1998 BENTLEY CONTINENTAL R One-Off #6 of 6 California Edition 420 Wide Body

1998 Bentley Other Continental R Wide Body California Edition 420 Description

Close to perfect. If you don't know a lot about these cars here is a good place to start:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bentley_Continent al_R or en.wikipedia.org and go to wiki/Bentley_Continental_R (email me if you need the link). Or just Google Continental R
California Edition -- you will find this exact car featured all over. In fact it is the only modern Bentley that is consistently singled out for special mention when writing about these cars.

This is the #6 (of 6) California Edition and very special.
1998 was the last year of the British Bentley. After a prolonged legal battle VW ended up being the owner of Bentley and BMW got Rolls Royce. For a few years the older cars were still made, but not really the same. Particularly the interiors used inferior leather and were much less hand made – they were more “Germanic" ...

The Germans also made a lot of "special editions" which were generally cosmetic changes and not all that rare or special. During the British and German years about 1300 Continental R cars were built. It is hard to find how many had both the 420 engine and the wide body. There were 38 Continental R420 cars made that fit the bill. Some of the Millennium Editions and Le Mans “may” have had both, although the ones I have seen for sale seem to have only the wide body. The 23 Mulliner Editions did not have the wide body (although there is some evidence a few were ordered with a wide body as an upgrade). So there is some overlap but I would guess less than 60 cars have both – and that is spread over a dozen years of production.

Bentley prior to this car was merely a badge-engineered Rolls Royce. This car is unique from body to engine to suspension settings, and pure Bentley, focusing far more on performance than the RR. This is the best of the lot. Some of the German cars had the same performance but were never as nice.

Bentley did not really have "options" --- they had "upgrades." If a customer wanted pink polka-dot velour upholstery it would be done as an upgrade (yech!).

This car had a tremendous amount of upgrades. It has chrome wheels, the complete instruments of the T including starter button, it has no side marker lights (badges instead), and no black molding down the side. It looks much more modern and is a prettier car. The R420s look a lot the same on the outside, using fake grills instead of badges on the side to replace the old fashioned lights, and they, too, don't have the black molding and in many ways looks similar. It is the interior that sets my car apart. The R420 is dull inside compared to the two- toned interior with rousched leather of the California Edition.

The California Edition was a series of six wide body cars (there is reportedly one other 1998 wide body). Many people (on purpose I think) confuse or “mistake” "wide flares" with "wide body." Many cars came with wider flares for wider tires (and the invoice will say wide flares, not wide body). A true wide body has huge fenders and a wider track -- exactly the same as it's relative the Continental T. From the rear of the car all you can see is fenders -- cannot even see the door handles. They had to shape the huge fenders into the body with feathered metal work that if flat would hold a soda can. From the top, it looks like someone grabbed the car at the doors and pinched real hard.

The tire size is a dead give away. These tires are larger than the tires on a new Corvette! To be picky, a Vette has different sizes front and rear and these fall in between. They are much larger than the tires on cars with wide flares and even larger than the standard tires. Use the zoom feature to see where the fenders meet the side of the body on the first picture and you will get a good idea. Also notice in the rear that the fender is not a flat-sided fender ... it has two "steps" in it, which provides more width. I believe the wider track is due to a different offset on the wheels (as the Supersports does now).

So the owner got exactly what he wanted -- essentially a Continental T set of mechanics in a Continental R (e.g. real rear seats) with the stunning California Edition interior. This includes the extra gauges, starter button, sport modes, suspension tuning, you name it. This was not cheap – the engine upgrade alone was almost 50k! The MSRP was $415k – maybe the most expensive Bentley ever (can'’t prove it, I have just never seen one that had a higher sticker and I have watched these cars for over a decade). So he got the best of three things -- the R, the T, and a special edition The invoice labels the engine upgrade as “HPW” and at the bottom it says “420.”

The owner was not satisfied, so he got a letter from Bentley certifying that his car was built to Continental T specs. The original sticker and letter are included with the car.

For anyone interested I have pictures or links to cars advertised as wide body cars that most certainly are not. Ditto the 420. Mine has the California Edition #6 of 6 plates, the Mulliner plates, and the 420 engine plates. But many of these cars are often improperly listed and do dilute the pricing one looks up on the Internet because they show as wide bodies or 420s or Mulliners … when they are not. The real thing is rare, and tha is what I have, the real thing. Note that another "m“istake"” on many listgs is to call them Mulliner Editions. There was such a thing under the Germans – a standard body with the 420 engine and some nicer interior appointments. It leaned to luxury versus performance despite the 420 engine. But ALL Bentley bodies were Mulliner bodies and have a Mulliner tag on them someplace.

I would like to point out a few things to consider on the price. If you look at 1998 Continental R cars, the price seems very high for my car. On the other hand, if you look for Continental R cars with both the wide body and the 420 engine, the price seems fairly low for my car. One has to then consider – is it worthless due to it’s age (only 3 years older than the R420), or is it worth more as the ONLY British built Continental R with this combination? And worth more as the first of the highest performing modern British Bentleys. Now add that it is #6 of 6 of a special edition. One of the nicest things about the California Edition is the unique interior. Instead of mono-colored seats with hard leather, it has two colors – the cream main color and inserts in the doors and seats of a darker brown. The darker leather is “rousched” leather (whatever that mean as well as some of the cream leather in the door. It is soft and crinkled rather than hard and smooth. It is a nicer environment to live in – and worth more accordingly.

And a T has horrid metal in place of the nice perfect wood in my car. My car performs like a T but is a much nicer car and a real four seater. So considering the true wide body and 420 engine, and adding for it’s true uniqueness and the likelihood that it is the most expensive Bentley ever made I think the price is more than fair.

A wide body performs better as compared to a Mulliner edition or a car with the wide flares because the rear tires gain more traction and hence can use the power earlier.

For some reason the car is prettier in person than in pictures. It is hard to capture all the curves of the wide body is best appreciated in person.

The result is that my car is the only Bentley with these features and performs closer to a Continental T than a Continental R. It weighs 200 lbs more. In return you get rear seats you can use for humans with legs. In addition, the T models had what is (in my opinion) a very ugly interior – the wood replaced by machined metal. It looks horrid. Mine has not only the elegant interior of the R model (with perfect beautiful wood), but the added beauty of the California Edition. It is truly stunning inside. And a "T" is not particularly rare.

I am the second owner. The original owner wanted the performance of the Continental T and the luxury and looks of the Continental R. The T always had a more powerful engine (different years were different) than the R. This car got the T engine with 420 hp and 649 lbs/feet torque. The torque figure is still a record for a passenger production car in the USA. With fairly aggressive acceleration the front end will literally lift two inches. There is one thing different that I can tell from the T, that is the speed limiter (they were limited to 168) -- this car will do at least 175 (I ran out of road -- had to do it once). It may be because Crewe sent an engineer to Phoenix, AZ to program the fuel injection and other control computers as the fit is not exactly the same as the T and this was the first and apparently needed some work after arriving (to stop a rough idle). So maybe he "forgot" the speed limiter. This car is mechanically the same as the T (which was much the same basic chassis except 6 inches shorter). This means you can actually sit in the back seat of my car comfortably. For an almost 6000 lbs car the weight makes little performance difference. The car also has the T's suspension settings which were rebuilt as need about four years ago (rear only). It is not clear to me if they adjusted the suspension for the extra length or not. About 60% brakes left.

The car is absurdly complete which you never find. It has the jack, tools, gloves, sampler CD and cassette, remote control for stereo, and is unmodified except three invisible things:
1) a speaker blew so I replaced them with Boston Acoustics (much better)
2) the lever for the passenger seat movement -- one of the few plastic things on the car! -- has had the interior portion replaced with metal which is superior.
3) Hose clamp replacements
The Brits are odd. They warn in the manual not to go over 115 mph in low gear, no speed limiter. All other gears supposedly have a limiter! They warn that if you leave the seat warmers on the battery will die as they are not keyed. To move the seats the key must be in the on (not even accessory) position. Why not key the warmers and not the seat!?

The upgrades the owner had done were staggering. The engine was listed as "HPW" as the option code -- $50,000 alone. It also says 420 on the invoice and has the badge on the engine. If you know the cars well you can also tell by the air-to-water (rather than air-to-air) charge cooler and the turbo. He had the wheels chromed -- usually not offered on the R but Crewe did it for him (they did chrome Arnage wheels so I think it was no big deal, just more money). He did not like the ugly (IMO) side marker lights and had them replaced with the red flying Bentley badges. They look great. It has the matrix grill ($5,000!!!!) but black (any others I have seen are natural steel -- actually the black is a pain as it chips and I do touch it up occasionally). He hated the black cheap plastic molding strip on the side of these cars (notice the Germans took this off the R420 as well).

The car went out the door at a staggering $415,000.00 -- perhaps the most expensive Bentley ever. The owner was not happy with "HPW" as an option code proving it was a true 420 car, so he got a letter from Bentley stating that the car is indeed upgraded to the same specs as the Continental T (on their letterhead). The sticker and letter are included with the car. Also notice the dual large exhaust -- I have seen dual small exhaust and single large and small on each side and ... never dual large exhaust on the one side.

One thing of interest is that the German special edition (R420 which was special enough to have a lot more than 6 of them!) is almost exactly like this except for the nice interior. They used the real wide body, got rid of the lights (and used fake grills, my badges are prettier), chrome wheels on some of them, etc. I suspect this car inspired a lot of the German special editions as it is the prettiest modern Bentley from Crewe you will ever see. And no, there is no such thing as a "Continental R420 Mulliner" despite what Wikipedia says -- all of the Rs were made by Mulliner, some were Mulliner Editions, some were R420 editions, some were Millennial Editions, etc. None were R420 Mulliner Editions. So don't believe everything you read on line.

It is common to claim a wide body or Mulliner ... because they think it adds to the price or they are just mistaken ... you decide. In any case my car is a true wide body, the first with a 420 engine (and the only one under the Brits), was made by Mulliner (not a Mulliner edition) -- it is the genuine article and probably the most expensive ever (when made) and is the most collectible of all the modern Bentleys.

The original owner also purchased just about every dealer add on you could get. A battery charger. Lambs wool floor mats (I don't use them, they are in the trunk and oddly worn a little on the bottom (where you can’t see it) - over $2,000 alone!) as well as the standard mats. A car cover (I never opened the box as it is always in the garage). It has no provision for a front license plate as it has always been an AZ car and we don't do front plates. A drill will fix that :-) All of these extras come with the car.

Many people think it is a good idea to get the lowest number of miles possible on a car. This is simply not true with a Bentley or RR. Everything is hydraulic. Hence, if it sits, the seals dry, and everything leaks. This costs 20-50,000 to fix! Assuming you did not burn the pump(s) out. Both the previous owner and I followed the same regimen. We drove the car weekly about 20-30 miles and made occasion al trips of a few hundred miles. This car drips nothing. Very very very few Bentley owners can park their car on clean cement and leave it an hour, and come back without engine oil drips. Often the main seal between the engine and transmission leaks due to dis-use. Many of these cars were owned by people that drove them 5k miles at home, then put them in a summer house, and now are selling them. And you think their 5k miles is better than my 26k miles. You could not be more wrong. The tires also develop flat spots if left parked more than a few weeks. In the winter, even one week takes 3-5 miles to smooth them out. A car lightly and regularly adult driven is far better. For a 1998 26k miles is about perfect.

It has just received it's 25k service. Every fluid, every everything is done. I do a lot myself according to the instructions of the original owner, while it is on the rack. I put heavy silicone on all the cables (for the trunk, parking brake, etc) keeping those perfect. The massively complex hydraulics have every hose clamp checked, and tightened or replaced as needed. It has always used Mobil 1 15-50 oil (interestingly one of two approved oils, their own and Mobil 1, in the glove box manual -- but the service manual in the rear has a lot more options). Be careful about zinc and phosphorous content in your oil choices -- these are flat tappet engines and need high ZDDP. Mobil 1 15-50 is still perfect (but not all Mobil 1). The car has rarely (if ever) been washed with soap and water. If really dirty I hose it with ionized water. And then quick detail is used. Hand waxed as needed, no machines.

In the pictures you may notice funny colors on mats, door sills, etc. These are not flaws. They are tape to protect what is underneath. I will remove most of it before shipping. But, for example, the steel door sills are perfect because they have always been covered in packing tape and nobody's shoes have ever scratched them. Might have some fun getting the glue off! I have not used the plastic on the floor mats for a while so they are a little dirty. Also note, some pictures were taken under florescent lights so the colors look “off” compared to some of the other pictures in natural sun light.

The car reminds me the most of my 1976 Aston Martin Vantage coupe. Except this is faster, has ABS, traction control (I turned it off once by mistake and it shreds tires), air bags, etc. It is a truly modern car. A modern muscle car! And much nicer inside.

The cell phone is wired into the stereo. There is the same model stereo available (that fits) now with navigation if you like. The cell phone is analog and would seem useless except a phone installer told me he could open it and replace the insides with a Bluetooth, and it would look stock and be wired into the stereo for hands free operation and muting of stereo sound. I chose to keep it all stock due to it’s unique collecor status. In it's day it was faster than everything including the It alians and Aston Martins and Germans. It is still respectably fast an d safe today.

I have a LOT more pictures and can take more. Anything you need.
Please no low ball offers -- I don't have to sell. These cars, this particular car, will appreciate. It is the ONLY modern Bentley that is singled out in books, magazines, Web pages, etc. -- because it is so special.

Sales tax is up to you as are all registration fees. I have full clear title available immediately.

This is probably the BEST British Bentley of the modern (post RR) era. It has the unique interior, the first 420 in the R, and one of the few true wide body cars. It is not a badge engineered Rolls. Combined with the fact that you will not find one more complete (as mine is missing nothing), and are unlikely to find one anywhere close to as nice as this one cosmetically, nor as mechanically sound (I have had zero problems, 100% reliable, zero leaks) -- and the fact that each year the value is climbing (according to my insurance company) -- makes this a fun reliable modern investment. I promise you, you cannot do better on a British Bentley than this car, except price. And you get what you pay for. A lower price is often more expensive in the end, and a “normal” Continental R – especially German ones – will not appreci ate like this car will.
My car is also featured in a Bentley book – where they call the body “ample form” rather than “wide body.” I got a kick out of that!
https://books.google.com/books?id= 918NBwAAQBAJ&pg=PT98&lpg=PT98&dq=bentley+continental+r +california+edit ion&source=bl&ots=RQOFaqZQ2l&sig=NbEHeRkC5TiDSmGiTeEcsG6D0G4&hl= en&sa= X&ei=UEJeVdraBcThoATD_oPIDA&ved=0CHEQ6AEwDA#v=onepage&q=bentley %20cont inental%20r%20california%20edition&f=false
Apparently some people are having trouble with Flash so here is a direct link to all the pictures: http://s12.photobucket.com/user/Eric_Eberhard/library/?sort=3&page=1



















































Many more pictures: