No it really is not! Depending on your level of experience with classic and earlier cars, you quickly learn to master the central throttle pedal arrangement, the non-synchromesh gearbox, and how to adjust the retard the ignition curve for starting and then set it up for advance for when you have got the engine. We find after a few hours or a weekend you will be singing up the gearbox and double de-clutching down through the gears with consummate ease. When you have really got the hang of things - there is a degree of satisfaction from going down through the box smoothly and reflecting you are actually driving the car from your majestic driving position - not something the person flicking pedals with software rev-matched changes from the modern PlayStation equivalent driver will get to experience!

No - not when you consider the reliability of the fundamental drivetrain and service life that other cars cannot match. We would expect a freshly rebuilt Bentley engine to run for 100,000 miles before a precautionary check-up, based on a mixture of road and some enthusiastic event use! The car is all mechanical, there are no expensive or limited shelf life ECUs in our cars, we can fix, repair or on the rare occasions when needed, replace all components needed from our parts stock. Find out the cost of a replacement supercar hybrid battery...we can rebuild entire drivetrains often for less!

Drive it of course! We do have clients who for whatever reasons rarely drive their cars, but we strongly recommend you should drive your cars as often as possible and preferably hard! The great thing about these cars is that the mechanical underpinnings are more or less bullet proof and they respond well to regular use. Apart from driving to the pub or doing extended tours on your own or with your family, once you own a vintage Bentley there is an active enthusiastic community of owners who have created a busy informal calendar of events, from pub meets to stubble field racing to competing on the toughest endurance events in the world such as the Paris-Peking marathon. Whilst there is undoubtedly a great privilege afforded to those who are custodians of these wonderful cars, the owners tend to be a very sociable and inclusive bunch and there is always a warm welcome given to newcomers to the vintage Bentley fold.

When you think the cars in their heyday were mainly designed to compete and win the Le Mans 24 Hour race - it is clear that there was a specific purpose to the "over-engineering" synonymous with the cars. Bentleys are powered by large capacity, long-stroke engines which are completely under-stressed and present a different engineering philosophy to small capacity, high revving engines. Bentley engines produce vast reserves of torque from tick over which makes the cars easy to drive and fast! The rest of the car was always built with heavy competition use and endurance in mind, so when you combine the quality of components and our proven experience preparing these cars today, it is no surprise that a vintage Bentley is usually amongst the favourites in a vintage class on a modern event and even capable of giving much more modern cars a run for their money.

The short answer is - not as much as you might think. Matching number cars with original chassis, engine, gearbox, back axle, coachwork etc are extremely rare - even more so when you consider the cars are now 90 - 100 years old. In period - even a chassis was often replaced by the factory after accident damage and replacement engine upgrades to larger engines were commonplace. Original coachwork really is a rarity - partly due to the fact that period materials were not destined to last a century of use and also the trend in period to routinely replace worn out, costly to maintain, closed bodywork with more sporting touring coachwork. The reality is that a car's continuous history is far more important than stamped numbers. Most vintage Bentley's are well documented these days and we are happy to advise on any authenticity issues.

Vintage Bentley's were the Supercars of their time and when supplied as a rolling chassis for clients to choose their own coachbuilder of choice, the cars were still priced at the top of the luxury sporting car spectrum. Today prices for all but the most sought-after models are in the 6 figure range and have remained stable for a long time. When you consider the practicality of some of the models with genuine 4 seat capability and their proven competition success when suitably prepared, the cars epitomise a dare we say it "practical investment"! The number of vintage Bentleys that today are 90-100 years old and still around - is surely testament to the integrity and quality of the original product. Importantly, the engineering and technical simplicity of a Vintage Bentley means that we always can supply every single part for your car should it need replacing and at prices which are reasonable.

You know the answer to this - that's why you are looking at this web site! You never really own a vintage Bentley, you become a custodian, looking after it for the next generation. It is suggested that in the future, the imminent advent of electric cars will lead to the ultimate government objectives of removing the human from the driving process and the inevitable universal introduction of self-driving autonomous "cars". The thrill of driving a piece of history and hounding ubiquitous modern cars from the imperious driving position of a vintage Bentley will be consigned to history. Well we are not quite that pessimistic, we believe true collector cars and items of genuine historic interest will always be granted access to the roads. However, if you are lucky enough to buy into vintage Bentley experience - why wait?! Even when you are not driving it - just look at it! Carpe Diem!