{"id":13896,"date":"2023-01-25T14:21:48","date_gmt":"2023-01-25T21:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.westerndriver.com\/?p=13896"},"modified":"2023-01-25T14:25:15","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T21:25:15","slug":"bentley-celebrates-70th-birthday-of-famous-heritage-car-with-modern-one-off-continental-gt-azure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.westerndriver.com\/?p=13896","title":{"rendered":"Bentley celebrates 70th Birthday of famous heritage car with modern, one-off Continental GT Azure"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Modern R-Type pays homage to iconic R-Type Continental, JAS 949. Photo: courtesy Bentley.<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Bentley Motors has handcrafted a unique and one-off Continental GT Azure, inspired by its retained example of the iconic R-Type Continental, JAS 949.<\/p>\n

The new Continental GT is in honour of JAS 949\u2019s 70th<\/sup>\u00a0birthday, celebrating one of the essential style icons in Bentley\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

JAS 949 is one of only 208 examples of the R Type Continental ever built\u2014but the car had a more significant impact than the limited numbers suggest. The beautiful Bentleys, old and new, have been photographed at an equally spectacular London landmark, south London\u2019s Battersea Power Station, a 21st<\/sup>-century reinvention of a 1950s icon.<\/p>\n

Described as \u201ca modern magic carpet which annihilates great distances,\u201d the R-Type Continental was the fastest four-seat luxury saloon in the world when launched in 1952. The three key design lines of the car\u2014the power line from the front wheel, the rear haunch and the roofline\u2014were the inspiration for the first generation Continental GT in 2003 and every Continental GT since.<\/p>\n

The latest Azure members of the Continental GT family continue to celebrate elegance and timeless design, directly descended from the R-Type Continental, while adding a focus on well-being behind the wheel.<\/p>\n

Using Mulliner\u2019s Personal Commissioning Guide, the new Continental GT Azure pays homage to one of the most iconic members of Bentley\u2019s 43-car Heritage Collection. JAS 949 is Bentley\u2019s own R-Type Continental and resides in the newly opened Heritage Garage at Bentley\u2019s carbon-neutral campus in Crewe.<\/p>\n

Bentley acquired JAS 949 in 2001 and has maintained it in excellent mechanical order while sympathetically preserving its patina. The car continues to be driven regularly on the road.<\/p>\n

Dr. Rowland Guenin of Switzerland, the first owner of JAS 949, received it in December 1953. He ordered it in ivory with a red interior and a manual gearbox, a specification it retains today, along with the original 4.6-litre engine.<\/p>\n

To recreate the closest specification for the modern interpretation of JAS 949, a new Continental GT V8 Azure has been hand painted in Old English White\u2014a faithful re-creation of the heritage paint colour that dates back to the 1950s. As per its muse, the Continental GT comes fitted with bright chrome (including the matrix grille). While JAS949 rides on 16\u201d wheels, the newer version runs on 22\u201d hand-finished wheels in a black and polished finish, as per the original.<\/p>\n

In-cabin Cricket Ball leather provides a cosseting, deep and rich heritage feel for the driver and passengers, mirroring the hide colour of JAS 949. Hand-applied piping in Beluga leather brings accents to the seats to provide contrast and preserve the cabin\u2019s design lines.<\/p>\n

Bentley was obsessive in his pursuit of smoothness and refinement. \u201cI have put up with a lot of noise in my time, but I don\u2019t like it,\u201d he wrote in his autobiography, adding, \u201cI hate noise for the sake of noise. To me, 70 mph in silence is far more creditable than a noisy 80 mph.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Bentley\u2019s Azures are quieter at 150 miles (241 km) an hour than anything W.O. Bentley would have experienced at 70 (112 km).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bentley Motors has handcrafted a unique and one-off Continental GT Azure, inspired by its retained example of the iconic R-Type Continental, JAS 949. The new Continental GT is in honour of JAS 949\u2019s 70th\u00a0birthday, celebrating one of the essential style icons in Bentley\u2019s history. JAS 949 is one of only 208 examples of the RRead Full Story<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13897,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[32],"class_list":["post-13896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bentley","tag-slider"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westerndriver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westerndriver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westerndriver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westerndriver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westerndriver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13896"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.westerndriver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13896\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13898,"href":"https:\/\/www.westerndriver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13896\/revisions\/13898"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westerndriver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.westerndriver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westerndriver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.westerndriver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}