CCW’S HEADLINES IN 1997
Had you braved the rain and wandered into one of Battersea’s newsagents the following morning to pick up a copy of that week’s CCW you would have been treated to other classic owners defying the torrential conditions – the inclement conditions at the Bromley Pageant’s 20th anniversary outing, and the fact that it hadn’t put off more than 100 classic clubs from taking part, was our big news story that week. We also reported that thieves had taken a 1966 Mini Cooper S from the event’s overflow car park – but happily the concours car was reunited with its rightful owner, who held on to it for another 20 years.
One of the month’s big auction deals was a Bentley 4.5-litre ‘Blower’ setting a UK auction record of £397,5000 at Bonhams’ Goodwood Festival of Speed sale. It didn’t take long for new owner, Rolls-Royce, to confirm that it would be displaying it alongside its 1907 Silver Ghost in the foyer of its Crewe factory.
Richard Charlesworth, then R-R spokesman, said: ‘Because we call upon the WO Bentley heritage so much in our current models, we thought that it was keeping with our lineage to have an example of a WO Bentley car – and one of the best-known is this one. We’d been looking for the right car for some time, and we felt that this one was the most appropriate.’
If you didn’t have that sort of money tucked down the back of your sofa, you could always treat yourself to a £25k Ferrari Dino, a £6k Audi quattro or a Ford Escort RS2000 for just £2000. Work on CCW’s time machine project is still ongoing…