2001 Bentley Continental T

Swiss registered, 34,613km from new

All books and papers, spare keys, fresh major service in November 2018 costing £16,827.79

A striking example of the short-wheelbase, 420bhp, 170mph ‘Gentleman’s Express’ hand-built at Crewe

Strikingly presented in grey-blue satin-metallic with original Autumn (tan) interior

Left-hand drive, desirable second-series European specification car

According to a copy of the build sheet that accompanies the car, ‘CX67509’ was commissioned by Bentley Munich as a French market car and was delivered in July 2001. As ordered, the exterior colour was Black, the interior Autumn, a ‘soft tan’. The options listed were Burr Oak veneer and a cellular telephone.

The service record book of ‘CX67509’ is stamped accordingly:

18 December 2001. Auto König Anzing, Munich, Germany. 1,572km

1 September 2006. Global Garage, Cap-d’Ail, France. 19,713km

24 February 2014. Bentley Genève, Switzerland. 29,743km

25 September 2018. Phantom Motors, Crondall, UK. 34,613km

The most recent owner – believed the second from new – a Swiss-based entrepreneur known for his flamboyant style, had the car’s exterior colour changed by a Geneva coachbuilder to a beautiful satin grey and the cabin cappings from traditional wood to the alternative engine-turned aluminium.

In summer 2018 the Continental was sent to Phantom Motors, the marque specialist of long-standing in the UK that tends our own Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud III Mulliner Park Ward Saloon. The brief was to carry out a comprehensive service and bring it up to ‘perfect driving condition’.

Dated 25 September 2018, invoice 005199 ran to eight pages and totalled £16,827.79. After completion in November 2018 the car was returned to Switzerland, put through its roadworthiness test and made ready for a new owner’s enjoyment in 2019.

The concept of ‘stealth’ and a wide-body Bentley Continental T make strange bedfellows. Yet this car, in its non-reflective grey paintwork, is the ultimate under-the-radar high performance classic, one capable of delivering – via 650lb ft of torque from as little as 2,000rpm – a sledgehammer punch via the merest brush of the big drilled accelerator pedal.

Still more affordable than a 1980s Aston Martin Vantage, more practical than a Ferrari 550 Maranello, we can think of few cars more suited to touring, participating in chic road-rallies or just cruising the hot spots of the Riviera. The stealth bomber has arrived.