If you’re rich — and I don’t imply simply wealthy; I’m speaking superyacht that’s larger than most individuals’s houses with a helicopter pad, sub and a gold rest room with a heated seat rich — you will have the sway to strategy nearly any automaker to request they design a one-off automobile only for you. It’s form of wild, however in the event you’re footing the invoice for the design, engineering, and so on, then why ought to an organization say no? Many of those automobiles are by no means seen by the general public. And when they’re proven, they are often off-putting or straight up bizarre. Take the Bentley Silverstone, a automotive you’ve in all probability by no means heard of.
This machine is the brainchild of recognized dictator and rattling close to hoarding automotive collector, the Sultan of Brunei. He had an obsession for Bentleys. It’s stated that of the two,500 automobiles he had in his assortment, 240 of them have been sooner or later bespoke Bentley fashions made all through the Nineteen Nineties. And all of them regarded unusual — like they have been idea automotive design research. The strangest amongst them was the Silverstone.
Many of the Silverstone’s particulars have been stored beneath wraps. Even now, as I used to be digging into the web to seek for data about this factor, data was exhausting to return by. But based mostly on the publicly accessible particulars, this machine seems like some form of bizarre equipment automotive.
It’s stated that every Silverstone was designed by automobile manufacturing and design agency Hawtal Whiting. The precise constructing of the Silverstone was dealt with by ASC (American Sunroof Corporation) in Detroit. And the design is… fascinating.
Up entrance, there’s the basic Bentley wire mesh grille flanked by tri-beam headlights. There appears to be driving lights proper beneath the headlights, and beneath all that, there are some bizarre bumper protrusions that throw all the pieces off. At the very backside of this bizarre stack are some decrease air dams. The hood has twin vents on both facet, presumably for cooling and for the bizarre flip sign indicators set into the highest of the entrance fenders.
Around again, there’s an oval-shaped rear window that jogs my memory of the third-generation Ford Taurus. Then it sweeps into an artwork deco-like rear deck with bumper-mounted backup lights and black tail lights which can be virtually invisible on dark-colored variations. Weird proper? Well, simply you wait; it will get weirder.
The completed automotive was a two-door convertible with a folding metallic hardtop, although some footage (just like the one above) present an instance with a targa roof. Power reportedly got here from a model of the identical 6.75-liter “Sufacon” V8 used within the Continental R, simply with a reworked exhaust system so it might be louder. And it’s uncommon. From what I may discover, simply eight have been ever made: six in 1994 and two in 1995. It’s actually distinctive, however not in a great way.
It’s not recognized how a lot every of these items value the Sultan, however with a rumored web value of $30 billion, he may afford every one. Unfortunately, his penchant for automobiles value him dearly. The assortment grew so giant that it in the end led his household to a monetary disaster. Many of the automobiles ended up in disrepair attributable to lack of driving and upkeep and have been past saving. Others acquired auctioned off. It’s uncertain the Silverstones or any of the opposite one-off Bentleys survived.
Source: jalopnik.com