The Bentley Brooklands Coupe
“If you had all the money in the world, what car would you buy?” This hypothetical question came up in conversation the other day, and I just couldn’t come up with a satisfying answer. It’s a tough question, like asking “Whats your favorite food?” There are so many variables.
Do I go for the fastest car? The flat out most expensive? The rarest? Best looking? Most fun to drive?
The SSC Ultimate Aero TT - the fastest car in the world
Right now, the fastest car in the world is the SSC Ultimate Aero TT. It can go from 0-60 in 2.7 seconds and can make it up to almost 260 mph. It has a crazy 1183 hp and costs around $650,000. A close second is the Bugatti Veyron, which is quicker off the line and can hit 0-60 in 2.5 seconds, although it can only make it up to 253 mph and it only has a meager 1001 hp. It does cost $1.5 million though, so that’s pretty cool.
But do I really need that kind of speed? I don’t live next to the Bonneville salt flats, so really, hitting a top speed like that doesn’t look too likely, ever. So the super-speed machines are off my list.
Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Mille Miglia - one of only 4 made and part of the Simeone Museum collection
I love antiques, so I thought maybe some sort of original racer or rare beauty. An original Fort GT40 would be spectacular, or a De Tomaso Mangusta. Or maybe further back, like an old Duesenberg or the 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante Coupe that sold for almost $8 million at one of the Pebble Beach Concours auctions. Anything from Dr. Fred Simeone’s collection would be amazing. But then again, I only get one choice. The older cars aren’t going to be nearly as drivable as a new one, and at the end of the day, all it’ll do it sit in my garage. I want to enjoy my car. I want to use it for it’s intended purpose, I don’t want to have to baby it. So antiques are out.
I want a fast, maneuverable, high quality, beautiful car.
My eventual choice, after hours of deliberation?
The Bentley Brooklands Coupe
The Bentley Brooklands Coupe
Like most Bentleys, it feels like an antique. The acres of rare wood and leather and glass and analog dials let you know it’s the ultimate luxury car with a powerful heritage; yet, there’s none of the technology that’s common in luxury cars today. There’s also no satellite radio, no iPod jack, no keyless entry, no radio controls on the steering wheel, hardly any gadgets at all, because they’re superfluous in a driving machine.
The Brooklands is a luxury car…but above all else, it’s a drivers car, and it’s about the experience of driving. Refinement is the best word for it, inside and out. There is hardly any bling or brightwork on the exterior, some small bits here and there, but nothing extravagant. The car already exudes quality without needing extra cues.
One of the more noticeable things to the enthusiast are the insanely huge cross drilled carbon/silicon carbide brakes that take up almost the whole inside of the wheel. They’re the largest diameter discs of any production passenger car ever, and this car needs those brakes. At 5,800 pounds and almost 18 feet long, it’s heavier and longer than a Chevy Tahoe. And heres the kicker: All that size and weight goes from 0 to 60 mph in 5.0 seconds and hits the 100-mph mark just 6.7 seconds after that.
The Brooklands owes it’s speed to the hand built twin-turbocharged 6.75-liter V8 that puts out 530 horsepower and a bizarrely massive 774 lb-ft of torque. That’s actually more torque than any other production car in the world. Fast, beautiful, luxurious, and rare with only 550 Brooklands planned for production. I know what I want, now I just need $400,000 dollars.
So that’s my choice, how about you? Let’s say you have a regular car, your everyday driver, and you get to buy one special car, anything you want, and money is no object. Now, what’s it going to be?
Get to the comments people, I want to hear about your dream cars.
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