Background
‘Whether you drive a Bentley or a Hyundai, the road is the same.’ Lots of people claim to have said this first, and the one thing I’ll wager they all have in common is that they’ve never driven a Bentley. I’ve nothing against Hyundai, but I’ll take the Bentley, thanks.
The Brooklands is Bentley’s take on the Rolls Royce Silver Spirit – during the decades that Rolls Royce and Bentley spent as a tightly intertwined couple, the two brands were each producing largely the same products. However, the Bentleys always followed a more sporting road, whereas the Rolls Royces were more likely to be driven by chauffeurs.
The platform on which the Brooklands was based made its debut in 1980, as the basis for the Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit (or long-wheelbase Silver Spur) and Bentley Mulsanne. By the time the Brooklands was introduced in 1992 its platform was becoming dated for such a high-end machine, but that matters not a bit today, of course.
Named after the circuit (the world’s first purpose built motor racing track) where Bentley had proven itself a supremely capable marque in the years before its affiliation with Rolls-Royce, the Brooklands could almost certainly claim to be the best badge engineered car of all time.
The model succeeded the Eight and the Mulsanne, whose moniker also refers to a straight on the Le Mans 24 Hours circuit. The Brooklands and all Bentleys remember their racing heritage.
Mechanically, the Bentley Brooklands had much in common with other Rolls-Royce/Bentley models that used its platform. The familiar Rolls Royce V8, an all-alloy design, by now displacing 6.75-litres, started life in the early 1960s. The engine featured wet, cast-iron cylinder liners, but the twin SU carburettors were by now replaced with Bosch fuel injection and ignition management.
Four-wheel disc brakes and all-independent suspension were used to give the two-and-a-half ton Bentley manageable driving characteristics. The suspension was self-levelling, and featured an automatic ride control system.
The interior and exterior are traditionally opulent. A large, vertically veined grille with quad headlights gives the big Bentley a menacing face, though its elegant proportions announce the car's unwillingness to behave brashly. Inside, leather and wood cover nearly every visible surface. A full complement of neatly inset gauges and an automatic transmission shift lever located in the centre console (instead of on the steering column) hint at the Bentley's driver's car mentality.
Though the original Bentley Boys may have quite fancied danger, along with a face full of exhausted long chain hydrocarbons, Bentleys evolved with demands of absolute top appointments. This Bentley is a hand-built car. Many hands and many more hours were required to build it, in much the same way that proper British cars were built from the outset. The classic lines and meticulous build put the car solidly into the executive class, yet the sporting heart beats strongly.
Comparisons to executive class touring cars from Bavaria, England, America or Japan are numerous, but none of these cars possesses the flat-out exclusivity of a Bentley. There is no equal to a Bentley – except, perhaps, its stablemate, the Rolls Royce.
There are, relatively speaking, quite a lot of Rolls-Royces and Bentleys on the road with the same basic look as the Brooklands, since the body design was used on so many different models. But the Brooklands itself is quite exclusive, with just 1,380 produced, including 172 long-wheelbase models.
