This fine Allegro 1.1-litre has many special features: it is an early model with the legendary Quartic steering wheel, it is a rare three-door, it has been sympathetically restored – and it was owner Dams’s wedding car. An 18-year Bentley man who cites his first big achievement as designing the exterior changes for the Mk2 Continental GT, Dams says the car was actually bought by his wife in 2005, five years before he met her. It is used for occasional drives to work, cruising at a stately 45mph.
Dams is keen to point out that its clean, simple, 1970s lines are pretty and surprisingly modern; it was the car’s poor quality that built its bad reputation. “The Allegro is a very important member of our family,” he says. “We’ll never sell it.”
Porsche 944
Darren Day
Bentley’s head of interior design is celebrating 30 years at Pyms Lane – and he has been regularly driving his 1991 Porsche 944 S2 to work there since he bought it in 2007. It’s a well used car, with one engine refresh in its 200,000 miles, but resplendent in Panthero Black it looks perfect.
Day loves the 944 for its rearward cab, interior design, driving position, unique plan view, wheel arches and ability to carry two kids and racing bike. In fact, he loves the car so much that when he decided during lockdown to get a local specialist to “give it some paint”, he extended the job to correcting some subtleties of its body shape. He taped it up like a studio model and had his panel man make small corrections to some lines and surfaces. The result is a beautiful, timeless car.
And finally…
My Bentley day ended far too soon. I’d like to have spent more time talking, among others, to Ben Gladas about his superb red Alfa Romeo Brera (an early import that once took me up the hill at Goodwood) and to Dave Gibson about his 143,000-mile Volvo 245, one of many family Volvos.
However, I did end my time behind Bentley’s steel gates with a viewing of the latest star of the firm’s 30-strong classic collection, an immaculate 1965 T1 sa loon brought along by Bentley ’s communications director and collection custodian, Wayne Bruce. Found in Florida a decade ago, the car recently returned from a three-year refurb at famous, Essex-based P&A Wood. It turns out that this machine, whose siblings shared their bodies with the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow from 1965, was the very first of either marque to roll off the Crewe production line. It was pure treasure – and a perfect way to end two hours of delight.