BENTLEY S2 SHOOTING BRAKE
Year of manufacture 1960 Recorded mileage 38,025
Asking price $375,000 Vendor Hyman Ltd, 2310 Chaffee Drive, St Louis, MO 63146, USA; 001 314 524 6000; hymanltd.com
WHEN IT WAS NEW Price n/a Max power 200bhp Max torque 330lb ft
0-60mph 12.3 secs Top speed 113mph Mpg 13
I’ve always had a thing for classic estate cars, and few float my boat quite like a period shooting brake conversion such as this slightly bizarre but completely wonderful creation, based on a Bentley S2. Of 57 long-wheelbase S2s, chassis LLBA9 is one of only six delivered new to a coachbuilder to be fitted with custom coachwork, in this case Karosserie Wendler in Reutlingen, Germany.
Its styling is a curiously magpied mix: along with that regal Bentley grille there’s a bit of Chevy Nomad, particularly to the rear, while the silhouette suggests Mercedes ‘Fintail’ Universal. The striking whole has an appealing blend of Britishness and caddishness – you can imagine an ageing James Bond ferrying his sons’ trunks to his alma mater Fettes College in it at the start of term, with plenty of time on his hands following retirement from MI6.
Delve into the Bentley’s history and you’ll find that the Mercedes influence is more than skin deep – even if its body builder lay 30 miles south of Stuttgart. The first owner, tobacco heiress Caroline Ryan Foulke, ordered the S2 via New York dealer JS Inskip, to replace her coachbuilt Mercedes 300d ‘Adenauer’ estate. The chassis was shipped to Baden-württemberg, where the Wendler craftsmen constructed the one-off bodywork by grafting on hand-modified panelwork from a W112 shell, along with plenty of bespoke parts and a set of Buick tail-lights – not to mention those distinctive Mercedes headlamps.
The result is inevitably hefty but, the S2 being the first Bentley fitted with the long-serving (and recently retired) L-series V8, it should offer plenty of effortless performance no matter how many spaniels I cram into the back. And I love that the interior is, by Bentley standards, relatively austere. It has a uniquely Teutonic feel that contrasts with thoroughly British Connolly hide and transatlantic highlights courtesy of the simple oak dash. It’s unique and almost spartan beside the understated luxury of a Crewe-built car or the opulence of the British coachbuilders, plus the seats fold to reveal a vast and immaculately timber-lined load bay that makes it the world’s most exotic removals van.
The S2 has lived much of its life in New York, but from 2012-2013 it was restored to concours standard in Connecticut and has now found its way into the fabulously varied inventory of Mark Hyman’s Missouri emporium. It’s a lot pricier than a Standard Steel S2, or even a Radford Countryman, and more in line with a nice Continental drophead or Flying Spur – yet rarer than them all.