THE TURBO R
Like so many of the world’s greatest cars, the Bentley Turbo R almost didn’t make it into showrooms. The story goes that the then-MD of Rolls-Royce, David Plastow, was keen to explore the idea of turbocharging as early as the late 1970s and, disregarding the protests of the engineering department, procured a timeworn Silver Shadow development hack and sent it off to race team Broadspeed. There a blower was strapped to the side of the venerable V8 and the car returned with 10% more power, but crucially 50% more torque.
Unsurprisingly, this made it a hoot to drive and the idea was refined via at least one turbocharged Camargue into a productionready form. Launched as the Bentley Mulsanne Turbo in 1982, the car astounded testers with its straight-line speed and alarmed them with its instability in equal measure. Autocar suggested the Turbo was now ‘asking ‘questions of the chassis it was never intended to answer,’ adding: ‘Throw the Turbo into even a smooth consistentradius bend with enthusiasm and you’ll wish you hadn’t.’
It was hardly a glowing testimonial, but in truth Crewe had possessed the resources to develop the engine, but not the suspension and was acutely aware of the problem. A handling package was already in development, consisting of a 100% stiffer front anti-roll bar, a 60% uprated rear bar, firmer dampers with uprated rebound, a 50% firmer power steering set-up and a Panhard rod to reduce sideways movement of the rear subframe. To these changes were added lightweight 15in alloy wheels shod with 275/55 tyres and a deeper front spoiler to create the model marketed as the Turbo R in 1985 – that R standing for Roadholding.
The Bentley was transformed by these changes, with Autocar now commenting that the modified Turbo R could be driven through S-bends much more tidily, while the lift- off oversteer was greatly reduced. They concluded that the car was now: ‘a marvellous experience to hurry down a truly open, lonely country road... to be travelling so quickly in so big a car.’
The reception of the Turbo R was so positive in Europe that American dealers were soon asking for a Federal-spec version, and so work began in 1988 to make the turbocharged V8 emissions compliant. This was achieved largely by replacing the Solex carburettor with Bosch fuel injection, in this case the partelectronic KE-Jetronic system which was already used by Ford
on its turbocharged Escorts. The opportunity was also taken to revise other aspects of the installation, with a new ignition set-up effectively working as two separate systems complete with two coils and two distributors. An air-to-air intercooler was added to the mix, and suddenly the engine was not only US-market compliant, but also boasted 320bhp.
Better tyres also allowed the speed limiter to be removed and the big Bentley could now top out at 143mph. A slight icing on the cake – and it was very slight – was that the injected turbo engine was more fuel efficient than the carb-fed unit, although economy was still in V12 Jaguar territory at 15mpg.
The car was duly released onto the American market in 1989, and from here the Bentley brand didn’t look back. In 1991 Bentleybadged cars outsold Rolls-Royce for the first time since the 1950s, and the Turbo R would be continually updated – a four-speed ZF gearbox would arrive in 1991 and the ultimate Turbo RT of 1997 would be packing 400bhp and an outrageous 590lb.ft of torque – until the last car left the line in late 1997, to be replaced by the BMW-powered Arnage.