Ah, the Bentley Continental GT. Probably the favorite well-to-do car among Premier League footballers, trophy wives, and people who couldn’t be bothered to take into consideration a Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe or any other grand tourer. This Conti GT, however, doesn’t run with the pack.
What you’re looking at is a Bentley Continental GT V8 S Convertible that’s a) on drugs; b) the four-wheeled equivalent of a hippie guy attending Woodstock 1969; c) an art car. Bentley suggests it’s the third option, so we’ll go with that. And yes, it’s a rather interesting gentle giant, one with a great heart painted on its hood, four seats of different colors, and a body shell that appears to have been painted with crayons by an army of kindergarten children on a sugar high.
Stylistically speaking, this one-off Continental GT has less to do with the BMW Art Car project and more to do with the Rolls-Royce Phantom V painted in the most psychedelic way by John Lennon of The Beatles. It’s a mad, mad motorized canvas with a thumping great V8 engine under the hood that will be auctioned off by Bonhams at the Goodwood Festival of Speed to raise funds for the Care2Save Charitable Trust.
Are you curious who the gentleman who conceived the excellent piece of pop art you’re looking at is?
I’m glad to tell you that the person in question is Sir Peter Blake. For the younger audience, 83-year-old Blake is the lad who created the sleeve design for The Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Who’s Face Dances, Eric Clapton’s 24 Nights and I Still Do, Oasis’ Stop the Clocks, and much more. My favorite artworks by Sir Peter Blake, however, are On the Balcony (1957) and The First Real Target from 1961.
Yup, that old geezer is cooler than all of us combined. And humble: “I am proud to have been involved with transforming this beautiful car, and have enormous admiration for the people at Bentley who brought my design into being, to produce this one-off lovely car,” Sir Peter Blake commented.
Stylistically speaking, this one-off Continental GT has less to do with the BMW Art Car project and more to do with the Rolls-Royce Phantom V painted in the most psychedelic way by John Lennon of The Beatles. It’s a mad, mad motorized canvas with a thumping great V8 engine under the hood that will be auctioned off by Bonhams at the Goodwood Festival of Speed to raise funds for the Care2Save Charitable Trust.
Are you curious who the gentleman who conceived the excellent piece of pop art you’re looking at is?
I’m glad to tell you that the person in question is Sir Peter Blake. For the younger audience, 83-year-old Blake is the lad who created the sleeve design for The Beatles’ album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Who’s Face Dances, Eric Clapton’s 24 Nights and I Still Do, Oasis’ Stop the Clocks, and much more. My favorite artworks by Sir Peter Blake, however, are On the Balcony (1957) and The First Real Target from 1961.
Yup, that old geezer is cooler than all of us combined. And humble: “I am proud to have been involved with transforming this beautiful car, and have enormous admiration for the people at Bentley who brought my design into being, to produce this one-off lovely car,” Sir Peter Blake commented.