Last week, our friend Jon from KL was on a trip down to Singapore and took 1 of his nice cars down.  This time, it was a newly acquired Bentley Continental Flying Spur.  Massive, commanding and impressive piece of British engineering… almost bordering on cumbersome though.

I definitely needed to get a ride in it, in fact, the moment when Jon came by my office to pick me up for lunch, I promptly opened the rear door and hopped right in.   It was Plush, Extravagant, Spacious and smell of new top grade Connolly leather.  There I was busking in all its ostentatious charm… and then Jon thundered, “Get in the front Asshole!!”.

The car with its 6L W12 engine was very quick.  With its twin turbochargers, it was supposed to do the century sprint in 5 seconds flat.  However, because the car was so smooth, it does not even feel like we were at 120km/h after some full throttle action.  Jon did mentioned that he was cruising down the NS Highway at a comfortable 240km/h, and made it to the Tuas checkpoint in 1.5 hours effortlessly.

While seated in the FRONT passenger seat, I noticed a couple of gadgets that caught my eyes.

There were knobs situated on the Dashboard, each on a side of the A/C vents.  Originally meant to slide fluidly in and out to modulate air flow out of those vents.  But I believe Bentley must have designed them primarily for the Singapore drivers in mind… so that we can hang our Kopi-O from our local coffeeshops.

WAIT!!  On further inspection, I realized a few other specific features that aids the local Goondu drivers to improve their skills.

It’s got a B on its gear shifter.  I guess it’s to educate the owner that its B as in Button, so depress it before shifting gears.

Notice the B on the Brake pedal?  It is also there so that drivers can know that it’s B as in Brakes; so step on it if you would like to stop.

Yes, there’s a B right there.  Situated prominently in the middle of the trunk.  But Bentley being a British company, would probably call it the B as in Boot button.  A feeble prod on it would raise or shut the trunk electronically.

Tired of the Bs yet?  Theres another 1 right there, on the Bonnet.  Yes, you guessed it, B as in Bonnet.  It’s definitely there so that the mechanics will know that they need to lift that knob to reveal the mammoth engine.

Are we done with the Bs?  Apparently not!!

There’s the last one right there… so that you can fill her up with the most important B.  B as in Best oil you can afford.

If you ask me, this car is pretty easy to decipher, B as in Brainless!!!

Ever since I got the Miata, I’ve been itching to put a turbo in there.  Yeah, the car is a pleasure to drive, handles wonderfully, beautifully designed, etc.  But it is sorely lacking some grunt.  120bhp just will not cut it here, and imagine, a car that does not have the go to match its looks.  I mean, what, it takes like 10 seconds to do 0-100km/h… seriously.  I am getting overtaken by Toyota Corollas on a daily basis!!

So, it’s been determined that the car was going to be turbocharged.  Now wait, since we are going to put a turbo in there, why not just put in the newer 1.8L engine in there as well?  In conjunction with that, we can also put in the later model 6 speed transmission.  Considering that we are going to do so much, might as well go the whole nine yards and drop in the LSD in the rear as well so we can have a little sideways action occasionally.

Oh, I wasn’t quite done there when I was mentioning all those modifications that had the domino effect; one after another.  Consequently, I just had to rip out the complete motor and send the car for a thorough paint job.  Being the anal self I am, instructions were given to the painter that every nook and cranny had to be covered with the new color.

In addition, I do not want the car to be  heavy-ful of putty and filler, all dings and dents on the car body needed to be pre-prepped by Master Craftsman Mr Lye of Lye Designs.  He painstakingly massaged every imperfection and returned me a car with all the panels dent-free! So there you have it, a simple turbo bolt on job has totally evolved into rebuilding a perfectly good road going car.  Ahhh…. but that’s just us at DrivenCrazy; a bunch of motorheads that just cannot leave their their cars alone.

Car being prepped for paint

Minimum putty and primered.  The car was given a couple coats of primer and then sanded down for a perfect finish.

Ahh… finished product

Here are the parts for the engine and drivetrain.

2000 NB1 half cut, crashed but in otherwise good condition.  Comes with the variable intake manifold but no VVT.

Bilstein shock absorber in the fronts

Bilstein shock absorber with Autoexe lowering springs in the rear

I do not understand the different springs… perhaps the Japanese swapped out the front Autoexe springs to use them in their Giant wastegates to run more boost pressure.

Complete rear subframe with LSD

Hondata Intake Manifold Gasket to keep the intake temps in check.  I just had to have some Hondata products in the Miata, ultimately am still a true Honda fan at heart.

Turbo Manifold

Rebuilding the engine before putting it back on the car.  Notice the VICS intake manifold, made gobs of torque in the mid range when having it switched on or off at the right RPM.

Type R Style Red Valve Cover

The car makes about 250bhp now, a far cry for the paltry factory 120bhp.  It’s such a blast to drive now.  The Corolla uncles are much less successful now when they try to accelerate to close up the gap with the front car to refuse me a chance to merge into their lanes!!!