1956 Bentley S1 Hooper Body

1956 Bentley S1 Hooper Body Make: Bentley Model: S1 Hooper Body Year: 1956 Mileage: 83104 VIN: B214AN Configuration: Right Hand Drive Registration: PSK886 Transmission: automatic While most Bentley S-Series (and their Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud siblings) were built with Standard Steel bodies (effectively the 'factory' body), that the cars continued to use separate chassis construction meant that coachbuilders could still practise their art on them. Although Hooper was owned by Daimler, it still created elegant (and sometimes very flamboyant) designs for the chassis of other manufacturers, including Rolls-Royce and Bentley. Many of these had a distinctive frontal appearance with hooded headlamps, as is apparent with this very stylish ivory and black 1956 Bentley S1, built to Hooper design number 8430. It seems that just 39 cars to this particular pattern were constructed, with aluminium alloy panelling. So this was a very rare vehicle even when new, and much more so now. The vendor tells us that one of the previous owners (the V5C records three former keepers), a retired bank manager, cherished this Bentley throughout his 30-year custodianship of it. It is described as running well, although our examination of it reveals that it may benefit from some cosmetic attention in places. These include the roof, where there are some scratches and a little bit of bubbling and 'orange peel' texture to paint, and the rear wings, where the paint has cracked along the swage line. There are also a few age marks on the nose. The interior is very presentable, with sumptuous cream leather, an immaculate beige headlining and good wood. The mileage is recorded as 83,104 miles. The history file is very extensive, with a lot of correspondence from the mid to late 1990s when the car was in the process of being renovated. However, there are also copies of build specifications and diagrams from the 1950s, as well as many receipts (from the 1990s to the last decade), MoTs from 1996 to 2012 (when the last one was issued), tax discs and the original handbook. PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR VIDEO PRODUCED 16TH SEPTEMBER BY ACA OF THIS CAR.