Introduction from Bentley restorer John Elder Robison

[John Robison]

I’m John Robison, a Bentley enthusiast and restorer from Springfield, Massachusetts. I'm new to this forum but not new to Bentley. I've been around these cars most of my life.



I’ve always had a love of machines, starting with the tractors and implements on my grandparent’s farm in Georgia. As I got a little older my grandfather let me tinker with cars and he bought some fine examples to enthrall any young motorhead – Bentley and Rolls-Royce sedans, a Porsche coupe, and big cruisers from Buick and Cadillac.

Those were the cars I learned to drive in, and in doing so, broke some of them beyond my teenage ability to repair. Consequently, I still remember the way to the service departments at Hennessey Cadillac and Mitchell Rolls-Royce and Bentley in Atlanta, even though those facilities are long vanished to the march of urban development.

All through the 1970s I was an amateur mechanic except for a brief stint as the “electronics guy” at a Buick-Cadillac dealership near my parent’s home in Massachusetts. Then I got into music, and I went on the road with a series of bands. Some musicians liked Cadillacs, while others preferred European luxury. I got a taste of both during my time on the road.

By the early 80s I was working in industrial electronics and fixing up and selling European cars in my spare time. Everything changed when I took a chance and bought a three-year-old Mercedes that had been traded to a local dealer. I sold the car almost overnight and made a profit, and the whole process was a lot easier than fixing and selling the much older cars I had focused on.

Seeing an opportunity I began buying and selling late model European cars and I got to know the staffs at many New England dealers. One of the places I called on regularly was Foreign Motors West outside Boston. They were the region’s largest dealer of Bentley and Rolls-Royce and I worked with them to remarket used vehicles.

Many of those cars needed fixing-up, and in those years I did a lot of that myself. Whenever I had troubles I turned to Cal West, the regional service manager for RR/B. He was always helpful and encouraging, and I began learning quite a lot about the current series vehicles.

In the late 1980s I quit my last regular job in electronics and turned to the automobile business for support. We were buying and selling cars to the public and other dealers and built a service department to support that operation. With the encouragement of Cal and others we built an independent business that could support owners of fine cars in the Berkshires and Adirondacks, and the ski areas of Vermont and New Hampshire. The idea proved successful as we became a compliment to the more distant franchised dealers in Boston and New York.

Gradually our business evolved to become more service and restoration, and less sales. I joined the Rolls-Royce and Bentley owner’s club and became one of their technical consultants. We specialized in the car’s I’d grown up with – the vehicles built from the 50s onward, or what enthusiasts refer to as “post war cars.” Our business moved from the back of my home to a commercial garage in Springfield, where we remain today. In the beginning we had two bays in part of one building. Today our complex consists of five buildings with more than 30 bays.

I have always been socially awkward, and more comfortable among machines than most people. Twenty years ago I learned that I am autistic, and that knowledge sparked an interest in helping other young people like me. In 2007 I wrote a book on growing up – Look Me in the Eye, and over the next decade I followed that with three more titles.

Today my books are sold in 15 languages, in 70+ countries, and outside the auto community I’m more widely known for my writing than cars. But I still retain the love of fine motorcars that I developed as a teenager. I’m still overseeing the service and restoration of Bentley motorcars and I write and do technical seminars on the cars every year.

Today you can find a large library of my technical articles and columns on Bentley motorcars both on www.robisonservice.com and robisonservice.blogspot.com.

Since the publication of my books people have come to the Robison Service complex in search of advice and job skills for autistic teens and young adults. Four years ago we joined forces with a local nonprofit and set up a high school campus here in the complex. Today our TCS Auto Program teaches life skills to teens with autism and other differences and emotional challenges from high schools all over Western Massachusetts.

Our students are proud to work as apprentices on the fine cars entrusted to us by our clients. And they do their own work. This year they started building a vintage Bentley Continental to race the Carerra Pananmerica through Mexico. Bentley Motors is supporting us in that venture, which you can follow online at www.mexicoorbust.com

Our friends at www.flyhelo.com are making a documentary film about the kids, the dream, the car and the race. We hope you will join and support them in this great mission.

30-some years ago Robison Service started out with a small garage repairing used cars. Today we engage in major repairs and extensive restoration and we’ve proud to claim winners at many major events. In addition to car service our complex is home to the TCS high school program, the backup emergency ambulance services for our city, the transfer ambulance operations for Western Massachusetts, our city’s child safety seat program, and two general auto service garages.

Our specialty here is Bentley, and we believe independent businesses like ours compliment the Bentley dealer network by providing restoration and customization services franchised dealers are not able to provide. Our mission to preserve the Bentleys of yesterday helps enhance the value of Bentley for tomorrow.

This year you can look forward to more stories about vintage cars, and also profiles and stories about the race car, and Bentley of today and tomorrow.

Best wishes
John Elder Robison

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John Elder Robison

[Chris Card]

Hi John,
Welcome to the Forum, your knowledge and experience will be very valuable to the owners of Crewe built cars.
Having read your remarkable CV, I now feel very inadequate - more strength to your arm and good luck with your Mexico endeavours!

Chris

[Christopher Carnley]

John,

When you refer to the "vintage Bentley Continental" are you talking about a "Continental R" of around 1997?

[John Robison]

Most American car clubs define a vintage car as one that's 25 years old, or more. The car for the race was built in 1992

We thought a lot about using an older Bentley Continental as I said but the Cloud-era chassis just did not have the performance potential. We also thought about finding an early T Type but we could not locate a suitable car.

The final thought is that the 1990s era Continental is the ancestor of today's car in name and style where the T Type is not connected to any present day Bentley car
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John Elder Robison