Motorola

You're right, it was designed with hydraulic shocks. Another ancient aspect of the car's engineering.

SW17LS

Weight plays a huge role in the ride quality too

Striker223

Yeah it does, they are however not as heavy as one would think and a lot of the damping does come from the rubbers. Weirdly enough two of the smoothest cars I've ever worked on/driven were of all things a 1972 Cadillac coup deville and a 1987 Aries. Both cars had the absolute lowest amount of road feel I have ever experienced and potholes just didn't exist somehow.

The Bentley and Rolls I've worked on are much much more confident feeling

Stroock639

when speaking about on average he is right

rolls has forever exclusively been about only luxury, bentley has always been a bit more about driver involvement... you've never nor would you ever see rolls royce building a le mans car



a race bentley has won several times over its existence

SW17LS

6,000 lbs as a 2 door coupe/vert is pretty heavy. Thats 1,100 lbs more than my S Class, heavier than some trims of Suburban...

mmarshall

Weight is partly what gives Rolls and Bentley products their smooth rides. The heavier the mass above the springs/suspension (and the softer-tuned and/or more-sophisticated the suspension is), the less likely the bumps in the suspension will reach the seats and occupants.

Of course, weight alone is not the only factor...if it was, large heavy trucks would not have the bouncy rides they do. But, weight combined with a soft or sophisticated suspension...that's usually the trick.

Big Andy

My neighbour has pretty much that exact Azure in the video and spends most of the summer driving it round with the roof down.

The rest of the year he drives a Nissan Leaf. 😀

Carmaker1

That's not quite it and goes much deeper. It was hardly the brainchild of Bentley under German ownership, ditto for the Arnage its sedan counterpart. Vickers PLC never really got inspiration from the USA on anything such as this.



This was merely an evolutionary replacement of the Continental R Coupe (launched 1991), designed and engineered in the 1980s and later introduced in cabriolet form in 1995 as the Azure and also reskinned as the 2000 Rolls-Royce Corniche, all based on the age-old Rolls-Royce SZ RWD platform (launched 1980), a revamp of the 1965-1980 SY RWD platform, RR/Bentley's first unibody platform. Vehicles like this were one last hurrah, for RR/Bentley traditionalists like my father (and me as an advisor/enthusiast).


1991 Continental R -SZ Platform



1992 Continental R



1995 Bentley Azure - SZ Platform



1995 Bentley Azure - SZ Platform



2000 Rolls-Royce Corniche based on Silver Seraph body, on SZ Platform basis

2000 RR Corniche

2000 RR Corniche



2000 RR Corniche Interior - SZ Platform



Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit and LWD Silver Spur (1980) - SZ Platform



Bentley Mulsanne (1980) -SZ Platform



1990 Bentley Turbo R (1989) - SZ Platform


1969 RR Silver Shadow LWB -SY Platform



1965 Bentley T1 - SY Platform


1994-1996 Rolls-Royce Corniche - SY Platform

1994-96 RR Corniche - SY Platform

1994-96 Corniche - Came with dual front airbags, ABS, and a litany of other features for such a dated 60s design.


This particular vehicle came out in 2006 (not 2007), shortly after my father bought his first Arnage (T) in May/June 2005 and unfortunately being that he never liked 2-doors, he never gave the Azure nor Brooklands Coupe serious consideration, despite getting 2 more Bentleys, an LWB Arnage RL Mulliner for UK W. Midlands and a 2009 Arnage Final Series down in Texas. He still owns all 3 cars, at 16, 13, and 12 years old. Never will sell them, as no single Bentley since then has pleased him.

My father didn't like the newer post-2009 Mulsanne and ultimately has left Bentley behind for good since his 2009 was delivered before the autumn 2009 reveal of the Mulsanne. The same issue he had with Jaguar's last XJ and kept his 3 pre-2010 X308 & X350 XJs. Their foreign management thought sensible to ruin their flagship saloons with overwrought, tasteless styling.


Azure (2007)

Azure (2007)


Azure Prototype (2005)

This Azure was actually based on the revamped 2005MY+ Arnage platform (above), unlike the much more dated Continental R/original 1995-03 Azure based on the 1980 Silver Spirit/Mulsanne SZ saloon platform, replaced with Silver Seraph and Arnage in 1998.


1998 RR Silver Seraph V12


1998 RR Silver Seraph V12


1998 Bentley Arnage 4.4L



1998 Bentley Arnage 4.4L

German ownership were responsible for tacky crap like the 2003 RR Phantom by Chris Bangle (approved December 1999, finalized May 2000) and cookie cutter bargain basement Continental GT coupe of 2003 (finalized November 2000) and saloon counterpart Continental Flying Spur of 2005. They contributed very little with this particular Azure, other than copy the outgoing Azure and resurrect it on the newer Arnage platform, with corresponding front and newer rear styling. VWAG deserves little credit here, outside of merely updating an existing design.

Being that I grew up with RR/Bentleys of the 1990s-early 2000s of mostly Vickers origin (living between UK and USA), I have never liked the RR Phantom and BMW-derived Ghost. They have always been tacky nonsense to me, just like the first discount Bentley, the Continental GT, which was simply a reskinned 2-door VW Phaeton, with longitudinal FWD roots masked under fulltime AWD.

That's what German ingenuity came up with for the Bentley brand and that useless Bentacky crossover, with longitudinal FWD roots as well. The reason why Audi has little credibility in the executive and flagship segments. The only Bentley I have any regard for today, is the RWD Porsche MSB-derived Continental GT and maybe the new Flying Spur as of late. The VW-developed Mulsanne for 2010 was terribly overwrought (lost my dad's interest), but much more tasteful than the unimpressive CGT that was only British in name and too down market to anyone with sense.

mmarshall

Welcome back.....haven't seen you post on CL for a while.

Just out of curiosity, since you seem to know the British auto industry so well, how did Bentley get the rights to use the Continental name?.....Lincoln, of course, had been using it for decades, both on the Continental sedans/convertibles/Limos and the Continental Mark coupes. Lincoln also, of course, resurrected the name (unsuccessfully) several years ago. Did Bentley pay for that right?

Motorola

Haha, I know that the Azure's design and engineering had little to do with VW, Carmaker. What I was surprised by is that the sales team at VW still permitted them to make the car despite it being more or less the same Vickers-era Bentley as the Arnage.

It's also thanks to VW that Bentley revived the 6.75 litre pushrod dinosaur of a V8, whereas prior to being bought out they used BMW V8's.

And obviously I never said that Bentley was inspired by Cadillac in any way, simply that the character of the car is the closest thing to a 50s-70s Cadillac in the 21st century.