1989 Bentley Turbo R - Jay Leno's Garage

we're here once again in the Bentley section of my garage up to this point we've only dealt with the wo Bentley's the 1924 twin-turbo Bentley the 8 litre here the speed 6 it normally goes here the silver one that's next door having an overdrive unit new gas tank being made for it and of course the big Mulliner Bentley here the big 8 litres sedan this was meant to do what this one does now cover great tracts of land at a single bound this engine is actually bigger this is 6.7 liter this is 8 litre but this cruise is at 75 80 miles an hour and that's what this one does it's just sort of a modern interpretation of a big comfortable luxury car you know back in the day before high-speed photography was perfected they used to hire artists like Gordon Crosby to give the sensation of speed and some of these early drawings and paintings from the 20s and 30s are just fantastic they actually are more exciting to look at than the photographs as you can see Bentley won LeMond a number of times over there that's the painting of the original poster if any Bentley sort of took up the mantle of the WS who'd probably be the turbo R in my opinion have only been really to sporting Bentley since the WL Bentley closes factory 1931 that would be the 1952 Continental R which at the time was the fastest saloon or fastest the sedan in the world had a four-speed with a six-cylinder engine 120 miles an hour and of course the turbo R Bentley here by the time the turbo came out it was introduced introduced rather in Geneva in 1985 at the Auto Show there the turbo R Bentley and it was until 88 89 it came into the United States I think 89 was the first year it actually came here so by that time everything had been sorted out massive brakes massive tires everything is extremely over built this is a classic example of body on chassis you know when I work for Bentley and rolls-royce I never thought I'd actually own one of these cars I used to have a great time delivering them in the early 70s quality control was not the best I remember we delivered a Rolls were corniche to a guy i drove it to his house we left it in his driveway we got back the next day the guy called the card burned to the ground in the driveway and I remember my boss said to him well you must have been smoking in it like I said I don't even smoke but you must have would know the guy said most have been some kind of shot Hodge is hard to believe he must have smoked it well the guy wasn't smoking it it was just a bad electrical system so when I got this car figured you know I love these things but it's going to have the typical English electrics know no problem at all the car was a revelation in its day because you know in the late 70s mid 80s most cars are pretty slow we're still on that carbureted fuel injection period smog was a huge deal they just couldn't get cars to run right especially powerful cars Ferraris didn't have much more than 200 to 220 horsepower in the period so this thing although Bentley rolls-royce never released any actual horsepower figures somewhere between three and four hundred but massive torque 500 foot-pounds of torque massive torque and least a top speed about 145 miles an hour which was plenty fast in the late 80s it's plenty fast now actually w/o Bentley lost his factory in 1931 it was bought by rolls-royce and he sort of reluctantly went in on that merger and that produced what they called the silent sports car the Derby Bentley's and there were nice cars but they didn't have that raw edge that Bentley's were so known for and by the time the 50s 60s 70s 80s came around especially early 80s Bentley's were really just a poor relation to the rolls-royce there are basically a rolls-royce with a Bentley grille on them they didn't handle particularly well they weren't fast they had the floaty Bodie ride of Rolls Royces in 1983 a man named Peter Ward became managing director of rolls-royce and Bentley and he decided to return the Bentley back to its former glory and what they did was they take they took the basically standard Silver Shadow which fundamentally had a pretty good suspension system except it was just floating like a big Cadillac would be full bar was stiffened by a hundred percent there is by about sixty percent new shocks are added or to kind of give you more rebound resistance and big Avon turbo speed tires look at the size of those tires they might not seem huge by today's standards by the late 80s that was a big tire take a look under the hood saw as amuses me under here looks like some sort of great steamship the engine is a standard rolls-royce Bentley v8 displays him at about 412 cubic inches or about 6.7 liters a research turbocharged or electronic boost control not particularly lightweight this car weighs a little over 5,200 pounds not a lot of plastic in here everything is metal I love this big engine oil filler here just sort of yield a more steam more power to the engine room just kind of slam that shut again even your dipstick look at this thing is everything's made of steel look at your shock towers massive looking things look that they came off a ship huge Springs everything is giant sized these are big fast nice handling cars in fact in 1988 I believe this was the very first turbo our Bentley sold in United States having worked for the company it was one car one to get it was the only other car I bought new prior to this at an 83 turbo diesel Mercedes I don't know why I did that it was a turbo diesel I don't know what I was thinking it was too slow I got rid of that and I traded in on this and I've had this car ever since but once every seven or eight years I recharged the air conditioner had to redo rear suspension that's the only service I've done to it have a great bank vault like quality you see it's a very comfortable place to be there's a lot of space in these and a lot of legroom it's not really a big car did I think it's a really handsome car I've still got my original floor mats when you buy one of these these are the what they call the carpets they give you when you supposed to use these instead of your floor mats but you sort of feel like you're Sonny Bono 1964 you know like they say it any you don't you know kind of a bad Sonny Lee's a little much but you know something on a long trip if you're driving barefoot oh these are fantastic my wife loves these II wonder what do they made of look at the genuine sheepskin rug hand made by skilled craftsman of Manchester made by Englishman you know I went to the Bentley factory years ago and they you know it's an old factory at the time it's all new now but when I went there you know they show you where the bomb came through the roof during the wall and you go buy a kettle and there's a lady making tea and it's freezing and it's like a one-eyed woman so in the leather like hello mr. Johnson hello this is Jay Leno hello hello Deary you know I mean it's a real kind of quaint old-fashioned kind of place it's quite modern up-to-date now but back in the 70s and 80s it was a whole different place this is probably the last of the non airbag cars so in seven airbag you have this ridiculous system here when you start the car up and you put it in gear see this goes along here and then you have to hook your seatbelt on to there this comes across this way a number of times I've been strangled by this thing all right get out of the car too quickly you see and I go like this and as the thing retreats it'll cut your head open it's like so you have to be very careful got a member the different time the 80s tried to believe in God this car for over 20 years you know it just goes to show if you take care of a vehicle a little lashes forever I mean to my eyes this car looks as good as the day I got it the trick is not to wash it too often you know trying to get cars too wet because water is not really friendly to cars it promotes rust I'll use a you know a detail spray or something like that and wipe it down and obviously you want to use leather stuff on the trim especially when it's real leather and the would you want to use a little you know even pledge any kind of polish is good and you can keep a car like this looking brand new that's what I love about these Bentley's is the body style doesn't change that often so people think this car is like a 1999 when it's actually 20 years old and it's got plenty of power you put your foot down and she goes pretty good I mean back in the 80s this was the fastest four-door sedan you could get you know and I love a non airbag we oh I hate that big thing in there I just like a nice thin steering wheel and Bentley's and rolls royces always had that whatever was wrong with the rolls-royce you could cure by taking the Bentley more power better handling bigger brakes the options were pretty standard you know back in the 80s you could get your am/fm radio with oh look at that a tape player I don't think the CD thing and quite hit yet handsome gauges I like analog gauges you know one year Rolls Royce came out with some digital gauges for a clock and one and people hated it rolls-royce Bentley people tend to be pretty traditional you got your nice English cloth up here and your Connelly hides and all that type of thing that's a real piece of wood you know and the handbook looks like something to get out of the Library of Congress you know beautifully written rolls-royce and Bentley have some interesting features that go back oh god almost at the beginning of the company it's your gas gauge is also an oil gauge and you press the button and it'll tell you the level transmission it uses a GM 403 speed which seems a little old-fashioned these days everything with a four-speed five-speed even automatic 6-speed but it gets the job done and you know if you're looking to buy one of these you could get a secondhand one of these what you'd pay for a new Honda Civic and you'd be driving a Bentley I mean new Bentley's now as bunch of this type of model to probably cost you two hundred fifty thousand dollars today maybe even more but you know you get one that's twenty years old and it's basically the same car plus it's the kind of car when you pick up your wife's parents oh this is off in your collection Hansen you know they expect you to pick up some noisy smelly things and go out no she'll get a little bit of class you know my mother as you say when you go out act like you know somebody you know on these kind of cars you look like you know somebody you pull up to the valet and this for you yes sir you only move all the other cars out of the way they put yours right in front because you got to give him a bigger tip country hauling in city horn before air travel was popular the big Bentley's in the late 20s and 30s were built to cover huge tracts of land in a single bound you know you would get your Bentley and you drive across York to the South of France you could cover great distances at high speed and that's what this one's meant to do get a real commanding view of the road when you drive what do you think you sit up high like you're in an SUV but it's obviously more comfortable in two uniquely British driving experience there are many cause and feel or handle like a Bentley you know you either get this kind of thing or you don't and once again there's just all kinds of torque when that turbocharger kicks in and handles surprisingly well for a big car you know this thing is like square dancing with the fat lady the fact that and do it at all it's pretty amazing so when you going through the twisties and you kind of have them fun to go wow I'm going to laugh fast a night time you see why Bentley use the moniker the silent sports car for so many years is there's no engine noise unlike a couple weeks ago when we had the Hagerman Jaguar which made fantastic noises this thing's as quiet as your library there's nothing high-tech about vent leads especially Bentley's from this era basically a big ol v8 to a three speed automatic transmission but the build quality is tremendous you know the difference between Bentley and rolls-royce I think rolls-royce people look to see who's in the car with Bentley you look at the car there's a lot of rolls-royce owners don't like to drive their cars I like to be chauffeur driven whereas Bentley's are real drivers car that's why the right a little bit firmer they have the better brakes the better tire as I'm sure you know by now Bentley is now a separate company is no longer associated with Rolls Royce and I think that's good I think the new Bentley's are making now are much more in tune with what wo had originally my favorite Bentley's are this one as I said the 1952 Continental and of course the new Bentley's the four-wheel drive with the v12 fantastic cars as long as there's some England they'll always be a Bentley see you next week

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 931,026

Rating: 4.8947711 out of 5

Keywords: Jay Leno, Automotive, Cars, Garage, horsepower, Jay, Leno, mods, custom car, Speed, Fast, modded cars, mechanic, fastest car, Jay Leno's Garage, cars, exotic cars, interview, custom, Leno car, funny, Leno funny, car show, Rare, Motorcycles, racing, jay leno interview, auto, drive, power, fast, amazing, cool, the cars, vehicle, 1989 Bentley Turbo R

Id: ierOoMQC0Ek

Length: 13min 14sec (794 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 10 2013

Reddit Comments

[u/Pnaps]

I enjoyed the video, but as a mercedes turbodiesel owner, I was hurt by that comment he made hah.

[u/polandpower]

Jay Leno's videos and stories are always interesting. Thanks for sharing.