Bentley T2

The Bentley T2 was made for just three short years from 1977 until 1980 and was very much derived from the earlier T1 and of course, the Rolls Royce Shadow II - but of course fitted with a Bentley grille and a reshaped Bonnet.

I know a few will have the question ‘why did Bentley not produce their own individual design’ but when the Silver Shadow prototype was seen, the Bentley design, which was being worked on was quietly shelved.

We’ve talked of badge engineering before in other videos - namely British Leyland cars - so I’m sure you’re all well versed in the nuances and pitfalls of such practices.

For note, the T series cars had been introduced in 1965 and the T1 being pretty much a rebadged Silver shadow, meant the T2 as we’ve got here today is pretty much just the Silver Shadow II.

The T2 might’ve only been on the market for a brief moment in time, but the improvements from the T1 to T2 were noteworthy in their progress.

The T2 had rack and pinion steering, improved air conditioning, rubber faced bumpers, a new fascia and other bits you may not spot on this car because it’s a 1978 model.

In 1979 and then in 1980 for the US, Bentley introduced Bosch CIS Fuel injection - which was similar to the Shadow II.

The engine fitted to this was the Rolls-Royce-Bentley L Series V8 engine which was a known entity. At this point in time, the L Series had a displacement of 6,230cc - you might see the higher figure of 6,750cc but this is only relevant from 71 onwards and therefore not commonplace in the T2.

I’ve seen a couple of top speeds relating to the T2 but both speeds were sitting between 110 and 120 miles per hour, which is hardly to be sniffed at even today!

The car was the first unibodied model for Bentley with The steel and aluminium monocoque body was designed with subframes to mount the engine and the suspension.

The car featured disc brakes on all wheels - with a triplicate hydraulic braking system. It’s pretty smooth out on the road as you’ll see later due in part to the independent suspension on all four wheels and better still, both the T1 and T2 were designed with automatic height control according to the load on board.

Bentley didn’t sell in the same volume as you saw Rolls Royce sell in and for comparison of very similar models, the T2 only sold 568 units including the 10 long wheelbase cars whereas the Shadow II sold around 8,500.

A lot of this lack of excitement, which is a real shame if I’m honest, was down to Bentley not having a clearly defined image against key competitor Rolls Royce.

However, Bentley diehards will of course know that whilst the 70s wasn’t a glory period, the manufacturer really came back into market swinging in the 80s and the Mulsanne Turbo really helping to drive that.

We’ve talked a little of the car’s history, badge engineering and tech spec, but let’s have a better look at that rather classy interior.