June 9, 2008
It's not every day you see a convoy of Bentleys drive through London, which is why Bill Thomas had to do it
'There's nothing better than 10 Bentleys around a roundabout for no reason'
In the troubled economic times we're currently facing, it's generally not a good idea to buy 11 Bentleys. Please forgive me for safely assuming that that theory applies to most of us. I can
assure you that it applies to me.The repayments on 11 brand new Bentleys, at an average price of say £130,000, would be £4,939 per calendar month over a 24 month period, after paying a deposit of around £275,000.
Which is savagely more than I can afford. It's disastrously, heinously and excessively expensive. Eleven brand new Bentleys - what a great number, 11; why have one when you can have 11? - really doesn't add up for the likes of me.
But of course what makes no economic sense to we mere mortals doesn't matter a jot to Richard Dixon, a bloke who did recently buy 11 brand new Bentleys, for cash. That's just under a million and a half quid.
Dixon is the boss of a high-end hire company called Just Prestige Cars and he put out a press release saying, 'we bought 11 brand new Bentleys, check these out,' with some pics attached. It was one press release among the hundreds we get every week at TopGear.com, but it busted through the clutter because it was 11 Bentleys in a great big row.
"OK," we said, "that's pretty impressive," we said, "but will you let us drive them?" we asked - expecting the answer 'no'.
>'How many amber lights would the tail end of this many Bentleys have to run to keep up?'
"Yes," said Dixon. "Sure you can."
Excellent. We collected them - 10, as one was being used elsewhere, but we didn't much miss
that nine-point-oh-nine-percent Bentley loss - from the Just Prestige Cars showroom in London, near Hanger Lane on the A40.
For no reason, I picked the Wimbledon Dog Track as our destination. Well, there was a bit of a reason - I like the Dogs and arriving at the Wimbledon Dog Track in a stupendous fleet of Bentleys appealed. But we'd have to get across town in convoy first, in mid-afternoon traffic, and we'd have to stick together in line astern. How would 10 brand new Bentleys all together look and feel?
Magnificent, of course. Bentley itself could never arrange this sort of a shindig at such short notice, but Dixon did. He asked for copies of our driving licences so he could insure it all, and away we went.
I drove up front, in a black Conti GTC with the roof down, muttering 'rubber duck' and 'got ourselves a convoy,' and stuff like that. And in the mirrors were nine other Conti's, a mixture of GTs, GTCs and GT Speeds, all with about a hundred miles on the clock, led by Paul Regan, TopGear.com editor, in a pearlescent white GTC. Then other Top Gear staff behind, and Peter Grunert, former Top Gear Deputy Editor, as tail-end Charlie.
Grunert had joined us at the very last second because, due to idiocy, I'd only organised nine drivers. So one minute he was in the office formulating magazine launch strategy tactical demonstration projection presentations and the next he was at the back of a fleet of 10 Bentleys in heavy traffic wondering how many amber lights he'd have to run to keep up.
Quite a few, as it turned out.
Excellent. We collected them - 10, as one was being used elsewhere, but we didn't much miss
that nine-point-oh-nine-percent Bentley loss - from the Just Prestige Cars showroom in London, near Hanger Lane on the A40.For no reason, I picked the Wimbledon Dog Track as our destination. Well, there was a bit of a reason - I like the Dogs and arriving at the Wimbledon Dog Track in a stupendous fleet of Bentleys appealed. But we'd have to get across town in convoy first, in mid-afternoon traffic, and we'd have to stick together in line astern. How would 10 brand new Bentleys all together look and feel?
Magnificent, of course. Bentley itself could never arrange this sort of a shindig at such short notice, but Dixon did. He asked for copies of our driving licences so he could insure it all, and away we went.
I drove up front, in a black Conti GTC with the roof down, muttering 'rubber duck' and 'got ourselves a convoy,' and stuff like that. And in the mirrors were nine other Conti's, a mixture of GTs, GTCs and GT Speeds, all with about a hundred miles on the clock, led by Paul Regan, TopGear.com editor, in a pearlescent white GTC. Then other Top Gear staff behind, and Peter Grunert, former Top Gear Deputy Editor, as tail-end Charlie.
Grunert had joined us at the very last second because, due to idiocy, I'd only organised nine drivers. So one minute he was in the office formulating magazine launch strategy tactical demonstration projection presentations and the next he was at the back of a fleet of 10 Bentleys in heavy traffic wondering how many amber lights he'd have to run to keep up.
Quite a few, as it turned out.
The route took us down the A40 to White City, then to Shepherds Bush, through to Hammersmith, down to Fulham, across Putney Bridge, then up the hill and down the other side to the Wimbledon Dog Track.
If you got held up by this bizarre convoy on that
sunny day, then we apologise. But not many people seemed to care. What they did was stare. And be somewhat amused. The most obvious joke needed to be made, and three different van drivers made it."Common as muck, those Bentleys, you see them everywhere," was the joke. Thrice, which made it a common joke. The other joke I had shouted at me by a grinning wag van driver, who could obviously count, was: "They're like London Buses - you don't see one for hours and then 10 come along all at once."
I pulled up at some lights in Fulham where a nice old lady was waiting to cross. "Lovely car, dear," she said, eyeing the GTC.
"And look behind, madame," I remarked, pointing a thumb to the rear.
"Oohh," she exclaimed, reeling backwards very slightly. "Oooh-ooh, look, oooh." Ten Bentleys does that to the best of us. There were lots of 'oooh' moments. All convoys have an element of weirdness to them, but this one resonated more than most. Everyone should drive in a convoy of 10 Bentleys as part of the compulsory driving test, because it's supreme fun - when Clarkson becomes PM, we'll make it law.
>'I wish I could have recorded the sound of 10 W12s - 120 cylinders and 60 litres of engine'
Then there was the roundabout at the top of Putney Hill over the A3. We all swished around
there for a few laps, hogging the entire roundabout as photographer Alex P snapped away, and those are five minutes that will stay with me for ever.
I looked in the mirror and saw Bentley en-masse, grilles and headlights and gleaming starburst reflections off the perfectly sheened paintwork. Then I looked across at Regan on my outside and I knew he was thinking what I was thinking - fantastic.
I wish I could have recorded the sound - 120 cylinders and 60 litres of engine, 10 W12s occasionally blurting with stabs of throttle, but mostly rumbling a soft, mellow hum, accompanied by a rush from the tyres and a whoosh from the air, and no other noise. On a sunny
day in London, there could surely be nothing better than driving 10 Bentley Continental GTs around a large roundabout for no reason whatsoever.
We drove into the Wimbledon Dog Track, parked the Bentleys in formation and got drunk. If you needed a reason, you just didn't understand.
Oh, and a final thought. What we did was only half the story. The other half - the biggest half, if you like! - was Richard Dixon himself, the man who gave 10 of his brand new Bentleys to a bunch of complete strangers and said 'have a drive'.
Sure, it's good publicity, but he doesn't really need it - his business will do just fine, like the other
businesses he runs. No, he did it because he liked the idea. He's a fascinating character, a self-made millionaire from the north-west of England, as sharp a man as I've met, with a critical eye for cars and a no-messing attitude to car deals.
Does he want any stories written about him? Nup. No, no, he says, waving his hands and doing a mock walk-away. But I'm going to keep asking. I'd like you to meet him, one day. Even if it's only in cyberspace.
there for a few laps, hogging the entire roundabout as photographer Alex P snapped away, and those are five minutes that will stay with me for ever.I looked in the mirror and saw Bentley en-masse, grilles and headlights and gleaming starburst reflections off the perfectly sheened paintwork. Then I looked across at Regan on my outside and I knew he was thinking what I was thinking - fantastic.
I wish I could have recorded the sound - 120 cylinders and 60 litres of engine, 10 W12s occasionally blurting with stabs of throttle, but mostly rumbling a soft, mellow hum, accompanied by a rush from the tyres and a whoosh from the air, and no other noise. On a sunny
day in London, there could surely be nothing better than driving 10 Bentley Continental GTs around a large roundabout for no reason whatsoever.We drove into the Wimbledon Dog Track, parked the Bentleys in formation and got drunk. If you needed a reason, you just didn't understand.
Oh, and a final thought. What we did was only half the story. The other half - the biggest half, if you like! - was Richard Dixon himself, the man who gave 10 of his brand new Bentleys to a bunch of complete strangers and said 'have a drive'.
Sure, it's good publicity, but he doesn't really need it - his business will do just fine, like the other
businesses he runs. No, he did it because he liked the idea. He's a fascinating character, a self-made millionaire from the north-west of England, as sharp a man as I've met, with a critical eye for cars and a no-messing attitude to car deals.Does he want any stories written about him? Nup. No, no, he says, waving his hands and doing a mock walk-away. But I'm going to keep asking. I'd like you to meet him, one day. Even if it's only in cyberspace.
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