Only two examples of this coachbuilt Bentley were ever built, and their paths diverged almost immediately, one preserved in a factory museum, the other sold into a private American collection. Design No. CT150 stands as one of the last projects James Young of Bromley completed before its coachbuilding era ended for good. Read on to find out why this rare Bentley debuted at the Geneva Motor Show before its first owner ever saw it.
Two cars. One design number. A coachbuilder that was already winding down its most ambitious work by the time these were finished and delivered to their first owners. The James Young design shop in Bromley had spent years dressing Bentley and Rolls-Royce chassis in some of the most striking bodies of the postwar era, and Design No. CT150, built on the S3 Continental platform, stands as one of the very last projects the firm completed before its coachbuilding era came to a close for good. Only two examples were ever built, and their paths diverged almost immediately: one now sits preserved in a museum, the other vanished into a private collection somewhere in the United States. What made this particular design worth building twice, and never a third time?
Design No. CT150: James Young’s Late Masterwork
James Young of Bromley had spent decades building coachwork for Bentley and Rolls-Royce chassis, producing limited runs of hand-formed bodies for buyers who wanted something the factory catalog simply didn’t offer off the shelf. Design No. CT150, built on the S3 Continental chassis, came near the very end of that era, as coachbuilding gave way to factory-bodied production across the British luxury car industry as a whole.
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A Geneva Motor Show Debut Before Delivery
The second of the two CT150 cars, chassis number BC12XD, was completed in March of 1965 and didn’t go straight to its first owner as most commissioned coachbuilt cars typically did. Instead, James Young displayed it on the company’s own stand at the 1965 Geneva Motor Show, putting the car in front of the international press and collectors before it was ever driven on public roads for the first time.
What Made the S3 Continental Chassis Special
The Bentley S3, introduced in 1962 as the final iteration of Bentley’s S-series, brought quad headlamps and a more powerful version of Rolls-Royce’s 6.23-liter V8 to a platform already favored by coachbuilders for its long wheelbase and generous proportions. The Continental designation specifically marked chassis built for high-speed European touring, giving coachbuilders like James Young a canvas suited to sweeping, aerodynamic bodywork rather than the more upright formal styling seen on standard S3 saloons rolling off the factory line.
Why Coachbuilding Was Already Disappearing by 1965
By the mid-1960s, independent coachbuilders like James Young were being squeezed out by the economics of factory-bodied production, which could deliver comparable quality at a fraction of the cost and time required for hand-formed panels shaped one at a time. James Young itself was absorbed into the Rolls-Royce corporate structure not long after cars like this CT150 were completed, closing out an entire tradition of British coachbuilding that had defined the marque’s most exclusive models for decades.
How Rare Is Rare in the Coachbuilt World
A production run of exactly two examples places this CT150 among the rarest documented James Young designs, rarer than many of the firm’s better-known one-off show cars, simply because most coachbuilt commissions of the era were genuine singles built to one buyer’s specification rather than a repeated design built twice over. That duplication, unusual for James Young, suggests the design was well-received enough to justify a second commission before the firm’s capacity for that kind of work disappeared entirely from the market.
Where the Two Cars Ended Up Decades Later
One CT150 has remained preserved in the Bentley factory’s own collection in the United Kingdom, giving the marque direct custodianship over one of its coachbuilder’s final creations from that era. The second car, chassis BC12XD, eventually made its way into private ownership somewhere in the United States, a common fate for exclusive British coachbuilt cars exported decades ago and since absorbed quietly into American collections.
What the Engine Bay Reveals About Bentley’s Priorities
Under the hood, the S3 Continental’s 6.23-liter V8 was tuned by Rolls-Royce and Bentley specifically for smooth, effortless high-speed cruising rather than outright acceleration off the line, reflecting the touring mission the Continental chassis was built around rather than any track-day ambitions whatsoever. That emphasis on refinement over raw output is part of what separates a car like this from contemporary American muscle cars built around the same era’s straight-line performance obsession.
Why Gateway Classic Cars Handles Cars Like This One
Specialty dealers such as Gateway Classic Cars regularly handle documentation and provenance research for cars this rare, since establishing a clear ownership history and chassis-matching records is essential for buyers considering a coachbuilt Bentley at this level of exclusivity. That documentation work is often as valuable to a serious buyer as the car’s mechanical condition itself, given how easily provenance can become murky after sixty years.
How This Compares to American Muscle of the Same Decade
While Detroit was chasing bigger displacement and quicker quarter-mile times throughout the mid-1960s, James Young and Bentley were pursuing an entirely different definition of automotive excellence, one measured in hand-finished panel gaps and effortless high-speed refinement rather than horsepower figures on a spec sheet. Both philosophies produced genuinely significant cars from the same decade, just aimed at buyers with completely different priorities behind the wheel.
A Send-Off Worth Remembering Today
That kind of Geneva debut underscores how significant the design was considered at the time, a send-off appearance for one of the last true James Young creations before the firm’s coachbuilding chapter came to a close for good, marking the end of an era few in the industry saw coming so soon.
Why the Original 1965 Story Needed Correcting
Earlier accounts of this photo set described the car as a rare SSS C2 race car with a supercharged aluminum V8, a claim that doesn’t hold up against Bentley and James Young’s own documented history for chassis BC12XD. Getting the record straight matters for a car this significant, the CT150’s genuine story, a coachbuilt touring Bentley debuted at Geneva rather than a factory-defiant race car, is arguably more interesting than the myth it replaced. It’s a reminder that even well-documented marques accumulate folklore over sixty years that eventually needs sorting from fact.
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