William Robertson Paisley

Derby Bentley Drought

Any chance of a story on a Derby Bentley? It seems a long time since I saw a feature on these cars in your magazine and I believe they are of more interest than some of the formal, less sporting Rolls-Royce models of the same era, which are often featured. I am, of course, biased in my opinion, having run several examples in my life, starting with a very tatty 3½-litre Park Ward saloon that ate all my money when I was a medical student in the 1960s. I’ve been without one for several years now, so

I hope Rolls-Royce & Bentley Driver can fill a gap!

Adrian Jackson London

A fair request! If readers whose Derby Bentleys have a story to tell would like to see their cars in print, please get in touch. Perhaps Mr Jackson would like to share his photos and memories of medical school adventures? - Ed

ALL ITS CRACKED UP TO BE?

I really enjoyed the story in the previous edition about the Silver Shadow that survived the Peking to Paris Rally in the hands of those two intrepid Aussies, but I have to take issue with some of the credit given to the car. Firstly this: ‘the Silver Shadow had the original motor, transmission, drivetrain and suspension components. The only modifications we made were the requirements of the rally’.

Well, with different springs, no load-levelling system, driveshafts from a different model and a thicker sway bar I’m not sure I’d describe the suspension and drivetrain as original. Of course the mods were requirements of the rally – if you wanted a chance of finishing! Then, when it states ‘There were never engineering failures, only external issues’, had we not read about cracks in the chassis on the previous page? I think Rolls-Royce’s chassis engineers might have regarded that as a failure.

Of course, the car was never designed to compete in such an event so a few failures and breakages were to be expected, as they would be with any elderly roadgoing production car. But the Peking to Paris and events like it are only open to elderly roadgoing production cars, some more suitable than others, admittedly. It’s a huge credit to the crew of the Silver Shadow that they got it through event, but surely only a moderate thumbsup for Rolls-Royce – wouldn’t any suitably prepared model of the same age have done equally well?

Yours blasphemously, Rachel

Potter Herts

WORTH THE EXTRA – OVER A ROVER?

I have recently come into a modest sum of money that allows me to fulfil a long-held wish for a high-quality British saloon car of the 1950s. My shortlist includes a Bentley Mk VI or R-type, an Armstrong-Siddeley Sapphire 346, an Alvis TA21 or a Rover 90 ‘P4’. When they were new, the latter three were probably quite close in price and they’re not too far apart today, though the Alvis might need more investment to get a sound one. The Bentley would have been twice or three times the price of these ‘rivals’ when new but is now not out of reach – less good ones overlap with the nicer Armstrongs and Alvises (if not Rovers, perhaps) in price. My question, which is not intended to offend the readership of a magazine I enjoy, is this: is the Bentley worth the extra, these days? What makes it more valued?

After all, the Rover also has a lovely inlet-over-exhaust straight six of great smoothness and silence, while the Armstrong and the Alvis offer a turn of speed that can’t be far off Bentley territory, with very similar looks, and similar accommodation for the occupants. I expect everyone will say ‘If you have to ask, you’ll never understand’, but I’m asking anyway!

Rob Catton

Northumberland

Feel free to write in with your answers! To add a personal view, all those mentioned are fine cars but the Bentley leads on at least two counts – it really does feel more powerful and capable, and the engineering is a step up. Is that worth the extra? It is if you also enjoy the idea of being a Bentley owner - Ed

Archive Feature In Storage

What has happened to the ‘From the Archive’ pages in RollsRoyce & Bentley Driver? I used to enjoy turning to the back of the magazine to see what you’d found, because I never knew what might turn up. There’s plenty of other good content, of course, but I think it’s a shame if From the Archives has gone for good.

Trevor Lloyd-Jones Herefordshire

Thanks for the comments, Trevor. We have been rounding up various interesting items but finding the space for our Archive feature has been tricky. But fear not, it will return before long – Ed