Bentley goes up, Bently goes down....

DJ-Studd

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Did you know: several of the Bentley's (the Continental GT for one) license Citroen's Hydractive 3 suspension?

I thought it was quite an amazing thing to hear.

This information is courtesy of someone in the car industry.

Aww crap, I think I can hear the VW's coming after me.... *runs*

-- DJ
 
DJ-Studd said:
Did you know: several of the Bentley's (the Continental GT for one) license Citroen's Hydractive 3 suspension?

I thought it was quite an amazing thing to hear.

This information is courtesy of someone in the car industry.

Aww crap, I think I can hear the VW's coming after me.... *runs*

-- DJ


so do fairlanes but they run on air and fail after a few years
 
Interesting - I had not heard that the Bentley was still using Citroen stuff - but them Mercedes just ripped it off for some of their cars! :wink2:

The old RR company originally licensed Citroen's suspension and high pressure braking back in the early 60's with the very first Shadow - they then used it up until the nearly the 90s, I think.

In typically RR fashion they made it unbelievably complicated and expensive to fix - one of the Shadows had 3 :eek: separate braking systems - all to try and provide some sort of 'feel' because they did not like the on-off pedal of the D. And the rear suspension had far more components than a Citroen (except maybe the new C6 :D ), for no better result. They abandoned the high pressure self levelling front suspension very early on and all cars were converted to conventional springs at the front.

And they hung on to LHS2 (=RR363) until the late 70s, so they get terrible corrosion unless well taken care of.

There is now a big issue with the older RR-Bentleys in that it appears that Castrol have changed the formula of RR363, so that it doesn't have as much lubricity (they seem to have removed the castor oil component) - Castrol won't admit to anything, but the owners are complaining of noisy suspension and pumps wearing out - and with 2 pumps costing over $1k each to replace they might well complain :cry: .

This is also an issue for owners of older Ds, but we Citroen people don't seem to be as worried about mixing up our own brew by adding 15-20% castor oil, which scares the Roller mob a bit.

P
 
Paul Smith said:
There is now a big issue with the older RR-Bentleys in that it appears that Castrol have changed the formula of RR363, so that it doesn't have as much lubricity (they seem to have removed the castor oil component) - Castrol won't admit to anything, but the owners are complaining of noisy suspension and pumps wearing out - and with 2 pumps costing over $1k each to replace they might well complain :cry: .
P

Sh1+. Lucky the Bentley comes with its own spare bottle of Castrol RR363.
 
Hi Guys,
some years ago the RR Silver Cloud had Cit rear suspension, only for improved ride and ride levelling for the boot load.
As far as I know it was very successful, and the RR customers never knew it was liscensed from Citroen, or could not care less. :rolleyes:
Of course, Bentley and RR are one and the same.
I'd rather drive a Citroen with the works rather than half a suspension system. :joker:
Cheers...George 1/8th. :cheers: :cool:
 
RR are not really that shy about admitting they use other companies systems. Their theory being that they (to loosely quote) build the best possible cars in the world. If that involves using a compilation of tried and tested systems sourced from a variety of manufacturers, then so be it. This is one of the reasons RR/B stayed with LHS2 for so many years after Citroen changed to LHM - they (RR) were waiting to see if LHM caused any problems.

(as quoted from the 2003 combined RR and Citroen club meeting)
 
George 1/8th said:
Hi Guys,
some years ago the RR Silver Cloud had Cit rear suspension, only for improved ride and ride levelling for the boot load.
As far as I know it was very successful, and the RR customers never knew it was liscensed from Citroen, or could not care less. :rolleyes:
Of course, Bentley and RR are one and the same.
I'd rather drive a Citroen with the works rather than half a suspension system. :joker:
Cheers...George 1/8th. :cheers: :cool:

That used to be true, but not anymore. RR is now a BMW, and they have a new factory near Goodwood. Bentley, is VW, and they retain the old factory in Crewe. In fact, I don't even think they share major components anymore.
The new RR uses a new BMW 7 series motor, but the bentley uses an updated RR engine.
RR presented one of their new cars to HM the queen, but to date, I don't think she has ever used it! john s
 
smiffy1071 said:
RR presented one of their new cars to HM the queen, but to date, I don't think she has ever used it! john s

By jove, Phillip, that Rolls-Royce looks like a horses arse! I'm not getting into THAT!

I noticed they were in a Bentley at Charles' wedding.

Stuey
 
Stuey said:
By jove, Phillip, that Rolls-Royce looks like a horses arse! I'm not getting into THAT!

I noticed they were in a Bentley at Charles' wedding.

Stuey


can't have competition on the big day :roflmao: :roflmao:
 
Stuey said:
By jove, Phillip, that Rolls-Royce looks like a horses arse! I'm not getting into THAT!

I noticed they were in a Bentley at Charles' wedding.

Stuey
Well, they did arrive at the registry in the Queens 1960's RR Phatom 6 special landaulette! I'd love one of those, but current prices for those are £15,000!
 
Stuey said:
By jove, Phillip, that Rolls-Royce looks like a horses arse! I'm not getting into THAT!

I noticed they were in a Bentley at Charles' wedding.

Stuey

What, THIS Bentley? (as seen outside Buck Pal on 5 May 2004) :D
 

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The Royal Limo's not real pretty, but as usual with the germans a technological tour de force!

http://classics.com/que2.html

BTW - the new Continental GT is basically a VW Phaeton in different bodywork - they can't keep up with demand for them with UK production (>5000/yr) and are considering building them at the amazing glass factory they built, which does very little because no-one can see their way to paying nearly $200k for a VW. :joker:

The factory is an incredible looking place (for a car factory!)

http://www.caranddriver.com/article.asp?section_id=4&article_id=7207&page_number=1

Paul
 
There's a guy that parks his light blue Conti GT straight outside my work in St George's Terrace, and just sits in it. Must think it's a chick magnet... :joker:
 
UFO said:
What, THIS Bentley? (as seen outside Buck Pal on 5 May 2004) :D
No, it wasn't that Bentley, it was a car rather than a Limousine. I love what Harry did to it, spraying it with shaving foam "prince+duchess".
I think that finally shut one of our newspapers up, that keep going on about diana, and how the boys are taking it. john s
 
There were some breif shots of charlies bentley, like u said all decorated like a proper wedding car.

The Queen tootled around in a black and burgandy limo, which looked like the new roller, maybe it was the first time she used it ?
 
petermelb said:
There were some breif shots of charlies bentley, like u said all decorated like a proper wedding car.

The Queen tootled around in a black and burgandy limo, which looked like the new roller, maybe it was the first time she used it ?

Peter, I might be wrong, but that was the car I referred to as a Bentley. I remembered saying to my disinterested missus - look how bloody shiny the guys got that bloody Bentley!

Stuey
 
smiffy1071 said:
That used to be true, but not anymore. RR is now a BMW, and they have a new factory near Goodwood. Bentley, is VW, and they retain the old factory in Crewe. In fact, I don't even think they share major components anymore.
True. None at all. The Goodwood factory looks amazing!
smiffy1071 said:
The new RR uses a new BMW 7 series motor, but the bentley uses an updated RR engine.
Not quite. The Phantom uses a Beemer V12, but at 6.75-litre capacity. The old Bentley Arnage uses an updated turbo version of the venerable V8 (in place of the BMW motor it started out with), while the Conti GT and the new Flying Spur use the Volkswagen W12 (essentially, give or take a turbo or three...)
smiffy1071 said:
RR presented one of their new cars to HM the queen, but to date, I don't think she has ever used it! john s
Seriously ugly. The car, I mean...
Still, who cares? Give me an old Cit any day!
 
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