85 Year Old Bentley to Trek Across Canada

If you could choose any vehicle to drive across the country in, what would it be? For Robin Hine it’s a 1926 Bentley convertible similar to the one pictured above. Seriously.

Hine, originally from England, had his cherished Bentley shipped over and it safely arrived in Halifax today for the cross Canada trek.

Hine is quick to admit that the Bentley has quite the challenging road ahead. In fact, he was quite nervous that the ol’ girl wouldn’t actually start when it was unloaded.

“Let’s turn it on and see if she runs … vroom vroom … look at that, first time. Excellent, well done,” said Hine like a proud father. Hine was quick to cool down the radiator with water and add some much needed gas to the carburetors.

This is the Bentley’s second trip to Canada. It came back in 1964 and drove from Vancouver to Winnipeg for a wedding.

Hine isn’t concerned with the Bentley’s ability to keep up with the more modern cars on the trans Canada highway since he’s actually raced it before on a track.

“A maximum speed on a track is about [152 km/h] an hour, so a happy cruising speed on the highway is about [110 km/h]. Yeah, we’ll keep that up all day,” said Hine.

Hine will catch the ferry to Newfoundland on Wednesday to start the trek.

[CBC]

Auto Express 2011 Performance Car of the Year Announced

As the year draws to a close, another Car of the Year (COTY) accolade is up for grabs. This one is courtesy of Auto Express, however it’s not your typical COTY award. Most COTY awards include any new model and usually the winner is based on how it handles day to day elements. Well Auto Express is tossing that formula out the window as their focusing solely on performance.

They took 20 cars that have performance as their top priority and ranked them from best to worst. Everything from cheap hot hatches to exotic supercars were considered. All were measured based on their performance abilities and value… which is odd considering they have an Aston Martin up against a Seat. Perhaps they meant best balance of performance for value.

Subaru fans will likely be up in arms at the results as the Cosworth WRX was ranked the lowest at number 20, especially since it was bested by several hot hatches including a hybrid, the Honda CR-Z.

Another surprise on the list was the Audi RS5 which ranked a bit low at number 11. Especially considering its arch rival, the BMW M3, not only cracked the top 10, but cracked the top 5 coming in at number 5.

I won’t spill the beans on who won the coveted top spot, however I will say that I definitely agree with their decision. Check it out in the video above. Notice no domestic cars were nominated? Just sayin’.

Do you agree with the performance COTY?

[Auto Express]

Art in London

Good. God.

I never wished I was in London this bad in my life.

[Youtube]

FAIL: In Soviet Russia, Car Drives YOU!

I’m not sure what possesses people to do crazy things with their cars, but a lot of people seem to expect them to be capable of anything.

Case in point, a couple of men in Russia deemed it possible for their Bentley Continental GT to handle the elements of off-roading. Not only that, but they also figured they might as well attempt to do a few donuts on the grass on a very enclosed space with lots of cars and people around.

Well, they pretty much got what they deserved, but that makes it no less painful to watch.

The strange part is they seem to show off to the crowd afterward. Really? You’re proud of crashing your Bentley in a very foolish way? That’s kinda like being proud of your erectile dysfunction.

[Youtube]

FAIL: CA$H Warrior Bentley Continental GT

The name alone deserves a fail. Replacing the letter ‘s’ with a dollar sign is so 1997. Specifically it was rapper Ma$e’s signature in 1997. Way to copy a signature that isn’t even relevant anymore. Also, calling it a ‘Warrior’ makes it sound like it belongs on the Klingon Homeworld.

Then you have the car itself. It looks as though it could easily be the pace car at a gay pride parade. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I’m positive that was not the intention of the Russian tuner companies when they decided to do this. Why did they choose a rainbow camouflage pattern colour scheme? And the kicker is that it’s coated with a kevlar vinyl. And if you look closely enough, there’s actually a picture of a € 500 bill. In fact, the car’s surface is supposedly made to feel like a banknote to the touch.

To TopCar and Dartz: For unintentionally making this Bentley Continental GT into a gay military baller-mobile, you get an epic FAIL.

Bentley Continental Supersports vs. Nissan GT-R

Motor Trend had the opportunity to put these two rare breeds of sports cars against each other. If this seems like an odd comparo, well, it is. The Nissan GT-R has a starting price of around $80,000, while the Bentley will set you back $323,000. Seriously.

The Bentley is a whopping 1,000 pounds heavier than the GT-R, but it also retains the horsepower advantage with 631 bhp. On paper, it seems like they could be comparable.

Find out who won after the jump

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