At 10:09 AM 4/28/99 -0700, Matt & Linda Rathney-Quinn wrote:
>I was quite interested to see your comments on the Hydraulics. I was under
>the impression this had been deleted in '69 or '70 and can I assume
>therefore yours is a late example of this system?
No, all RR and Bentley cars since 1965 have had hydraulic height control
systems. The first models, early Shadow I and T, had it on all four
wheels. The front height control was deleted in about 1968, and a service
bulletin detailed how to remove it from earlier cars. You have to leave
the rams on the front, so that the upper end of the spring has the correct
seat, but all the plumbing can go. It turned out to be more trouble than
it was worth since the weight of the front of the car doesn't change nearly
as much as the rear. Compare a single driver and near-empty fuel tank with
full fuel, four large adults and the capacious boot filled to, well,
capacity with luggage.
I recommend anyone seriously interested in these cars join the RROC (or
RREC in the UK) and/or BDC; the membership will provide enormous amounts of
help, support and information. (and they assured me I wasn't nuts to want
a T-Bentley for a daily driver.) The (members-only) RROC mailing list has
5-20 messages a day.
I recently got back from a business trip where I had a rented Ford Contour;
the contrast between that and my Bentley was enormous. The Contour was
comfortable enough, and the ride was nice, but when I put my foot down it
had to think about things before responding. Going up grades with the
cruise control engaged it would switch between "passing gear" and cruising
gear constantly, every 20 seconds or so. Argh. Getting back in a nice
motorcar was a relief.
--berry
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Berry Kercheval :: Scriptics Corporation :: Berry@scriptics.com
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