1971 Bentley Corniche
2 door saloon-
Year of manufacture1971
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Mileage77 500 mi / 124 725 km
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Car typeCoupé
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Chassis numberCBH10470
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Engine numberCBH10470
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Reference number670
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DriveRHD
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ConditionUsed
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Exterior brand coloursilver
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Number of doors2
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Location
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Exterior colourSilver
Description
Simply irresistible - the first series Corniche, which comes with the gorgeous wooden steering wheel - only available for the 1971 model year, sadly as we seriously wish they all had this feature
Sadly with imminent crash safety legislation, especially from the US market, the wooden steering wheel was replaced by the bakelite unit as previously supplied, which does give the 1971 model serious rarity
Other features included in the revisions were so important that a change of name was decided upon, hence the 'new' Corniche model has an increased capacity engine from 6320cc to 6750cc
This was mated to a new 3 speed gearbox with torque converter, which replaced the by then, out of date adjustable band gearbox, giving almost seamless gear changes
The difference in drive was almost unparalleled and still is
Anyhow as only 27 examples were produced from 1971 until 1976 before the series 2 arrived, one can assume that, perhaps a paltry, 5 or 6 were produced for this model year - how many still exist I'm not sure
This is the only one ever to have passed through our hands, for the third time now
In the previous 20 years, before we sold her to her last keeper 3 years ago, she was in the custody of two Japanese collectors. The first kept her there amongst many other very important cars (Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Ferrari, Mercedes 300SL Gullwing etc etc).
He regarded her as important enough to containerise and ship to highly respected Official Dealers, Broughton's of Cheltenham in the late 1990's. Under his instruction they undertook a full restoration, to factory standards and using correct parts and materials. This exercise was not undertaken lightly and the cost was in the region of £80.000 - £100.000 (remember this is over 25 years ago)
The results speak for themselves and save now for a few little paint imperfections she presents in truly superb condition
His great chum, knowing how rare and beautifully restored she had been, eventually managed to purchase her in the early 2000's whereupon, again she was plopped into a container and shipped from Japan back to Europe, to be kept at his his holiday home in Bordeaux, France where she resided before we purchased her from him and repatriated her back into England
Therefore mostly gentle holiday touring has resulted in an additional 10.500 miles since the nut and bolt restoration - the last two keepers only added the 1.750 miles on top of her mileage since the restoration
Funnily enough the last two keepers were French and on each occasion she was transported back to her, now new found home land
Both chaps have many cars here in London, Paris, S of France & Switzerland too - hence low mileages since we sold her to them
The last last chap requested the original steering wheel be updated for a Nardi wheel, which sits beautifully in the interior and also a music system which will be of concert hall quality, whilst not changing the interior fittings
She comes complete with her original instruction manual, service voucher booklet, complete small and large tools too
The history file does not contain the invoices from Broughton's (must be in one of the containers!) and full verification of these works is validated by the previous owners (not forgetting the quality of the vehicle - the engine / drive train and the trimming of the interior leaves one in no doubt)
This Corniche, as a 1971 example, is probably rarer than the Corniche 2 by which it was superseded and must therefore, represent an almost unique opportunity
The images are from 2019, before we fitted the original wheels and wheel discs - new pictures will replace these during this week
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