B24 PUR Bentley Flying Spur: Our 2006 W12 Heads to Manor Park Classics Auction
If you have arrived on this page after Googling the registration number B24 PUR, there is a fair chance you have just seen this 2006 Bentley Continental Flying Spur W12 advertised for sale at Manor Park Classics.
If so, hello. I am the chap who has owned it for the last year or so.
I thought it might be useful to put my story of this car in one place, along with a couple of videos we have made during our ownership. Auction catalogues can tell you the specification, mileage, service history and paperwork. What they cannot always tell you is what a car has actually been like to live with.
We bought this Bentley in 2025, have used it often, enjoyed it enormously, maintained it as required and, rather unexpectedly, became quite attached to it.
It is now heading to the Manor Park Classics car auction on Saturday 5 September 2026 because we have bought something completely different to replace it as our weekend and holiday toy.
There is no dramatic mechanical horror story behind the decision. It has not frightened us with an enormous bill. It has not spent six months dismantled in a Bentley specialist’s workshop.
We simply fancied a change.
And in our family, a change can apparently mean going from a 6.0 litre twin turbo W12 Bentley to a left hand drive V8 5.4 Ford F150 made in Kansas.
How I Ended Up With a 2006 Bentley Continental Flying Spur W12
I have always liked big cars with big engines.
Back in the 1990s I had large V12 Jags, and over the years I went through a fairly extensive American car phase involving the likes of an Oldsmobile Delta Royale 98, a Pontiac Grand Prix SJ and various Cadillacs.
I have also owned Rolls Royce’s (Shadows 1 & 2), including more recently a Rolls Royce Silver Spirit that we featured in another of our occasional automotive videos.
These days I am probably best described as a Range Rover geezer. I use Range Rovers regularly (a 4.4V8 L405 is my daily) and also run RangeyParts, a small specialist Range Rover parts business, along with some other online stores.
But alongside the practical cars I usually like to keep something around purely because it is interesting.
It is the car for weekends, holidays, days out and those occasions when taking the sensible vehicle would be rather boring.
After the Rolls Royce, old Mercs and all the Detroit metal, I decided that I really ought to try a Bentley Continental Flying Spur. A bloke has to have a Bentley at least once in his life, right?
The first generation Continental Flying Spur has fascinated me for years because it represents an extraordinary amount of car for the money. This was a seriously expensive luxury performance saloon when new, yet twenty years later early examples can be bought for the price of an entirely unremarkable used family car.
Of course, there is a reason for that.
A cheap Bentley is still a Bentley when it needs parts.
That is why I was far more interested in buying the right individual car than simply buying the cheapest Flying Spur I could find.
Buying This Particular Bentley: B24 PUR
One of the attractions of this car was that I knew where it had come from.
I bought it directly from a bloke I have known since the 90s, who had owned it for around a year (anyone in Stalybridge knows “Dirk” from DK Motors – and his absurdly large collection of obscure cars). He and his wife had enjoyed it and, rather like me, had bought it partly because owning a Bentley W12 was something they fancied experiencing.
He sold it me because, “She only goes to Tesco and the stables in it. It wants using properly.”
He in turn had bought it from somebody he knew who was, by all accounts, particularly fastidious about his cars. A “pedantic bugger” was how he was described to me.
That chain of ownership appealed to me. I’ll pay more for a car from a pedantic bugger. The pedantic guy sent lots of oil and a few filters with it, they used some of that stock to change the oil and filters the day before I bought it, hence the “DK Motors” service stamp in the book.
With cars such as these, I would rather buy one where I know something about the people who have owned it than save a few quid buying a mystery car that has passed rapidly through several hands.
When I made my first video about it in October 2025, the Bentley had covered around 86,000 miles. It was straight, presentable, drove well and had no warning lights on.
Most importantly, nothing about it suggested that it had spent the previous few years being abused or run into the ground.
I bought it, initially thinking I would have my fun with it for a short while and then move it on before it broke.
That did not quite go according to plan.
From AW54 BFS to B24 PUR
Anyone who watches the original video below will notice that the Bentley had a different registration number when I bought it.
It was AW54 BFS.
I was told BFS was the initials of the previous “pedantic” owner.
What I did know was that I did not like the 54 in the registration.
The Bentley is a 2006 car, but AW54 BFS made it look at first glance as though it was a 2004 or early 2005 car.
That irritated me sufficiently that the plate had to go.
I started looking around for something more suitable, preferably six digits, and eventually found B24 PUR.
Look at it for a second.
Now squint a bit.
B24 PUR.
SPUR.
Well, almost.
It amused me, it suited the car and it removed the misleading 54 from the previous registration. So B24 PUR went onto the Bentley and has been on it throughout most of our ownership. And has stayed on it when it went to Manor Park.
That also means there are plenty of photographs and bits of social media content floating around showing this particular Bentley Flying Spur wearing B24 PUR.
What Is a First Generation Bentley Continental Flying Spur Actually Like?
The Flying Spur is essentially the four door sibling of the Bentley Continental GT.
The heart of this car is its 6.0 litre twin turbo W12 engine.
It is a wonderfully excessive piece of engineering.
You have twelve cylinders, two turbochargers, four wheel drive, air suspension and the ability to gather speed at a rate that still feels slightly ridiculous in a large luxury saloon approaching its twentieth birthday.
That contrast is what makes the car interesting.
Inside, ours has a very traditional navy blue and cream Bentley interior. There is leather everywhere, a Breitling clock in the dashboard, organ stop style ventilation controls and an enormous collection of buttons.
Some of the technology has aged less gracefully than the rest of the car.
The original navigation system is now basically useless next to Google Maps. The infotainment system looks from the 90s. There are buttons whose purpose is not immediately obvious even after you have owned the car for some time.
But I actually rather like that.
Modern luxury cars increasingly feel like computers and iPads with wheels attached. The Flying Spur comes from an era when manufacturers were beginning to put enormous amounts of technology into cars but still surrounded it with wood, leather, chrome switches and proper analogue instruments.
It feels substantial.
It feels expensive.
You feel like Alan Sugar in it.
And then you press the accelerator. And, Oh. My. God. It’s like one of Elon Musk’s rockets.
The Best Fun You Can Have With Your Clothes On
The Flying Spur is not Rolls Royce quiet.
That was one of the first things I noticed. You’re sat in a mobile gentleman’s club but there’s a meaty burble in the background.
You can hear the W12 doing its Ferrari noise thing, particularly when you give it some wellie. That initially seems slightly at odds with the cream leather, wood and gentleman’s club atmosphere inside.
Then you realise that is rather the point.
It may look like the sort of car in which somebody should be sitting in the back reading the Financial Times, but it can move with arse-cheek-clenching enthusiasm.
I described it in the original video as a gentleman’s conveyance that sounds and goes more like something rather more exotic. I was being a bit coy….
Put your foot down in this, and it is the best fun you can have with your clothes on!
You do have to keep an eye on the speedo because three figures can arrive with no drama. You are doing 140mph in this before you know it. It is an effing rocket ship!
This is not a sports car pretending to be luxurious. Nor is it a Rolls Royce style luxury car where the engine tries to hide from you.
It sits somewhere entertainingly between the two.
Our Original Bentley Flying Spur W12 Video
When I first bought the car in October 2025, I made a fairly long video about it.
That video is worth watching if you are considering buying B24 PUR because it was filmed months before there was any question of putting the car into this auction.
In other words, it was not made as a sales video. It was made as automotive content for one of our channels.
I simply walked around the Bentley, showed the interior and engine, drove it, talked about what I liked and did not like, and discussed the reputation these cars have acquired as they have become cheaper.
At that point I actually said that I expected to sell it fairly soon.
I was wrong. It was kinda for sale, but I never advertised it – so it wasn’t really ever for sale.
We Liked It Too Much To Sell It
The problem was that the Bentley turned out to be far too enjoyable.
I kept using it. I bloody loved it! I watched all the High Peak Autos videos on Bentleys and decided I may later on invest in a Mulliner Park Ward edition of the GT.
Then my wife discovered that she liked it as well. Gentlemen, foxy, leggy, 40-something women like a Bentley. Buy one for your wife.
In fact, getting the car away from her became something of a challenge. She was forever disappearing off in it, including taking it down to the stables, and it has appeared regularly in photographs and Instagram posts over the months.
It certainly did not spend our ownership tucked away under a cover while somebody polished it with a special cloth.
We used it.
That is important because cars often reveal themselves through use.
A twenty year old luxury car that looks magnificent while stationary is one thing. A twenty year old luxury car that starts, drives and behaves itself while being regularly used is much more interesting.
The Bentley became part of our fleet and stayed far longer than I originally intended.
My wife enjoyed it.
I enjoyed it.
The family enjoyed it.
My 17 year old daughter had her first driving lesson in it.
My 21 year old son experienced 12 cylinders for the first time when he had a go in it. He came over to have “one last drive” before it went to Manor Park.
And that is really the best endorsement I can give it. It’s a LOT of fun.
What Has Gone Wrong With It?
This is the question everybody asks about an old Bentley W12.
Type phrases such as Bentley Flying Spur reliability, Bentley W12 problems or Continental Flying Spur ownership into Google and you can frighten yourself remarkably quickly.
There are tales of electrical problems, vacuum leaks, air suspension faults, expensive engine work and repair bills containing numbers more normally associated with telephone numbers.
I knew all of that when I bought it. I braced myself to spend a few grand. It didn’t happen.
In the original video I said that an old luxury car will eventually cost money when something breaks. That remains true.
Anyone buying a twenty year old Bentley on the assumption that every future repair will cost the same as fixing a Ford Fiesta is buying the wrong car.
However, there is a very large difference between saying these cars can generate expensive bills and assuming that every example is permanently broken.
Our experience with B24 PUR has been refreshingly uneventful.
During our ownership it has had a routine oil and filter change.
The only actual issue I have needed to address was the small auxiliary starter battery in the boot, which needed replacing. Fifty quid!
That is essentially it.
There has been no catalogue of disasters. We even wrote a review of Bentley ownership.
There are no warning lights glowing away on the dashboard.
It starts, drives, stops and does what a Bentley Flying Spur is supposed to do.
That does not constitute a guarantee that nothing will ever break, of course. It is a complex twenty year old Bentley.
What I can tell you is what our experience has actually been, rather than what somebody on an internet forum says happened to somebody else’s car fifteen years ago.
And our experience has been very good.
Yes, It Has Some Bentley Quirks
No old car is perfect and I would be suspicious of anybody trying to describe a twenty year old Bentley as though it had just left the factory.
The original infotainment is hopelessly dated.
It has lots of buttons.
The boot struts don’t work properly – they never do. They are known for this. Doesn’t stop you using the boot, so who cares?
The steering takes a little acclimatisation.
The suspension is adjustable, although I have generally preferred leaving it in comfort.
It also has a habit of occasionally beeping at you and leaving you wondering precisely what particular sensor has become offended.
I joked about that in the original video because it happened while we were filming.
None of those things has stopped us enjoying the car.
They are part of learning the character of something built at a time when Bentley, under Volkswagen ownership, was combining traditional British luxury with an enormous amount of German engineering and electronics.
Bentley Flying Spur Versus Bentley Continental GT
One of the subjects I discussed in the first video was the difference between buying an early Continental GT and buying a Continental Flying Spur.
The Continental GT became remarkably cheap for a car with such enormous presence and performance. Inevitably, some examples fell into the hands of people who could afford the purchase price but were less enthusiastic about the maintenance costs, shall we say.
You might call them council estate blokes. They probably have hair like an Alpaca.
That is how expensive cars become very cheap cars, then become very expensive broken cars.
I had heard from several people in the trade that the four door Flying Spur tended to attract a slightly different sort of buyer.
Perhaps it is simply because it is less obviously flashy.
Perhaps the person who wants a four door Bentley is more likely to be somebody who already has other cars and fancies an interesting second vehicle. A chap over 40.
Whatever the reason, my instinct was always that I would rather find a good Flying Spur than simply buy one of the many cheap Continental GTs advertised online.
That is what led me to this one.
Ultimately, however, the badge on the boot does not tell you whether a twenty year old Bentley is a good car.
The individual car does.
That is why I liked knowing something about the ownership of B24 PUR before me, and it is also why I am putting our own ownership story online now.
B24 PUR: Fuel Consumption
Yes, it likes petrol. The expensive “premium” stuff works better.
It is a 6.0 litre twin turbo W12 Bentley.
Nobody is going to mistake it for a Prius.
But even here I found reality less alarming than some of the internet mythology.
When I made the original video I had been using the Flying Spur for commuting as well as general driving and I did not find the fuel consumption unexpectedly awful for what the car is. It is like any other big car.
If fuel economy is the deciding factor in your choice of car, you should probably not be looking at a Bentley W12 in the first place. A hundred and something quid to fill it up is what it is. If the last two digits after the 1 trouble you, its not for you. £120, £130, £150, who cares?
If you want a twelve cylinder Bentley producing enormous effortless performance for the price these cars now command, the occasional visit to a petrol station is just part of the deal.
So Why Are We Selling B24 PUR?
This is where the story takes an unexpected turn.
Texas.
Last year we went on a family holiday to Texas.
My teenage daughter is now completely immersed in country music. Alan Jackson, Ella Langley and all that have become part of the household soundtrack.
Add Yellowstone into the equation and things escalated. If you haven’t watched it, do. It’s on Netflix.
American trucks started looking increasingly appealing.
Even my wife started taking Instagram shots with trucks in Texas.
An American pick up truck wasn’t far behind, was it? We all knew it was coming.
Our Bentley, as a second fun car, has always occupied the role of high days, weekends and holidays car rather than something we absolutely need for everyday transport. We change that second car every so often simply because trying different interesting vehicles is part of the fun.
And I have now bought its replacement.
A Ford F150 Harley Davidson Special Edition with the 5.4 litre Triton V8.
Yes: Girl Power got me! I’ll basically be a better-looking version of Rip in Yellowstone. But with a Ford F150 truck instead of a Dodge Ram.
So we appear to have gone from Bentley mode to full Yellowstone mode.
There is only so much space on the drive, and it does not make sense for us to keep every interesting car we buy indefinitely.
That means poor old Mr Bentley has drawn the short straw.
He is off to Manor Park Classics.
Taking B24 PUR to Manor Park Classics
We recently took the Flying Spur down to Manor Park Classics at Runcorn ready for their September auction.
While we were there we had a good chat with Jim, who regular viewers of Manor Park Classics videos will immediately recognise from his trademark red shoes.
Jim knows the classic and interesting car job inside out and certainly knows his Bentleys. His background was at Bentley. He knows these cars well and he knows the market. He valued it from my description sat in his office chair!
There were already some fabulous cars arriving for the sale, and we filmed a quick reel while we were there. As we were leaving, a Volkswagen Beetle Cabriolet was arriving in the opposite direction, which gives you some idea of the variety of stuff that passes through the place.
There will doubtless be plenty more arriving before auction day.
Here is that more recent video showing B24 PUR arriving at Manor Park Classics.
B24 PUR at the Manor Park Classics September 2026 Auction
Our 2006 Bentley Continental Flying Spur W12 is due to go through the Manor Park Classics September car auction on Saturday 5 September 2026.
If you have found this article because you are considering bidding, I would encourage you to watch both videos.
This car isn’t a bag of spanners.
The first shows the car shortly after I bought it and before I had any real reason to persuade anybody else to buy it.
The second shows it arriving at Manor Park Classics after we had enjoyed it for most of the following year.
Between the two, and this article, you can get a much better feel for the car than you can from a handful of static auction photographs.
Naturally, inspect the car yourself and satisfy yourself as to its condition before bidding. It is an auction car and it is a twenty year old Bentley, so anybody buying one should go into ownership with their eyes open.
But if the reason you Googled B24 PUR was because you were wondering whether it had suddenly emerged from nowhere after years of neglect, hopefully this page answers that question.
It has not.
It has been part of our family fleet.
It has been driven.
It has been enjoyed.
It has been to the stables.
It has been on days out.
It has been photographed, it has been on modelling shoots, filmed and generally shown off.
It has had routine maintenance and the only fault we have needed to deal with during our ownership was that small auxiliary battery.
Most importantly, it has given us no reason to regret buying it.
It owes me £8500 today. I will likely get much less back from Manor Park. The difference is the cost of the fun we have had with it. And we have had a LOT of fun with it. And isn’t that what life is about? It will probably cost us a couple of grand for a year of fun. You’d pay £500 to hire one of these for a weekend. I’ve had it almost a year.
A Message to the Next Owner of B24 PUR
If you buy B24 PUR at Manor Park Classics in September 2026 and have found this page while doing your homework before bidding, good luck.
I hope you enjoy it as much as we have.
Do not leave it sitting in the garage because you are frightened of putting miles on it. Use it.
Take it somewhere.
Give the W12 something to do occasionally. Stamp your right foot into the carpet. Thank me later.
Enjoy the absurdity of having twelve cylinders, two turbochargers and a Bentley badge for the price of an second hand Fiesta.
And if you are reading this several years into the future because you have just bought B24 PUR from somebody else and Googled the registration to see what you could discover about its past, hello from one of its previous owners.
We had this Bentley during 2025 and 2026.
My wife loved it.
I loved it.
Our family had a lot of fun with it.
It behaved itself, it made us smile and we kept it considerably longer than I ever intended when I first bought it.
It’s a belter.
You might be reading this in 2029 or 2032 having just bought B24 PUR as a new owner.
Look after it, and have fun with it. Tell me in the comments what you know. I REALLY hope someone zooms in a few years from now and says, “Hey, I just bought this car” – I really do. I want a ping on this article in 2030!