Bentley Motors

I organised a surprise day out for all my staff last Friday. It was to the Bentley Motors factory in Crewe. They knew we were going out for the day but I kept the final destination close to my chest.
As we boarded the train at London Euston the only clue they had was that the train terminated at Manchester. I thought about telling them we we’re off for a trip around the set of Coronation Street!

I was excited and had been looking forward to this visit for a long time. Bentley exemplifies and stands for everything I strive to achieve in our small garage. The attention to detail and quality of product are the characteristics I really relate to and these details strike a chord with me.
Walter Bentley didn’t actually say this, but his buddy, Sir Henry Royce did:

“Whatever is rightly done, however humble, is noble.”

It really was everything I had hoped for. We were only allowed to take pictures in the initial ‘museum’ section. Once into the factory and production areas, cameras were strictly forbidden.

We learned that it takes on average, 4 hrs to make a steering wheel – hand stitched leather, obviously!

We “anoraks” were keen to check out the body and paint side of things. The basecoat (colour) is applied by hand but the lacquer is applied by robot. The entire car is flat and polished (technique for removing ‘orange peel’ in the paint finish to give a true ‘glass’ gloss). This polishing process included the bumpers too. Hardly any manufacturers flat and polish their new paintwork – let alone the bumpers!


I’d recommend a trip to Bentley to anyone who has an interest in cars / prestige cars / car construction. You can check out their website: www.bentleymotors.com for info on public visits. Beware, it’s a very enticing website – make sure you have plenty of time to spare!