One of the cars featured at the recent Starship Supercar show was a Bentley Brooklands so it made me want to delve into this unique model.

Named after the banked race track in Surrey, the Brooklands harks back to the many race wins that Bentley achieved in the 1920s and 1930s.

Confusingly the Brooklands came in two iterations being the first model, running from 1993 to 1998, and then a second model from 2007 to 2011.

The first model came on the scene as a more affordable version of the Bentley Turbo R sedan, which began its life in the mid-1980s. The Brooklands began as a replacement for the Bentley Eight and Bentley Mulsanne S models, initially without these models’ turbocharger although a light pressure turbo was added in 1996 to the 6.75-litre V8 engine.

 A Brooklands R was developed for 1998 and although this denoted a connection with the Turbo R, it was not as powerful or as exclusive and was more for an iteration of the “mainstream” Brooklands sedan but with extras.

The second Brooklands model from 2007 to 2011 was a different kettle of fish and took the Bentley Azure body (then a convertible) and turned it into a four-seater, two-door pillar-less coupe. Only 550 were hand-built and these were considered the spiritual successor to the Bentley Turbo R and T.

The Brooklands “2” was frighteningly expensive, even more so than the Bentley Continental GT which was five years old when the second Brooklands was born. The Brooklands would appeal to the highly moneyed, more elderly Bentley audience who, according to Bentley “had a net worth in excess of US$30 million” and “eight other cars”. The Conti GT, on the other hand, was for the younger audience who wanted to drive their car faster and across continents.

Running a six-speed automatic (with Tiptronic) and driven by a twin turbocharged 6.75-litre V8 engine putting out 395kW, it eclipsed the magical 1000Nm mark with torque and took the accolade of the highest production V8 ever produced. It had optional Carbon brake discs costing more than $50,000, which made Porsche’s look cheap!

Ultimately the second Brooklands met its expectations of selling 550 but it was a hard ask. The car was dated and dynamically off the mark for its era. However, it represented a high watermark of a bygone era where Bentley felt it could sell high-end cars to those not benchmarking against the combinations of dynamically superior other car models available for the same money.

For a full rundown on the second Brooklands watch Doug De Muro’s review that goes into detail. 

There’s no doubt, since the passing of the Brooklands in 2011, Bentley has come a long way. Its models of 2021 represent the best of technology and dynamic “GT prowess”, in both sedan and four-door form. 

But it took models like the Brooklands, both first and second versions, plus the other models of the Bentley’s before things got really good in 2018 with the current GT release, to define the fabric of the Bentley story that shines so brightly today.