Today’s Nice Price or No Dice Arnage T Red Label is the last Bentley model shared with Rolls Royce, as the two former flatmates were split between VW and BMW during the model’s run. It’s now an old-school example of British steel, and we’ll have to decide how much silver and gold it should take to own.
Maybe it’s the onus of the holiday season that’s upon us, or perhaps it’s the looming economic upheaval promised by the current political climate, but the fact is, the classic car market is presently in the doldrums. Hell, Tyler Hoover has even been able to afford a Bugatti Veyron! That also means that cars like the 1972 Volvo 1800ES we looked at yesterday now fall under an extra critical eye. Our communal critical eye found the Volvo’s $21,500 asking not to be to our liking, a fact documented by its 56 percent No Dice loss.
If a classic car is going to pull its weight around here, it’s going to need to really offer something special, and boy, does this 2000 Bentley Arnage T Red Label pull its weight—all 5,700 pounds of it.
The Arnage was introduced in 1998 and is notable for being the last Bentley to get a reach-around from Rolls-Royce. It’s also noteworthy that during the model’s development, Rolls-Royce’s parent company, Vickers, decided to buy engines for the cars rather than build them. After testing several options, the company settled on a pair of modern mills from BMW—a V12 for the Rolls Silver Seraph and a V8 for the Arnage.
With the development of the cars well underway, Vickers put the whole kit and caboodle up for sale, along with its other holding, Cosworth. This instigated the famous hair-pulling slap-fight between German marques BMW and Volkswagen over the ownership rights of Rolls and Bentley and their brands. When the dust settled, BMW took Rolls, and VW got Bentley and part of Cosworth.
Not wanting to have to count on engines from a rival with which it had just gone through a very public and pretty brutal fight, VW threw a big wad of cash at an effort to wedge the ancient six-and-three-quarter-liters pushrod V8 under the Arnage’s bonnet.
This was a big deal since the car was designed around the smaller, lighter BMW V8. In the end, however, the Cosworth-built single turbocharged old-school V8 makes 400 horsepower, which is 50 greater than the BMW mill could manage with its two turbos, and 619 ft-lbs of torque, which is more than the planet Mars. To differentiate these Bentley-powered brutes, they all received the traditional Red Label badges, historically denoting sporting Bentleys.
Considering its imposing size, weight, and luxury trappings, one might not initially consider this Bentley Arnage a sporting car, but those impressions can be erased by simply dipping a toe into the go pedal. That shouldn’t be a problem on this 65,000-mile example, as the ad says the car has benefitted from professional service and touts that a slew of very expensive parts have been replaced. It’s also claimed to have a clean title and, overall, to be in excellent condition.
It will also stand out from the crowd while whisking its occupants to their intended destinations owing to its arrest-me red paint, chrome-plated alloy wheels, and generally rarely-seen facade. These are not just massive cars; they also have a presence. That carries through to the cabin, which is awash in blonde wood, Connolly Leather, and thick wool carpeting. Packing all that in means it’s not as roomy inside as the exterior might give on, and while fitted as a five-seater, the center spot in the rear seat is little more than a joke that only the well-to-do can appreciate.
Other issues to note: the wood trim is cracking on the console and center stack, and one of the rear side-marker lights is missing its lens. Those defects mar what is otherwise a solid presentation. Neither, it should be noted, would significantly impact the ownership experience.
What might, though, is the car’s $29,999 price tag. That’s around 10 percent of what the car cost new, and on a cost-per-pound basis, it should prove a screamin’ deal. By any other calculation? Well, we’ll just have to see.
What’s your take on this Arnage and that $29,999 asking? Does that feel appropriate, given the car’s presence and purpose? Or is that too much cash for even this much car?
You decide!
Los Angeles, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.
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