In 1958, work began on designing the first monocoque Bentley and Rolls Royce, destined to replace coachbuilt bodies underpinned by a separate chassis. The result was the car sold by Bentley as the T Series and by Rolls Royce as the Silver Shadow.

A New Design and Construction

By 1962, John Blatchley - famous for styling the R-Type Continental – had completed a new exterior design for a steel and aluminium monocoque body. The design improved on the passenger space of the preceding S3, but with the overall car now seven inches shorter, five inches lower and three and a half inches narrower. 

Using the freshly developed 225 bhp, 6.23-litre V8 engine, seven prototypes undertook significant testing including endurance runs of over 100,000 miles. At the time the engine achieved the highest specific output by weight of any production car in the world of 2.7 lb/hp (1.2 kg/hp).  Design innovations included separate sub frames to carry the engine and transmission, suspension, steering and rear axle assemblies, with ‘Vibrashock’ rubber sub frame mounts developed to isolate road noise and vibration.    

The Bentley T-Series was hailed as a clear example of revolutionary engineering given it was the first Bentley to move away from a separate chassis build, and its relatively lightweight construction gave impressive performance for a four-sedan in 1965, with a maximum speed of 115 mph and 0-62 mph achieved in 10.9 seconds.

1,868 examples of the first-generation T-Series were produced, with a pre-tax list price of £5,425 and the majority being standard four-door saloons.

VIN 0001 – 1900 TU

Bentley’s 1965 T Series is VIN 0001 – the very first car off the production  line, ahead of the first Silver Shadow. In 2016, it was discovered in the corner of a Bentley warehouse under a tarpaulin, and later a group of apprentices started the process of dismantling and assessing the car. In 2022, a full recommissioning was started with specialists P&A Wood, which included a complete mechanical overhaul, a respray (in the original Shell Grey) and an entirely new interior – built to the original specification from 1965. 1900 TU was returned to the road in 2024, as one of the finest T-Series examples in the world.