THIRTY YEARS CONTINENTAL R

Press day of the 1991 Geneva motor show saw the Rolls-Royce Motors stand ten deep with journalists and photographers, elbowing each other for the ultimate vantage point. All they’d had was an enigmatic invitation to attend a Rolls-Royce/Bentley press conference… and that was it. Although there had been rumours of a new Bentley, the stand was decked out in the blue and silver of Rolls-Royce, with the linked Rs and Spirit of Ecstasy dominating the walls.

It wasn’t until a forty-second video presentation had finished – during which time Bentley logos had replaced the Rolls-Royce graphics – that it started to dawn on the gathered media that this could indeed herald the arrival of a new Bentley, a fact confirmed by presentations from Crewe management. The car remained absent, however, until a Turbo R on display was slowly driven off the stand to be replaced by a Vermillion-hued Continental R, driven by a very nervous Dave Preece to the unrestrained accompaniment of Elgar’s Zadok the Priest, which faded away to allow Land of Hope and Glory to boom from the speakers.

For the first time ever, the organisers of the Geneva Salon had allowed a car to be driven on to a stand accompanied by music. It marked a very special moment