‘…Bentley made only 72 examples of the Continental SC, developed from the Continental R and priced at a gut-twisting £245,000…’ – Octane magazine.

By the end of the 1970s, Bentleys accounted for a mere 3% of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’ production, clearly a situation that could not be tolerated if the once-famous marque was to avoid extinction.

The solution was to seek to re-establish Bentley’s credentials as the purveyor of high-performance luxury cars, and in a move calculated to evoke memories of the company’s glorious past achievements at Le Mans, the name ‘Mulsanne’ was chosen for the Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit’s counterpart.

This strategy would succeed brilliantly.

Launched at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1982, the Mulsanne Turbo provoked a rash of headlines in the motoring press hailing the return of the ‘Blower Bentley’ – the ‘Silent Sports Car’ was back.

Bentley’s 1980s resurgence had hitherto relied exclusively on models whose basic architecture was shared with other ...