FEATURE CAR BENTLEY CONTINENTAL CONVERTIBLE
The car that comes to mind when you hear ‘Bentley Continental' must vary with the age of cars that interests you most, and perhaps with your own age. Those with a fondness for the great classics would be picturing a fastback R-type by Mulliner, or perhaps one of the glamorous drophead coupés built on S2 or S3 chassis. Those who admire the potency and driver appeal of 21st century Bentleys will be thinking of the Continental GT or GTC, the car on which Bentley's current success and record sales are based. There may indeed be those who thought of the mighty Continental R and T of the 1990s and early 2000s. But would there be anyone, apart from the owners, who pictured this Bentley version of the Rolls-Royce Corniche?
Other marques have made similar repeats with a favourite name. You could waste half an hour tracking all the Aston Martins with ‘Vantage' attached to them, either as a state of tune or a model name, while Alfa Romeo must have produced at least a dozen different cars called Spider, Giulietta or Giulia. How many Daimler (or Jaguar) Sovereigns were there? Never mind. It's a tactic that works well if used properly: you get a favourable waft of heritage attached to a new product, and you identify the car's role in the company's line-up. When it's taken a bit more cynically – as a free leg-up to a higher profile
