| Author | Message | ||
     James Feller Grand Master Username: james_feller Post Number: 302 Registered: 5-2008 |
Just thought id put it out there, Crewe started working on turbocharging their wonderful old 6.75l lump waaaaaay back in the early 70's. The recognised that a vast magority owners were getting a little fed up with being chased down and overtaken by Vauxhall Cavaliers and the like at about a 20th the price of the fabulous shiney steed they had just paid huge money for.... Crewe knew that they had to do something to enliven the car from a performance perspective and the coming SZ series was going to benefit. They chose the Garrett T04 Turbo Charger for its over dimensions, relatively off the shelf bolt on charatieristics wrt to installation into the range. Now what you may not know was back when the Camargue was being bashed together as Crewe's price top out and massively expensive but adorably ugly duckling model it was, the turbo arrangement was installed into it. The fear Crewe had was that paying twice the Shadow price for a Camargue for no further gains in performance was a huge gamble. As history has shown us, the Camargue while an interesting model, I like them to be honest but a vast amount of us enthusiasts dont, was never the Continental R success of its day. Due in part to 2 reasons, Crewe did not install the Turbo charged engine in the Camargue in production vehicles as they SHOULD HAVE! and the other is styling and deportment charateristics the Camargue had. The Camargue was heavier than the Shadow and handled and performed even worse than the Shadow....interesting then its sales success in both the US and UAE. Ironically the 2 most successful markets for the Camargue was the US and UAE.... So with the Ugly duckling about to unceremoniously discontinued in 1984 what on earth were Crewe to do with all that development on turbocharging.... in 1982 the world first saw a BENTLEY Mulsanne 'Turbo' at the Geneva motor show. Thank god Crewe did not throw all that R & D in the 'too hard' basket, instead they re wrote history for themselves and their languishing Bentley model. The Bentley reneassence had begun. The first few years of blown Mulsannes were interesting, while not brillant as essencially the Mulsannes were terrifingly quick soggyly suspended Spirits....in 1985 came the game changer the Turbo R and we should all be bloody thankful for it. This model and the Turbocharged models after it actually saved RR from a certainly financial disaster. Sure Crewe continued to pump out beautiful Spirits and Spurs to those that did not care about performance but one must look at feesabiltity too. You cannot continue to ask 3 times the price for your product when you can find 3 times the 'car' from Germany at a 3rd the asking price of the Crewe product. Crewe needed a saver... the Turbocharged Bentley cars were it! Look at the sales figures. By the late 80'S and early 90's the Bentleys were outselling their RR counterparts 3 to 1. Moreover Crewe even dropped the TurboCharged V8 into the 94 MY Flying Spur RR! not to mention by the last for years of SZ production all RR SPURS were turbocharged. So, my point, the development of the Turbocharged V8 saved RR and Bentley Motors from imminent demise. While a significant reason to like the blown Crewe V8, personally its not my lone one. Its the vast amount of pleasure the Bentley Turbo R gives, while combining all the nice things about a Rolls Royce, it simply then steps up and drives the friggin doors off a Spirit without so much as a cough all the while the driver and passengers sit back and smile... J | ||
| James Feller Grand Master Username: james_feller Post Number: 303 Registered: 5-2008 |
as a slight adjunct, the Camargue was such a disasterous model for Crewe as it turned out from a sales persepective. Crewe could have done so much more with it if they had only stuck the beautifully blown V8 in...things might have been a little different for the now, rattly old dowager.... Even when the Camargue was brand new it looked ungainly, slabsided, ugly and old.....From a performance and deportment persective they were pretty terrible....compared to other competitive uber luxy barges including its sister the Corniche. In European Markets Crewe knew they were in big trouble with it from a performance perspective so they removed the SU Carbys and stuck on the Solex 4 Barrel carby from the Corniche. It did help push power up by about 10% from the Shadow but as the car was 30% heavier than the Shadow....that 10% extra urge made the fuel gauge go down a little quicker rather than give the dowager any real noticeble performance over the Shad. As terrible as the Camargue now is from a driving and handling point of view it could have been FAR FAR more interesting had it been turbo charged as it was designed and earmarked to be! I know too that a certain Shah...insisted he wanted a Bentley Camargue and got it. Imagine if you will a Bentley Camargue Turbo....hmmm would that be nice? ahhh probably yes! certainly unique and if Crewe had just put the SZ drivetrain under them all from the beginning and dropped the 'you cannot for heavens sake turbocharge a Rolls Royce' then maybe things would have turned out much differently for the poor old Camargue... I have always really liked them for a few reasons....they were a complete underdog that ran the wrong way in the wrong race on the wrong day and still managed to take the blue ribbon.... they were outrageously expensive for what you actually got and still people bought them. They are about the quirkiest of Crewe post war products I can think of. BUT they really could have and SHOULD have been good cars! But instead what we have now is a bit of an unloved hybrid neither an SY or SZ, it doesnt drive well, its too heavy, its affected with scuttleshake and its performance and deportment is frankly embarrasing. So Camargues are now worth pittance as to what they should be given their rarity on a world wide scale, if memory serves over the 8 year production run I think about 500 Camargues in total world wide wobbled, rattled and shimmied out of MPW...... now they sit virtually forgotten and certainly unmorned, which is very sad as had the turbocharged V8 been installed and better more modern SZ handling charateristics been bestowed upon the Camargue from the outset as had been planned, then perhapes most of us would smile when we occasionaly see them wobbling along, instead we tend to think....jesus what shame.... it could have been the Conti R of its day..... | ||
| Richard Treacy Grand Master Username: richard_treacy Post Number: 2808 Registered: 4-2003 |
James, You miss something here. I must state that I rather adore trhe Camargue, but its potential was never realised until its successor, the Continental R, came along I agree. The Camargue was so incredibly expensive that it redefined the value-for-money equation. In reverse, but it worked. A big, heavy and sluggish Coupė designed by Pininfarina with Fiat 130 lines, it was outrageous. By doing so, even as a loss-leader in terms of profitability, it re-established the brand, and analysts at the time remarked at how it must have boosted sales of the lesser Corniches and mundane Silver Shadows. So, it appears that the Camargue was a massively-successful advertising campaign, and even at the sales price the customers were given a bargain in terms of price compared to production cost. One lucky owner in the UK has the only Bentley Camargue officially sold retail. That is somewhat rare: a one-off series production vehicle. The theme was to be the same for the Continental R, although it was a remarkable sales success in its own right, probably because of its performance and appearance. Imagine paying over $800,000 in 1993 for a Continental R once it was on the road ? It made the sticker price of a Turbo R (long wheelbase) at $490,000 by then look very reasonable. RT. | ||
| Jordan Devine New User Username: jordan_devine Post Number: 8 Registered: 12-2007 |
I am a huge fan of the Camargue, and its always been part of my dream garage since I was a kid. The design is so sharp and in your face. I love it how in causes confusion in its capacity to question taste and style. When it comes to performance, someone else has come up with a solution. And he sent me photos of the build. Lets call it a Rolls-Royce Camargue Turbo RT Mulliner Personal Commission. First take your Camargue apart.  Then to enhance the exterior, graft on some Turbo RT Mulliner bumper bars to soften the corners, and update the look.  Then for the power drop in a Turbo 6.75 V8 engine, stylishly changing the rocker covers to an RR of course.  Then rebuilt the car, adding personal touches like diamond stitched interior, veneered steering wheel and contrasting piping.  Then pop on some 18" alloys, with appropriate RR centre caps and add Mulliner spec suspension and Turbo R sway bars to improve handling.  Now you are ready to take your Rolls-Royce Camargue Turbo RT Mulliner Personal Commission on the road, in London of course.  And if you think of changing it to a Bentley Camargue sometimes they are hit and miss. This is the experimental car that they tested the turbo on. Notice at this time it is sporting a Bentley grille.  Here is the only Bentley Camargue.  Here is a good fake.  And here is a mega fail Bentley Camargue fake.  It hurts my eyes. |
