What exactly is this mystery Bentley?

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We came across this photograph and wondered what it was all about. A fashion shoot? A film promo? We did not have the slightest clue. The upright radiator grille of the car oozes Bentley and the DVLA database confirms it’s just that: a 1953 Bentley, or so they say. The year points towards an R-type, but we wouldn’t be surprised to learn it to be an earlier model either – a Mk6 for example. The Mk6 Derby model spawned an awful lot of Specials, many of them built in the 1960s and 1970s. Some good, some bad, some basic, some frivoulous, some unusual, some plain weird and some resembling something else.

But how about this car? The body seems part aluminium and part copper? It’s hard to imagine what the back end looks like, but it may well have a boat tail. Somehow it reminds us of the cars that Maharajas or Officers of the British Empire used as hunting cars in India, but that may also be the ladies’ turban? Oh – ‘NXM 91’ is still on the road, too. Have you spotted it or know more about it? Let us know. 

(Words and archive picture Jeroen Booij)

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