1997 Bentley Azure
“ One of the most exclusive and expensive cars ever made.... and now representing excellent value. ”
Being offered as part of our curated auction in conjunction with the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts Club Annual Rally at Kelmarsh Hall in Northamptonshire on the 26th – 28th June’26.

Background
Bentley's 1980s resurgence had relied on models whose basic architecture was shared with other Rolls-Royce products, but also on display at the Geneva Motor Show in '85 was 'Project 90', a mocked-up coupé intended to gauge public response to the idea of a high-performance car unique to Bentley.

When the real thing - the Bentley Continental R - was unveiled six years later, the waiting crowd burst into spontaneous applause.

The Corniche convertible had been a major success for Rolls-Royce so it can have surprised few onlookers when a soft-top version of the Bentley Continental R was announced, albeit a full four years after the Coupé's introduction. Once again, Geneva was chosen to launch what would turn out to be the first Bentley model in several decades to use an entirely new name - 'Azure' - which, like 'Corniche' and 'Camargue', evoked exotic destinations in the South of France.

The famous Italian styling house of Pininfarina – a firm with unrivalled experience in the design of soft-top Gran Turismos – had been chosen to develop the Azure on the four-seater Continental R platform, and there was no questioning that the result was most successful.

Bodyshells were assembled in Italy by Pininfarina, fitted with the automatic soft-top, painted and shipped back for finishing at Crewe.

Mechanically similar to the Continental R, but with its turbo-charged V8 engine further up-rated to 385bhp, the Azure was launched in 1995 and cost £215,000 in the UK.

Hailed by its maker as, 'the world's best convertible', the Azure lived up to that grand title, proving an immense success, especially in North America where its combination of unmatched luxury, effortless performance, and soft-top style was found highly attractive.

When production ceased in 2003 a total of only 1,321 Azures of all types had been built, with just 243 in RHD configuration.

Overview
What you’re looking at is about the size of East Sussex, is ridiculously opulent, luxurious and indulgent, and would have cost £230,000 in 1997.

It is also powerful, capable and mechanically competent, having had over £10,000 spent on all manner of repairs, servicing, fettling and tweaking.

We have driven the car and can attest that it goes about its stately business with a degree of smoothness you’d be hard pressed to find in any other contemporary car.

It glides and shimmies over pot-holes, protrusions and (probably) peasants with all the poise and grace of a lightly Brylcreemed panther.

When asked, it presses on with entirely improbable urge and enthusiasm for one so large and heavy.

One minute it’s Cary Grant, wearing monogrammed silk pyjamas and drinking a cocktail.

The next it’s got a towel round its neck and is punching sides of beef in a Bronx cold store.

The car had a new speedo courtesy of Jack Barclay when the clock was showing 8,000 miles, so we know that the total mileage of 53,453 is genuine.

But it’s not perfect and, despite the money and time spent on it in recent times, there’s still work to be done for anyone who wants it to fully regain all or most of its considerable former glory.

The seller says: "I have spent loads on her, no warning lights came up all the way from Harrow Weald to you [in South Oxfordshire]".

Estimate: £45,000 - £50,000

View the current bid price here: https://www.themarket.co.uk/listings/bentley/azure/617cb4db-2383-4661-824f-e897f1869d5c