The Sun Begins To Set.(Escape Roads)

Byline: JOHN F. KATZ

For four short years in the early 1950s, the Bentley R-Type Continental blazed across the highways of Europe, the most fabulous, fast and exotic four-seater money could buy. Though equally fast and arguably as exclusive, the Continentals that followed never quite carved the same niche in the automotive firmament.

Bentley wound up production of the R-Type in mid-1955 in favor of the new, larger and more modern S-Type-better known as its Rolls-Royce clone, the Silver Cloud. Continental-spec S-Types appeared in the fall, their high-speed rear axle enhanced by a higher-compression head with bigger valves for the standard 4.9-liter overhead-inlet six. Body choices, all two-door, included a Mulliner coupe plus a more formal sport saloon and drophead from Park Ward. The first four-door Continental, the classically handsome, all-aluminum Flying Spur, was added by Mulliner in 1957.

That same year Rolls-Royce began testing its first modern V8 engine, which would replace the F-head six in all Rolls/Bentley products in August 1959. Displac-ing 6.2 liters and with all valves over head, this short-stroke, wedge-chambered unit resembled contemporary GM design- except for its all-aluminum construction.

With the switch to V8 power, the Bentley S-Type became the S2 (see Escape Roads, Jan. 26, 2004). For the first time the Conti-nental was geared shorter than a standard Bentley (at 3.42:1 vs. 3.08), but could still reach an honest 115 mph. Mulliner now focused on the Flying Spur while Park Ward promoted a fashionably slab-sided look for the sport saloon and drophead; both of the latter would prove shamefully prone to rot.

Still, when the Rolls-Royce Foundation offered us a chance to drive its 1962 Park Ward drophead, we didn't turn it down.

True, the S2 drophead has neither the sporting elan of the original Mulliner fastback nor the conservative elegance of Park Ward's earlier efforts, but its quirky, moment-in-time gumbo of early-'60s tidiness and trimmed-down DeSoto tailfins made us smile. Inside it looks as rich and handsome as any previous ...