How the Bentley Turbo R saved its maker

By Nathan Chadwick

| 11 Aug 2026

Classic & Sports Car – Bentley Turbo Rs: brawn with a silver spoon

Some of the world’s best ideas have been formed on boring, long commutes.

Few, however, have had the same impact as Mike Dunn’s trudge across Essex one night back in the early 1980s.

He was the chief development engineer for Bentley, a brand that was at the time largely seen as an afterthought by its then owner, Vickers, which was doing a fine trade in Rolls-Royces.

Look at Bentley today, however, and the difference is marked.

Despite contributing towards less than 1% of parent company Audi’s 1.2m car sales, it is responsible for more than 10% of the profits on a mere 7000 units.

How times have changed.

To some at Crewe the idea of a performance Mulsanne went against all the company stood for, but the Turbo R would save Bentley

It’s a remarkable turnaround story that can trace its beginnings right back to one night near Heathrow airport – and a humble Ford Escort.

Mike joined Bentley from Ford in 1983, a year after Crewe had fitted the Bentley Mulsanne with a Garrett AiResearch turbocharger, boosting power and torque by 50% to 300bhp and 450lb ft.

The only problem with all this extra performance was that the model’s suspension and tyres didn’t have the matching vigour, because other than the tyres’ speed rating, nothing had been upgraded.

And this meant that Mike found he was simply unable to keep pace with a Ford Escort.

The Bentley Turbo R makes 330bhp from its 6.75-litre V8

Something drastic needed to be done, and Mike devoted a great deal of his time, effort and development budget sorting out the handling.

The result was a handling kit that aimed to improve roadholding and reduce the lurching body roll that would otherwise have had a mix of Bollinger and beluga caviar sprayed over the Connolly leather in swift order.

Bentley proposed 10% extra stiffness, but Mike went further: stiffer springs, uprated dampers and larger anti-roll bars raised roll stiffness by 30%.

The effect was seismic, and what Mike’s bosses thought would be a niche option soon became the most-ticked box on the order form.

‘The Bentley Turbo R’s raisons d’être are big torque and big comfort, with apices viewed with pleasure rather than suspicion’

For the first time in decades, Bentleys had both power and panache.

But Mike wanted more – a 50% improvement in roll stiffness – and, seeing the potential, the board came up with a new model: the Bentley Turbo R was born.

The transformation involved a much deeper redesign of the rear suspension, not least a Panhard rod to brace the subframe to the body.

Compared with the standard Mulsanne, the front anti-roll bar was stiffer by 100% and the rear by 60%.

The stern was further enhanced with hydraulic damping between the self-levelling struts, and the damping was significantly stiffer, particularly the rebound rate.

The Bentley Turbo R’s rich walnut trim

More aggressive Pirelli P7 tyres replaced the Mulsanne’s Avon Turbospeeds.

These were fitted to Ronal alloy wheels, a controversial choice for some at Crewe, according to Rolls-Royce and Bentley chief stylist Graham Hull.

Despite them giving a small reduction in unsprung weight, Martin Bourne, his colleague in the design studio, saw alloys as “boy-racer nonsense”, but thankfully viewed Hull’s wheel design as “reasonably civilised”.

The Mulsanne Turbo had proved fast, but was essentially a turbocharged brick – Peter Dron’s memorable charge around European capitals for Fast Lane magazine in 1984 showed a preponderance for lift at high speed, especially in the damp.

The Bentley’s cosy front is helped by the Turbo R’s glass area

After testing at Nardò, the Bentley Turbo R was fitted with a deeper front airdam that provided 7% less drag and 15% less lift at speed.

It was needed: the car could hit 60mph in 6.7 secs and 100mph in 18.9 secs, and it topped 135mph.

It was the way the Turbo R cornered, however, that beggared belief.

Even with other hyper-horsepower executive saloons, such as the Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9 and the Daimler Double-Six, the emphasis was as much on grace as it was on pace.

The Turbo R had both – but it was also fun to drive. Not only was there much less roll, but pitch and squat were also greatly reduced.

The Bentley Turbo R helped put the ‘Flying B’ back on the map

Where a Bentley Mulsanne driver would back off for fear of arriving in someone’s front garden as a four-wheeled annexe, the Turbo R would power through with tenacity.

It even had a rev counter – not seen on a car from this manufacturer for decades.

The Bentley Turbo R was an instant hit and became the definitive executive express of the 1980s.

And, while it was a driver’s car, the long-wheelbase RL variant gave extra space to stretch out in the back.

Today, though, 40 years on, does that appeal persist? After all, the Turbo R’s raisons d’être are big torque and big comfort, but with apices viewed with pleasure rather than suspicion.

This 1987 Bentley Turbo R sports later round headlights

Given there is now an MG EV with almost as much torque as the meatiest Turbo R variant, and we now have the benefit of four decades of dynamic learnings and engineering development, does this classic model live up to its reputation and still impress as it did when it was new?

To find out, I’m spending the evening with a pair of Bentley Turbo Rs courtesy of specialist dealer Graeme Hunt.

What is beyond doubt is that these cars still very much look the part today, finished in coachwork that is very much of the era; this was the ’80s, after all, when a little bit of sparkle showed you were on the up and up.

The Bentley Turbo R was engineered for drivers, but it’s still a delight for back-seat passengers

So far, so good.

It’s hard not to feel that spirit of the age flow through your body as you sit in comfort behind the steering wheel – the Bentley Turbo R’s slender A-pillars and that long bonnet make you feel quite the captain of industry, albeit with a bit of grit.

A large part of this can be attributed to the black-backed, four-headlight style that arrived in ’88.

Discussions about a more aggressive appearance dated back to 1986, when Graham Hull was tasked with toughening up the car’s looks.

Using the back of an envelope, he sketched the four lights, body-coloured sills and a deeper front airdam.

The Bentley Turbo R’s rear quarters feature fold-out picnic tables

Getting it all to coalesce would take some time – Rolls-Royce Corniche and Silver Shadow headlights simply didn’t work, so Graham went into the studio with four 7in cardboard discs that could just be fitted into the apertures.

“It was a rare eureka moment when my black-belt in flower arranging paid off,” he later recalled.

Modern tastes might view the Bentley’s 15in wheels as tiny, but this was an era when dynamics still trumped designers’ egos, so there is both plenty of tyre and lots of wheelarch, and as such it rides bumps with a smoothness almost completely absent from so-called luxury cars today.

The Bentley Turbo R’s engine, with Bosch KE-Jetronic fuel injection

It’s not all Ark Royal wave-offs, Elgar and bunting on the inside, though: the Turbo R is very much a reverse Tardis, and even with the seatback at near-horizontal, I’m still wearing the headlining like a cap (although I am 6ft 5in/1.96m).

Still, the thin pillars, huge expanse of glass and perfectly sized mirrors mean there is a commanding view out and around.

That’s the overwhelming impression: even with the ergonomic compromises, the Bentley is a truly special place to be.

The three-speed General Motors Turbo-Hydramatic 400 gearbox is not the most reactive, but then it doesn’t need to be as we trickle through the Chelsea streets.

‘The Bentley Turbo RT LWB promises even more but, despite the lower stance, it’s still buttery-smooth on the narrow London streets’

Admittedly, the column-mounted gearshift doesn’t exactly feel sporty to use – the upgrade to GM’s 4L80-E four-speed auto transmission in the early 1990s and the floor-mounted selector that came in with the Continental R do much to address both issues.

As a 1997 example, Duncan Wiltshire’s long-wheelbase RT, one of 252 built, is so-equipped, and it comes with 400bhp courtesy of continued development and Zytek fuel injection.

The interior is also far more luxurious: gone is the centre console’s slatted look; instead there’s a wall of burr walnut.

Unlike relatively recent Aston Martins there’s no ‘chopped carbonfibre’ that looks like the toilet floor at a south London rave.

The even more powerful Bentley Turbo RT LWB wears a mesh grille

This is crafted, organic – it feels timeless.

Both cars have steering that is heavier than you might expect, and certainly more feelsome than a Rolls-Royce’s.

The rack is much quicker than its Crewe-built companion’s, and it responds well to fingertip inputs on tight urban streets.

As we leave the city sprawl, the traffic eases and the roads get more open, it’s finally time to unleash the magnificent 6.75-litre V8.

And, yes, the Turbo R still has it: bludgeoning straights and rewarding in corners, and yet the dark green RT promises even more.

Its extra 100bhp cuts its 0‑60mph to 5.8 secs, rivalling a Ferrari Testarossa – and you definitely can’t fit four plutocrats into one of those.

A midnight run through London in the Bentley Turbo RT LWB

The Bentley RT also sits a little lower, and its chunky, 17in, five-spoke alloy wheels give it a more modern form.

Despite the lower stance, it’s still buttery-smooth as it passes over the corrugated streets of London.

Which allows me time to reflect on the R’s legacy.

By the end of the ’80s, of the 3333 cars produced by Crewe, no fewer than half were Bentleys – an increase of more than 47% in nine years.

The collapse in the world economy in the late 1980s and ’90s darkened the skies above luxury car manufacturers the world over, and Bentley was not immune, suffering redundancies and declining sales.

The Bentley Turbo RT LWB’s V8 makes 400bhp

But the Turbo R came to its maker’s rescue again, donating its underpinnings to the Continental R coupé, a huge profit-generator that, along with the Sultan of Brunei and his brother’s penchant for bulk-ordering special editions, kept the lights on at Bentley.

The Turbo R would continue to evolve, with a whole raft of refinements and limited-run models: the S, RT and RT Mulliner upped the horsepower beyond 400bhp, most notably in the rare RT Mulliner.

If you were ever in doubt that this 1998 special edition had 420bhp and a mighty 634lb ft of torque, many of the 56 bespoke RT Mulliners had a speedo in the back for the passengers’ benefit.

When production ended in 1999, 5207 short-wheelbase and 2083 long-wheelbase Turbo Rs had found homes.

The Bentley Turbo RT LWB’s revised centre console included a new gear selector

Bentley went on to bigger and better things with the Arnage and Mulsanne, and the current Flying Spur carries on the lineage, if not quite the same spirit.

The Turbo R, meanwhile, ended up that rare thing: a classic car from the moment it rolled out of the showroom.

Not for the Turbo R the ignominies of being stripped of its drivetrain for use in any number of kit cars, as was the fate of countless Jaguar XJ12s.

It was also saved from an extended goodbye on big rims and wreathed in a haze of herbal smoke doing laps of capital city ring roads, as has been the fate of so many aged examples of the Mercedes S-Class and BMW 7 Series.

The Bentley Turbo RT LWB’s floor-mounted gear selector is mated to GM’s four-speed automatic ’box

Even as values plummeted, you were unlikely to see Turbo Rs falling into the wrong hands.

There are tatty cars, but they appear to be kept going by those who genuinely love them and saw their Rs as long-term friends, although that could lead to some arguably questionable, do-it-yourself ‘repairs’.

Cracked window-ledge veneers? Why not use your boatbuilding skills and replace it yourself?

Then there are the electrical ‘upgrades’: those broken seat adjusters can be fixed with some levers from your local hardware shop.

I have driven dozens of Turbo Rs, and the ingenuity of such workarounds staggers the mind as much as the beautifully preserved examples.

The Bentley Turbo RT LWB blends into nocturnal London life without effort

Then there is the owners’ faith in their machines – I remember a Norwegian chap picking up his Turbo R from a dealer I was interviewing.

It had a distinct cheesegrater motif to many of the panels, with much of the rest hanging off or soon returning to their elemental form. And he was going to drive it back home. In the snow. In one hit.

It’s easy to see why the Turbo R captivates so. Yes, the ergonomics and fuel economy aren’t great, and turning left on to London’s width-restricted Albert Bridge from the Embankment in the RT is whelk-puckering.

But the central appeal is as true today as it was 40 years ago.

The long-wheelbase Bentley Turbo RT adds legroom

British people have a long history of rebellion and naughtiness, from comedians such as Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, to the birth of rave culture.

There’s a sense of humour that permeates the Bentley Turbo R; in an era of squeaky-clean EV Minimalism and ‘being nice’, it cuts through like the viper wit of a Derek and Clive comedy album backed by a boosted-V8 techno bass line.

Just plant the long-travel throttle, wait a second for the gearbox and turbocharger to do their merry dance, then hold on as the woofle develops into a roar.

Wouldn’t that make your next commute just a little bit more inspirational?

Images: Max Edleston

Thanks to: Graeme Hunt, Duncan Wiltshire and the Edmiston London Heliport

Factfiles

Bentley Turbo R

Sold/number built 1985-’99/5864
Construction steel monocoque, with aluminium doors, bonnet and bootlid
Engine all-alloy, ohv 6750cc V8, Garrett AiResearch T04 turbocharger, Bosch KE-Jetronic fuel injection
Max power 330bhp @ 4500rpm
Max torque 516lb ft @ 2500rpm
Transmission three-speed General Motors automatic, RWD
Suspension independent, at front by lower wishbones rear semi-trailing arms, Panhard rod, self-levelling; coil springs, telescopic dampers, anti-roll bar f/r
Steering power-assisted rack and pinion
Brakes ventilated discs, with servo and booster
Length 17ft 4in (5278mm)
Width 6ft 2in (1890mm)
Height 4ft 10½in (1486mm)
Wheelbase 10ft 1in (3061mm)
Weight 5104lb (2315kg)
0-60mph 6.7 secs
Top speed 135mph
Mpg 16.7
Price new £54,920