1957 Bentley S1 Continental Flying Spur by H.J. Mulliner

Beginning with the R-Type Continental in 1954, the S Series Continental chassis would go on to carry no fewer than eleven variations of four-door sporting saloon between 1957 and 1965, all bearing the revered "Continental' title and being born from coach-builders as celebrated as Park Ward, Franay, Graber and Farina, with top-billing being reserved for the unimpeachable H.J. Mulliner of Chiswick, West London. The "Flying Spur' as commonly recognised shares the Continental label but depicts the luxurious four-door saloon vehicles still manufactured today.

The car offered for sale here is the first variant of its type registered new on 7th December 1957 to Mr Angus MacKinnon Esq. Chairman of a private bank, Brown, Shipley & Co. It was bought as a present for his wife, Resident at Hunton Manor, Hampshire, Mrs M MacKinnon who kept the six-light sports saloon until 28th October 1960 when it passed hands to Berkley Square Garages Ltd, Berkley Square, London W1. Here the original registration number was transferred from "KLL 125" to its present registration number of "609 HYP". It then passed ownership to Adams & Adams Ltd of New Maldon, Surrey on 20th March 1962. The subsequent owner, Mr Khan Esq. of NMT Trading, purchased the Flying Spur on 17th January 1964 keeping the vehicle until 3rd December 1983 when title eventually passed to Dr Peter Mattewman. Dr Mattewman commissioned a degree of restorative works to the car during his ownership including a bare metal respray and replacement beige West of England headlining. Furthermore, the vehicle's chromework was re-plated, a restored period radio was installed, both carburettors were rebuilt and new coil and HT leads were fitted very recently before Dr Mattewman sold the vehicle in summer of 2013 after a thirty year ownership.

This most impressive motorcar is painted in Seychelles Blue metallic with a mid-blue hide. It sports an automatic transmission with power steering, however, interestingly BC14DJ left the factory with a manual synchromesh gearbox making it a believed one of only four examples in the S1 Continental Flying Spur range fitted with this option. In fact, BC14DJ Is only one of Nineteen "D" Series Flying Spur's in a total of only 167 RHD Examples built to Design number 7443.

This rare coach-built car is an all-important numbers matching vehicle with all factory chassis build-sheets. It is taxed and MoT'd as you would expect and drives very well indeed. The engine is reported to be silky smooth and the transmission is said to shift with ease, a new stainless steel exhaust has only just been fitted, it is shod with correct 820x15 cross-ply tyres it looks fantastic and would make a welcome addition to any serious vehicle collection.