Simon Drapers Blenheim
 

Does anyone have photographs of Simon Draper's modifications to his Blenheim? I understand he modified the front and the interior. I would like to see what the results look like.

Claude

Here you go Claude, hopefully Simon won't object to me photographing these picture from A Private Car. (The pictures in the book are much better than these which were taken at night in artificial light. The book is too big to fit on the scanner. )

The dash shot is definitely his car. In the frontal shots I think his is the red car.

The red one is definitely Simon's. I've seen the car and I don't think the frontal mods do the car any favours over the standard Blenheim 3. The interior however looks great. I think the switches are Bentley items.

I would say the interior is an improvement especially with the deletion of the underdash air con unit chipcutter grilles which always looked like an add-on and rather awkward. The arrangement on the first series 603 was much more neatly integrated.

Simon Drapers Blenheim
 

Well it was an add-on at least on earlier cars. There really is no excuse for using those hideous things in this day and age, but they probably still had some in stock from a bulk purchase 20 years ago :)

I've often thought a 603 would look better with an early 411 front - with separate headlights on the wings and driving lights in the central grille.

I think the series 5 411 'toaster element' front was the most attractive and elegant face.