Somewhere between the return of baggy jeans and the sudden belief that a flip phone is refreshingly simple, millennium-era cars have enjoyed an unexpected glow-up. And honestly? Good. Because if we’re going to romanticise the late 1990s, we might as well do it with something built like a bank vault with power like a freight train. Enter the 1999 Bentley Continental SC, a car from the brief period when luxury manufacturers still solved niche problems nobody had, taking the already-imperious Continental R and spicing it with Continental T-style suspension, discreet red badging, and the chance to experience open top driving without the messy hair.

This party trick is one Bentley called a modern revival of the sedanca coupé, giving the impression of open-top motoring without committing to the full breeze. A full tinted glass roof panel incorporates a two-piece removable section over the driver’s seat, where when you pop the panels out, they stow in a special padded, carpeted boot compartment. Under the bonnet lives the famous 6.75-litre turbocharged V8, quoted at 400 horsepower and a frankly indecent 590 lb-ft of torque. It’ll do 0–60 mph in a touch over six seconds, a figure that is still impressive even today, especially given the whole ethos of this example is much more about lazy cruising than lap times.

This example, a 1999 model is one of a mere 73 Continental SCs built, of which just 48 were left-hand drive. Finished in Black over Autumn leather with Black piping, the car has covered just 4,330 km from new and serves as a perfect reminder of just how collectable limited-run vehicles from this era are getting, with RM Sotheby’s setting an estimate of anywhere upwards of a quarter-of-a-million Dollars. 

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