When the English coachbuilder Robinson in 1968/69 fitted this new tourer body they followed closely those lines that were typical for open cars made by Vanden Plas. The original coachwork had had a lifetime of but some 30 years. When delivered to its first owner Fernando Santa Cruz it had been a “Flexible Saloon 4-Door 4-Light” by Vanden Plas. Documents noted as regards this saloon: “Scrapped in Borneo”. Because it is documented the Bentley 8 Litre has been in 1957 with an owner living in Borneo it is a fair guess that the owner towards the end of the 50ies or during the early 60ies had come to the conclusion, the body had deteriorated to such a state it wouldn’t make sense to repair or restore. – Perhaps a simple explanation might be that at that time conditions didn’t exist in that part of the world to tackle any such task.

A mere 100 cars from the model series Bentley 8 Litre were built and only half of those cars that did survive still have their original coachwork. The fate of #YX5114 to have lived most years of its life with a replica-body – but one with a design from the early 30ies – was by far better than what happened to some other cars. One example is the Bentley 8 Litre with chassis no. #YF5020 that was re-bodied with an ugly box made from rough wooden planks and the photo’s caption explaining: ”Makeshift body put on in Iraq after bullet-ridden car was rescued from ditch after being commandeered by Rashid Ali during rebellion of 1941.”