Hi James,
I think the Dublin car would be worth a look as well, I currently run a 603 and that is very good, the later car is essentially the same with updated styling and they are fine cars for everyday use.
My main worry with a Rolls or Bentley would not be the hydraulics but rust and to some extent the electrics, but rust is top of the list and not cheap to put right properly, much more expensive that dealing with any corrosion issues on the chassis and inner wheel arches on a Bristol. There are some nice Silver Shadows on the market at the moment, sadly too few of the T Series Bentley and a good choice of V8 Bristol's as well, bear in mind however that if the car you are looking at has had limited recent use the Rolls/Bentley option is likely to have more niggles for the simple reason it is more complicated and had more toys to go wrong.
If you fancy something a bit older a Bentley S2/S3 or the equivalent Cloud would be worth a look, true they don't handle as well as a Bristol but they have plenty of power and are easy to maintain.
I have previously had a 408 and a 410, both excellent cars, a 411 series 3 which was much faster and as I said a 603 in this case a 5.2 litre 'E' which is a very satisfying car to drive, on the Bentley front an S2 on which I had the body rebuilt before a bare metal respray and two early 50's R Types, one manual one Automatic both cars capable of regular use or long trips in comfort.
If you are thinking of one of the later Bristol's check out Andrew Blows site the two cars he has are very good value compared to their contemporary Bentley Continentals and so much more exclusive.
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