Rare in Red: 1986 Bentley Mulsanne

For a white-hot minute, I was ready to start looking for transporters roaming the deserts of New Mexico to pick up a bargain Bentley. I know, I know – why go looking for one halfway across the country when there’s likely a problem child sedan right in your own backyard? Well, because this one is red and you simply don’t see Bentleys of this era wearing red paint all that often. Sadly, I suspect this is a respray, so my hopes were almost immediately dashed. I still love these old gas-guzzling British beasts, and if one of you can convince me this isn’t a respray, maybe I’ll go look at it. Find it here on Facebook Marketplace for $3,950.

So, the tell-tale signs I’m relying on to convince myself this is a respray are the following: the bumpers are red, which they shouldn’t be. Those should be black. The C-pillar is missing the Bentley badge, which likely got tossed in a cheap respray. Third, the trim pieces that sit in front of the rear wheels on the lower part of arch are also missing. These are all classic signs of a quick respray where no one was concerned with getting the details right, which, at the point that this Mulsanne was at the bottom of its valuation curve, would be the typical amount of care someone would take giving it a cosmetic refresh.

Now, there is a chance it was originally red and it got the secondhand paint job with the finishing touches mentioned above left off. There is evidence of red paint in the door jams, and usually those fast-track paint jobs don’t account for covering up the original color. If we could peek inside the engine bay, we might get final confirmation as to what it looked like when leaving the factory. The Mulsanne was a fortress when new, and the car of choice for the ultra elite. You can see how far it’s fallen, however, with cracked wood trim, tired leather seats, and a crumbling sun screen in the windshield. Not surprisingly, the seller offers little in the way of details, simply noting that it hasn’t run for years.

The back seats look decent, but that’s not saying much in terms of the overall health of the car. It thankfully has the original 15-inch wheels still, and the badge at the edge of the front fenders is still present. The 6.75-liter V8 is said to produce around 230 horsepower and 369 lb.-ft. of torque, delivered via a sleepy 3-speed automatic transmission. Sadly, because this isn’t a Turbo R and due to driver-quality Mulsannes selling for around $5,000-$7,000, the current asking price is likely to keep this red land yacht parked for some time. However, if you figure out that this is it’s original color, maybe I’ll be dumb enough to buy it. Thanks to Barn Finds reader Stephen for the find.