We're whirling ever upwards, left and right through the lanes and eventually climbing to a long straight between the shoulders of two mountains. Snowdonia is looking its best today, with bright sunshine and a sky almost as deep as the Circassian Blue on this S2 Continental. Next to me is Huw Williams from one of the best-known specialists in the classic and vintage Rolls-Royce and Bentley scene, the Real Car Co. Huw has an interesting take on this vehicle, which conveys a lot about the way it feels compared to its predecessors.
‘It's like a posh getaway car,’ he says. ‘It's got a lot of power and torque and gets going very well from a standstill. I guess you'd get three or four bank-robbers in here, alongside the driver, and in 1962 I don't suppose anyone would have caught you!’
When you think back to the BBC's Z-Cars, launched the year this car was built, you have to admit that Stratford Johns, Brian Blessed et al would have struggled to keep up in a Mk 3 Ford Zephyr. But it's all a joke, anyhow — it seems highly unlikely that a Bentley S2 Continental was used for such a nefarious purpose, especially with the streets full of ageing Jaguars just begging to be borrowed. Indeed, youa couple of dozen per year, and not all of those destined to stay in the UK.
