Bentley S2 Continental Flying Spur by Hooper
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Car producer : |
Bentley |
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Model: |
S2 Continental Flying Spur by Hooper |
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Year: |
1957-1962 |
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Type: |
Sedan |
The Bentley S2 (and the high-performance Bentley Continental S2 derived from it) was a luxury car produced by Bentley from 1959 until 1962. The changed designation S2 was to mark the new V8 engine and the improved air conditioning which could now be run from it. Power steering was also standard, and a new dashboard and steering wheel were introduced. Some early S2s were built with the earlier S1 dashboard.
Announced at the beginning of October 1959 as with the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud II, the S2 replaced the straight-six engine of the Bentley S1 with a new aluminium V8 engine displacing 6.2 L (6230 cc/380 in³). With this new engine, the S2 offered significantly better performance than the previous cars.
1,920 standard and long-wheelbase car chassis were built between 1959 and 1962. Almost all were fitted with standard factory bodywork. A number had coachbuilt bodies by Park Ward, Hooper, H. J. Mulliner & Co., and James Young.
The Continental version of the Bentley remained, as ever, exclusively a coachbuilt automobile. The firms of H J Mulliner, Park Ward, James Young and Hooper (with a solitary example) all offered hand crafted bodies on the Continental S2 chassis, which differed from the standard version by virtue of its four-leading-shoe front brakes, shorter radiator and, up to chassis number 'BC99BY', higher gearing. Of these four, James Young and Hooper would soon cease coachbuilding, leaving only Mulliner and Park Ward to carry on a noble tradition. Consolidating its in-house coachbuilding capability, Rolls-Royce purchased H J Mulliner in 1959 and two years later the firm was merged with Park Ward, which had been acquired in 1939. Of the 388 S2 Continentals made, 222 were bodied in styles that originated with H J Mulliner and 125 with those of Park Ward and James Young 41.
