It might sound silly, but to some people a normal Rolls-Royce or Bentley is not good enough for them. These people need something special. Two British coachbuilders were happy to help you out with your Rolls-Royce and Bentley problems: Hooper Coachbuilders of London and Robert Jankel Design (Le Marquis).

 

Hooper Coachbuilders had various coachbuilt creations up their sleeve, using the many years of experience with converting Rolls-Royces, Bentleys and Daimlers for more than 70 years. One of their more simple but yet very attractive options for the Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit and Bentley Mulsanne and Turbo R was converting them into a two-door, say coupe, version.

 

For the Two Door Coupe conversion the short wheel base version of the Bentley (Mulsanne, Mulsanne Turbo and Turbo R) or Rolls-Royce (Silver Spirit) were used. By deleting the rear doors and extending the front doors a completely "new" car was created.

 

Further options offered by Hooper were from the long list of options also available on the four-door and stretched (Hooper Emperor) versions of the Rolls-Royce and Bentleys of the 1980s and early 1990s. Very often the Hooper Two Door Coupes were given the smaller so-called discrete rear window. Hooper options also included new a front bumper with fog lights, side skirts and a new rear bumper. Also, the windscreen wipers, bumpers and side mirrors were "colour co-ordinated", in other words painted in the car's coloure. The interior was also upgraded (as if the "standard" interior wasn’t good enough) with superb leather finishes, crazy coloured wood and a special Hooper centre console which housed the stereo. 

 

In case of the Bentley Turbo R it was possible to replace the standard grill with a mesh version, which later became standard on Bentley cars and which actually dates back to Bentley’s pre-war racing days.

 

One of my personal favorite 80s creations, this Hooper two-door version of the Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit. It's packed with many Hooper options such as the color-coded bumpers, wind screen wipers and wing mirrors, Hooper wire wheels with white wall tires, special paintwork (Hooper Iced Blue) and a special chrome trim.

 

But that's not all, because from the rear we can see the Hooper descrete rear window treatment, beautyfully crafted from metal. Also, not visible in the photos, the car was equipped with a special glass sliding roof.

 

It's obvious Hooper didn't just stop at the exterior. The interior was modified too, with modified seats, new wood, steering wheel and a special centre console with a Pioneer Centrate stereo.

 


 

Another Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit two-door conversion in front of the Hooper and Co shops in London. This has gotten the full treatment including the complete Hooper metal bodykit consisting of new front- and rear (bumper-) spoilers and new sideskirts. This is a very early car with the sideskirts in a rather simple straight design. The car has the color coded mirrors, bumpers and windscreen wipers, gilded door handles, Hooper wire wheels and US-headlights. The latter were probably fitted because the customer wanted them, since this car most certainly went to the Middle-East.

 


 

Another Silver Spirit based Hooper Two-Door with very subtle styling; sublty styled front lip and color coded front bumper, chromed sills and the Hooper wire wheels.

 


 

This red Hooper 2-door appears very similar to the above white one, but this time Hooper based their conversion on a Bentley Mulsanne Turbo. The full bodykit is fitted, allthough when you look carefully the bodykit differs in small detials from the one mounted on the white car. Most notable is the extra foglight which makes a total of 4. Then there's the edge of the front spoiler just in front of the front wheel: in the white car it's more rounded. The sideskirt also appears to be different.

 


 

Another Bentley based Hooper 2-door. Again the car has gotten the full treatment including the wire wheels and front and rear spoilers.

 


 

Another Bentley (most likely a Turbo R) based Two-Door conversion. This car has the newer front bumper that has a less boxy styling as the earlier variants, only carries a single set of fog lights and has a large opening in the middle to let the air in for the Turbo.

 

 

 


 

 

This Hooper 2-door is based on a Bentley Turbo R. It has the late 80s bodykit with slightly more subtle styling, especially the front spoiler.

 

 


 

 

 


 

Again, a late version of the Bentley Turbo R 2-door by Hooper, with US-headlights.

 


 

 

 



Text: copyright Bram Corts 2013

 

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